I've owned several Asus ROG laptops in the past, they were amazing. This was my first from the Asus TUF lineup, and I've got to say that for the price, I'm impressed. I've owned this for almost two years now and it's running just as strong as it was on day one. Starting with the exterior: It is quite simple, but tasteful. With clean lines, metal lid, minimalistic color scheme, and that overall high quality feel, it reminds me a of a Razor Blade or Macbook. I'm Very Impressed with the exterior. Moving on the the Features: Overall, I'm not super impressed with the features on this. The Battery fairly decent and still holds a good charge, this doesn't have a webcam, the keyboard is backlit, however, It's only green, No RGB. I love that it has a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, very convenient seeing as I use USB-C for my headset receiver. (See Photos for port layout) Last but not lease, Performance: This can run the majority of new games (BF 2042, Diablo IV, MW2) on medium settings at around 60 fps. I personally aim for 60fps when I play games. For me, that's the balance of FPS to quality that I like. After several hours of prolonged play this thing does get HOT and will have a great reduction in performance. It's annoying, but understandable as its only a laptop. When this happens I just take a break for 10-20 minutes to let it cool back down. On that note, the fan is very loud, but if you are like me and use a headset most of the time, it's not noticeable. All in all, love this thing. Would definitely recommend a TUF series laptop to anybody looking for a solid mid range gaming laptop.

This was one of the few laptops that I could find that has a 3060 with a decent TDP for around $1000 that doesn't compromise on much. Pros: It runs pretty much everything at decent frame rates without easing back graphics settings. (usually) It's thin and light for a gaming laptop It feels solid even though it is plastic Dedicated button for cycling through power settings (silent, performance, turbo) The thermals are good under full load when the fans are max speed, but during light loads, silent mode is enough to keep thermals in check. The Asus utility allows you to set the level of charge you want to stop charging your battery at, and it even works when the laptop is powered off while plugged in. (60%, 80%, 100%). This is to save the battery from wear if you typically use your laptop plugged in. Battery life is okay when in silent mode at light load, you might get 6 or 8 house out of it. Don't expect much more than a few hours of medium load gaming in battery. You could kill it in under 2 hours at max load. Thunderbolt 4 WiFi6 The IPS screen is pretty decent for this price point. Colors are okay and brightness is enough for most environments. Keyboard is backlit Speakers are decent (the best laptop speakers I've ever had, but I've had some terrible laptops) Storage is quick (500GB NVMe SSD) and if you need more capacity, there is one more M.2 slot free for a storage drive. You'll need an M.2 NVMe SSD in 2280. (2280 is the physical size - 22mm x 80mm) Cons: No webcam No number pad The keyboard isn't RGB 16GB RAM is a bit on the low side and 8GB of that is soldered. To upgrade, the 8GB stick has to be removed. I personally opted to get a 32GB stick (around $80) but even a 16GB stick would keep you from running out in most situations. (Single stick DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM is the kind you'll want - the capacity is up to you - the price difference is $50 vs $80 between 16GB and 32GB respectively) Overall, this is a great laptop for the price; great specs for the price and decent upgradeability. However, I did buy it almost a year after it launched. It is a good buy now, but definitely do some research; there may be something better out there now in terms of bang for the buck. If your research has brought you here, and you are leaning towards this one, I would hope this review pushes you over that edge.

I've been working on this laptop daily for almost a month now, so far temps have been great, it's really quiet, and it can run apex really smooth for when i want to do a little gaming on the side. Feels really well built. I upgraded the memory which was a bit weird because one 8gb was swappable and the other 8 is soldered somewhere to the board so i have 24gb now. It boots really fast. Has no problem with my 60 or more chrome tabs that I'm constantly cycling through for work and connects to my Dell thunderbolt dock perfectly so i only need the one cable to run three monitors, ethernet, mouse, keyboard and a few USB devices. I like the placement of the track pad being farther to the right because i have large hands and my palm sometimes touches the track pad when I'm playing games with wasd and throws my aim off with my other two laptops. No camera which I'm not sure how i feel about cause everyone is doing virtual meetings these days but all in all I'm extremely satisfied with how much work it can get done quickly and makes the battery last hours! The cpu could be a tad better but paired with the 3060 it's a great combo. At a decent price it surprised me that it feels like a premium laptop with all the right features

Overall I am very satisfied with this laptop. I’ve had mostly Sony VAIO and Dell laptops before. I’ve never looked at a laptop as the main house computer, this was what I intended to do with this one: Replacing my main Dell Studio desktop at home. I’m not a PC gamer but before our work issued us nice business laptops, I tried to do a 2 monitor set up with my Dell Studio Core2Quad. The Bios was too old and an Nvidia GPU didn’t pair with it correctly. I knew it was time for a new desktop with a GPU, no way around it. This was March / April 2020. I waited a long time. All articles 1.5-2 years old stated that laptops aren’t par with desktops right now as you cannot change parts on them, like you can with desktops. Although this ASUS Tuf Dash doesn’t have a camera, before Telework, I’ve used my web cam once in my entire life, so it’s not that big of a deal. I decided to give this one a try. I wasn’t necessarily looking for an ASUS brand laptop, but it seems to be the best bang for the buck. I do wish it has 1TB HDD though. I received this on the 10th of December. And boy is this computer fast or what. I do not know the specs but the screen isn’t as crisp as an older MacBook Pro with Retina display. Definitely not a deal breaker for me. Battery life is phenomenal for browsing web. I was on it more than an hour it seemed it only depleted about 7-8%. It’s about 7 hours or so if I had to guess. I did okay Roblox today, without the charger it lasted 2.5-3 hours and that game did make the laptop a bit warm also. Last week I tried connecting it to my Dell dock (Dell WB19TB) to try out dual monitors, it connected but it froze up and put the this laptop to sleep and didn’t wake up no matter what I did, it had a black screen with a cursor. Next day it had bunch of updates from Windows and Asus. I know I should t pair with that dock again, I almost got ready to give it a bad review. This laptop is more than anything 95% of the people will need. I was looking at some full resolution family pics, which freeze up my Dell i7 - 7th Gen Laptop, this guy handled it amazingly. I do use this for some light photography work as well. I have to say lots of people complaining about the arrow keys on the right being crowded, is so true but the keyboard it self: they keys are spread out nicely and makes it easy to type fast. I am disappointed about Best Buy though, I wont give Asus Tuf Dash a negative because of their screw up. Please see image below this was a Best But Excellent Geek Squad Certified Open Box, condition which had bunch of grease marks/ hand prints on it (it’s an $1100+ tax pc, clean it up). 2nd issue was that it has a screw missing on the bottom, which makes me wonder what was opened up and what was replaced. I do have till the 15th or next month to return it. I will monitor it. The condition with screws falling out should be Open Box satisfactory or just excellent or something, the not high test tier of Open Box.

=== Summary === The 2021 Asus TUF Dash 15 is an excellent mid-range gaming laptop that gets many things right. The design is clean and stylish, the build quality and fit-and-finish are great despite being plastic, the screen refreshes up to 144Hz for smooth tear-free gaming, the Nvidia RTX 3060 Max-Q GPU is capable for most modern and older games, the keyboard is well-balanced and suited for both gaming and general usage, the Precision TouchPad works well, and there are enough ports along the two sides to fit my needs. When not gaming, the Intel Iris XE 12th-gen integrated graphics and the 76-Whr battery provide long endurance, often up to 7 hours, which is quite incredible for a non-Ultrabook. At $1,099.99 (as of 2021-03-03), Asus has crafted a well-balanced gaming laptop that is relatively lightweight, performant, and easy to live with. It's a 5-star Win! _____ *Pros: -It's made from plastic, but it's durable with a good fit-and-finish. -General usage performance is fantastic and snappy all-around. -High refresh rate gaming at 1080P is fast and smooth. -Comes with Microsoft Precision Touchpad. -The speakers sound loud and clear after fine-tuning through the DTS:X Ultra app. -Has all the ports I want - no need for dongles. -Comes with a minimum amount of third-party bloatware. -Some preloaded apps are useful (e.g., Armoury Crate, DTS:X Ultra, MyAsus). -NVME SSD installs and loads large games fast. -The bottom cover is very easy to take off for future upgrades (bigger or additional NVME drive, RAM upgrade). -You get a lot for your money (H-class Core i7, 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVME, 144Hz screen, RTX 3060). -General-use, non-gaming battery life is excellent - up to 7 hours at max screen brightness. _____ *Neutral: -I wish the touchpad area was bigger and had a glass top. -No dedicated PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys. -Only comes with a 512GB drive. -Only one RAM slot is upgradeable. -The Asus website for driver downloads is a bit clunky and disorganized. _____ *Cons: -No built-in webcam. === Design & hardware === The Asus TUF Dash F15 has an understated, non-blingy look to it which appeals to me. Although I don't mind that onlookers know I own a "gaming" laptop, I personally don't want something that is too flashy or garish. The only design aspect that might tip off others that this is a gamer's laptop is the backlit keyboard lighting with special accents for the WASD keys which you can configure for static-on, breathing, or pulsing through the Asus Armoury Crate app. So, kudos to Asus for building a clean-looking yet stylish gaming machine. Like many gaming laptops in this price range, the build is all plastic. That means that when you press down on certain components, like the lid or the keyboard deck, you're going to feel some flex, and those surfaces will attract fingerprints and smudges more easily than metal. With that said, I don't have any issues with the plastic Asus chose because it's dense, durable-feeling, and not cheap-looking. Plus, the build quality and fit-and-finish are excellent, with no unsightly gaps, super-sharp edges, or unattractive color transitions from one surface to the next. Another benefit of using plastic is keeping the weight relatively light. I weighed the laptop and it was exactly 5 lbs; it's pretty okay for all the powerful hardware it's packing and it's definitely portable without straining my shoulders and neck when I'm carrying it inside my backpack. I'm quite satisfied and content with the types of ports offered: 3x USB-A, 1x USB-C/Thunderbolt, 1x HDMI, 1x ethernet, and 1x audio. Since I still own many accessories that are USB-A only, I'm spared from having to carry and use those annoying adapter dongles. The TUF 15 supports USB-C PD charging and I top it off with my Anker PowerCore III Elite 25600 PD powerbank when I can't or don't want to use the AC adapter (it's $99.99 on Bestbuy.com). Asus also did a great job with the cooling. When used as a general-purpose PC (e.g., browsing, video editing, spreadsheets), the TUF 15 is silent and I rarely hear the fan spin up. Even when the fans kick in, it's only for a short burst before they become quiet again. During gaming sessions, the fan noise level was totally acceptable. To help the laptop out, I have it raised about 2.5" off the desk via a height-adjustable laptop stand, which I recommend everyone gets since it helps with the airflow and cooling, thus extending component and battery cell longevity. Future upgrades are quite limited but easy to perform since Asus made it very simple and easy to take off the bottom cover. After taking off the 15 screws (one screw loosens but doesn't actually come out), you just pop off the bottom cover with either your fingernail or a soft plastic lever. I've already upgraded my NVME drive by replacing the OEM SK Hynix 512GB drive with a 1TB Samsung NVME one and it was dead simple. I'll most likely add another NVME drive into the second slot once I find a great deal on a 2TB NVME drive. All in all, I feel Asus has put together quite a compelling package that gives you lots for your money. It's a great do-it-all laptop that can run modern games with most eye-candy options turned on at a high refresh rate and provide a long-lasting battery and smooth multi-tasking for general-purpose computing. === Display === Since the display is gamer-oriented, I can forgive it for not getting very bright or being very color-accurate when compared against some of my high-end Ultrabooks. With that said, the display is still wholly adequate and fine for most usage scenarios. Just don't expect to do high-accuracy photoshop or video color-grading work on this laptop. For gaming purposes, though, I'm sure most people will be quite satisfied and happy thanks to the smoothness enabled by the 144Hz refresh rate. === Keyboard and touchpad === I'm a big fan of HP's keyboards on their Spectre Ultrabook range and the keyboard on the Asus TUF 15 isn't too far off when it comes to accuracy, feedback, responsiveness, and uptake rate. The keys don't wobble as they do on some mid-range Dell gaming laptops I've used in the past, and I found both gaming and typing to be a pleasant experience. The touchpad, fortunately, is a Microsoft Precision touchpad, and that means you can configure your own custom 2-, 3-, and 4-finger gestures to your liking inside Settings. My only gripes about the touchpad are that I wish the touchpad area was a bit larger and there was a glass layer on top for extra smoothness. Also, Asus could've better utilized the ~1.5" of empty space on the left and right sides of the keyboard area to fit in more dedicated keys, such as PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, and PrtScrn. === Gaming Performance === Since the RTX 3060 is the Max-Q kind, which is slower than both a desktop RTX 3060 and the more powerful Max-P mobile variant, I had doubts whether it could run Cyberpunk 2077. To my surprise, the game ran well after I enabled Balanced DLSS and reduced some shadow settings inside the game menu. The game never hit 60FPS but remained above the playable 30FPS mark. I also do console emulation gaming on my laptops and the TUF 15 handled Cemu and Yuzu smoothly, no surprise since the laptop runs both a powerful Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU. Older PC games run extremely well with high FPS, thus taking full advantage of the 144Hz display. === General Usage Performance === When used as a general-purpose machine, the TUF 15 can do it all and do it well. With a powerful Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and an NVME drive, it can function as a powerful desktop replacement machine. I do photo and video editing on the TUF 15 and it's faster than my desktop with a 9th-gen, 8-core, Core i7 9700 CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1080. For those who like benchmarks, here's some data: *Asus TUF 15 vs my custom-built PC with a Core i7 9700 (8-core/8-thread), GeForce GTX 1080, 32GB DDR4-2666 RAM, WD SN720 NVME drive. -Geekbench 4.4.2: 6522 single-core, 20719 multi-core, 263252 OpenCL (Desktop: 5528 single-core, 28000 multi-core, 183050 OpenCL) -Geekbench 5.1.1: 1525 single-core, 5004 multi-core, 96621 OpenCL (Desktop: 1200 single-core, 7400 multi-core, 52588 OpenCL) -PCMark 10: 5857 total, 8914.0 Essentials, 8707.0 Productivity, 7028.0 Digital Content Creation (Desktop: 6032, 9823, 6746, 8991) -3DMark Time Spy: 6613 (Desktop: 6943) -3DMark Fire Strike: 14895 (Desktop: 18412) -3DMark Night Raid: 28175 (Desktop: 47741) The only thing the TUF 15 is missing for work-from-home (WFH) usage would be the lack of a webcam. === Battery life === The battery life on the TUF 15 has been fantastic. With the screen brightness set to 100% and doing regular PC tasks (e.g., Chrome browsing with +30 tabs, YouTube streaming, Google Suite running in the background, video editing), I consistently got 5-6 hours of battery life. That kind of battery life is normal and expected from an Ultrabook but I never expected it from a "gaming" laptop with a Core i7 CPU and a discrete RTX GPU. By lowering the screen brightness and not doing CPU-intensive tasks such as video editing, I can easily extend the battery life an additional 1-2 hours. Fantastic stuff! === Is the Asus TUF 15 a good buy? === Absolutely. At $1,100, you get your money's worth in terms of component selection and quality, as well as great performance and battery life. Thanks to an additional NVME slot, which is easily accessible, expanding the storage in the future is a simple affair. I feel very comfortable recommending the TUF 15 for someone who wants a single laptop that can do both gaming and general-purpose tasks in a relatively lightweight package that costs around $1K.