Are you searching for a lightweight gaming laptop that can also handle your office work? Look no further than the Asus Tuf Dash F15, which offers an excellent balance of power, portability, and design. In this article, we’ll dive into a detailed review of the laptop’s performance, specifications, design, build quality, and gaming performance test. We’ll also discuss the unboxing experience, keyboard and trackpad, available ports, and display output options. So, let’s get started and see if the Asus Tuf Dash F15 is worth the investment!
Also Read: Asus ROG PG42UQ 42-Inch OLED Gaming Monitor Review
Unboxing
Asus TUF Dash F15 Laptop 15.6” 144Hz FHD Display
Price: $1,199
Here we will get a typical TUF’s box like this. In this, we get white sheets in which the laptop is wrapped in and a little instruction manual. Here we get a power cord and a 180 Watt adapter is provided with the laptop. And Asus Tuf Dash f15 is so much white.
Many people have doubts between TUF Dash and TUF A15/F15. The Dash series is more lightweight than the normal TUF series, with a difference of 200gm. This laptop comes around 2kg. If I compare it with the ROG series and ROG Zephyrus, the Zephyrus series is small and more lightweight than the ROG series. Similarly, the Dash series is TUF’s small and lightweight series. Tuf Dash F15 is a gaming laptop but is lightweight like the Acer Aspire series that are 1.8 kgs. A full-fledged gaming laptop is around 2.5kgs, so it is adjusted in between.
In today’s date, this laptop is of $1199, and in the coming future, its price will definitely be lowered.
TUF Dash F15 Specs
In Asus Tuf Dash F15 laptop, you get an Intel Core i5 12450H, which is an 8-core and 12-thread processor, with 4 P-cores and 4 E-cores. It also has 16GB DDR5 RAM with a 4800 MHz clock speed in dual channel. You can upgrade the RAM to a maximum of 32GB.
The laptop is equipped with an RTX 3050 4GB VRAM graphics card with 75Watt TGP. It also has a 512GB Gen.3 SSD with read and write speeds that are impressive. There are two SSD slots, one of which is already occupied, but you can insert another one. Most probably, 1TB is supported, but you can confirm this with the brand.
For connectivity, the laptop has WIFI6 and Bluetooth version 5.2. Additionally, it comes with a lifetime subscription of MS Office Home and Student 2021. So, if your work is around documents in MS Office, then this laptop is perfect for you. The best part is that you can use it for both gaming and work! Isn’t it great?
Build & Design
Asus Tuf dash 15 laptop is a beauty to behold. The top lid is simplistic in design, with no particular pattern, save for the TUF branding on the side. The hinges are sturdy and stable, allowing you to open the lid with just one hand. You won’t experience much screen wobble, and there is minimal top lid and keyboard flex. Overall, the build quality of the TUF is strong and durable. If you look closely at the back, you’ll notice a combination of white and black colors. The white part has a water droplet pattern, which serves as the air intake vents. Additionally, the corners have rubber grips for a secure grip.
Keyboard and trackpad
Here we get a full-sized keyboard with a num-pad included, and this is a single-color backlit keyboard without RGB lighting. Therefore, it is a gaming laptop with a sophisticated look. The typing feel of the keyboard is really good, making it comfortable to use. The size of the trackpad is also large enough, and on the trackpad, there is a TUF’s branding. The trackpad supports multi-gesture and is easy to use.
Asus TUF Dash F15 Ports
And yes, there is no disappointment regarding ports. On the left side, we get a power input port, an RJ 45 LAN port, an HDMI 2.0B port that supports a maximum of 4k 60 FPS, a Thunderbolt 4 port from which you can take display output, a USB 3.2 GEN 2 TYPE-C port that supports display port and power delivery. It even supports G-SYNC. If you attach a G-SYNC compatible monitor with the help of Type-C HDMI, then you can take output from it. A USB 3.2 GEN1 TYPE-A port and a headphone and mic jack combo are also available on the left side. A single port is given on the right side that is of USB 3.2 GEN1 TYPE-A.
Display Outputs and Mux Switch
So, there are no problems regarding the ports, and if I tell you about the display, if you take output from the Thunderbolt port, you will get output from the IGPU. And if you take output from HDMI, then you will get output from the external GPU that is the RTX 3050. Yes, a MUX switch is provided in this laptop. By going into its Army Crate software, on the side, there is a GPU mode that we can change. If you set it to ultimate, then its own display will get the output from the EGPU. And if you set it to standard mode, then it will get to the IGPU mode.
Asus TUF Dash 15 Display
As this is an $1,199 laptop, the display is pretty basic. It has a 15.6 inch 1080p anti-glare IPS level display. For those who don’t know what IPS level means, it is the same as IPS, but companies use this term to avoid trademarking expenses. The quality is the same as IPS. The viewing angles are really nice and the refresh rate is 144Hz, with a brightness of 250 NITS. The display covers 45% NTSC and 62% SRGB. If I conclude about the display, the bezels are really thin on the left and right, and at the bottom, it has a normal ASUS chin as always. There is a little more bezel on the top compared to the left and right, but overall, the laptop looks really nice. You can easily enjoy movies on it and also OTT. There is no problem with gaming, but for color accuracy tasks, the display is not good. 45% NTSC is the basic level of most laptops. I felt that the brightness could have been increased to 300 NITS, which would have made it better. At this price point, a display with 300 NITS brightness would have looked fantastic.
Webcam
And as for webcam quality is good, I am using the laptop’s mic. It is a 720p webcam that struggles to handle exposure when the light is directly hitting my face. As you can see, my face is overexposed. In low light, it is able to adjust a little, but not much. The webcam may have some issues in high lighting, but it should give a decent quality in normal room lighting.
Mic and Speaker
The laptop’s mic has noise cancellation technology that cancels out surrounding ambient noises. This means you can talk without any issue. The laptop has two down-firing speakers, each with two watts. The speaker quality is good, and you get a minor bass. If a small group is watching multimedia together, it should provide a decent audio experience. The laptop also supports Dolby Atmos if you connect a compatible device with it. Then you can enjoy it to the fullest.
Battery Life
And yes, the laptop comes with a 76 watt-hour battery. On 50% screen brightness, with keyboard lights turned off, and battery-saver mode on, while performing basic tasks, I got a battery backup of 3-3.5 hours which I would say is good for a gaming laptop. It’s difficult to get more than 1-1.5 hours of battery backup on gaming laptops.
Performance & benchmarks
Talking about performance, the CINEBENCH R23 multi-core score is really good, around 11.5k, while the single-core score is also impressive at 1669. Our Geekbench CPU score is also good, and the PCMARK10 score is around 6.5k, which is excellent.
In 3DMARK time spy, the total score is 5489, and the CPU score is nice while the GPU score is around 5k. We also have a CROSSMARK score for comparison with other laptops, and you can compare the numbers from other reviews or any website.
In real-life usage, we have done 4k editing on this laptop, and it can do it really easily. I have noticed one thing from the last generation that the 12th generation performs really well in terms of productivity as compared to AMD 5000 series, although 6000 series of AMD. I am also testing a 13th-generation laptop of i7, which is giving a next-level performance. There is next-level fun in using it.
You can easily do 4k video editing without any problems, and there is no issue in using Photoshop, high-level coding, or day-to-day tasks. Basic 3D rendering and modeling can also be done, but for more complex tasks, you need a better processor, at least i7 and a 6GB graphic card 3060 or more, such as 3070 or 4060. So, you can make a choice based on your requirements, but it will be more expensive. You can do basic-level Unity engine game development, but as your level increases and you work on bigger projects, you may experience some lag, and you will have to upgrade the machine. I always suggest building a PC if you want to make a career in game development. That will be more future-proof.
Gaming Performance
Now, have a look at the gaming test. The first game that we tested is VALORANT at high settings, and all the games are tested on 1080p because its display is of 1080p. So, you can see the power of Intel 12th-Generation. We are getting around 300 FPS with i5 12th-generation, according to it, you can see its performance. Rest all stats are in front of you. The CPU temperature is around 80-85 when our room temperature is 20 degrees. So, I would say thermals are decent; they are neither very good nor very bad. Yes, if you attach a cooling pad, then it will be lowered to 75-80.
After that, we tested GTA-5. Obviously, we tested it on 1080p with very high and high mixture settings. That is opted by default by the device. You can take it as very high settings. So, on very high settings, we got 130-140 FPS, which is really good. You can also see the GPU wattage; it is drawing power of 70-75 watts, which means it is being fully utilized. Rest all temperatures and other stats are in front of you. And yes, take care of RAM. It is a 16GB dual-channel RAM; this is also a reason for a good gaming experience. There can be people who will buy the 8Gb RAM variant and will tell me that performance is not coming. So, take care of RAM also.
After that, we tested FARCRY6 on asus tuf dash f15. Here we set the setting to high preset. Here we are getting 90-95 FPS, sometimes 100+. You can see here 12-12.5Gb RAM is consumed. So, now you might know why 16Gb RAM is necessary. The CPU temperature is around 80-85. So, from that, you can get an idea of the thermals. Rest all stats are in front of you already.
Then CALL OF DUTY WARZONE 2.0, and here we set Ultra preset, but the DLLS was on balanced. I thought let it bear a little, and at ultra settings with DLLS at balanced, it gave 90+ FPS on 1080p. So, it is giving a nice performance. I really like one thing about the 12th Generation, that it draws different CPU wattage in different games because of which it manages thermals. It is not like it is drawing the whole power, and the CPU temperatures are going really high. That is not with this. Rest the CPU performance is really good that you can see.
After that, we tested SPIDER-MAN Miles Morales Graphic preset here we have kept on high, but we have turned ray tracing off, and DLLS we kept on balanced. And here in SPIDER-MAN, we got 70-80 FPS, with 3050 75 watts and i5 12450H whose cores are less. According to that, the performance of the laptop is definitely really good in gaming. Then we tested FORZA HORIZON 5, in this, we set the graphic preset to high. And at high settings, we get 80-90 FPS. Asus Tuf Dash F15 laptop is giving great performance. Now I got to know why people were demanding this laptop so much.
Is it Worth It?
The Asus Tuf Dash F15 Laptop seems to be an excellent option for those looking for a lightweight gaming laptop with good specifications, impressive build quality, and a sleek design under $1,199. The laptop has an Intel Core i5 12450H processor, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and an RTX 3050 4GB VRAM graphics card, making it an ideal gaming device. It also comes with a lifetime subscription of MS Office Home and Student 2021, making it perfect for work-related tasks as well. The build quality is sturdy and durable, and the keyboard and trackpad are comfortable to use. The laptop has an adequate number of ports and supports Thunderbolt 4 and G-SYNC. Overall, the Asus Tuf Dash F15 Laptop seems to be an excellent all-rounder for gaming and work purposes.
