I have to admit, I’ve always been the type of gamer who likes to keep work and gaming separate, with dedicated devices for each. In fact, my ideal gaming setup involves a dedicated space in my room for hours of uninterrupted play; so the idea of lugging around a bulky laptop for gaming to be able to fire up a round of Counterstrike at a cafe or airport isn’t exactly relevant to me. That said, I do enjoy the occasional gaming party hosted by my friends and it made a portable gaming device a priority.
This is why I was eager to review the first-ever TUF gaming laptop by ASUS with a 14-inch chassis available at a retail price of Rs 1,69,990. I was curious about how such a compact-looking device could still promise to pack a punch. Here is what I found out after using the TUF A14 for two weeks.
Design and aesthetics
I was in love with the sleek and functional design of the TUF A14, which sports an aluminium lid with a minimalist finish, from the moment I took it out of the box. Yes, the neutral design is not likely to make heads turn when you pull it out of your bag, but maybe, that’s the point. Even though the top panel has an anti-fingerprint coating, I noticed some greasy smudges soon after unboxing it. But, wiping it with a microfibre cloth seemed to do the trick.
The ASUS TUF A14 has a sleek, ultra-portable design. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
Weighing 1.46 kg and measuring 16.9 mm thick, the TUF A14 feels noticeably lighter than some of the bulkier ROG laptops I’ve used. It fits comfortably into my medium-sized backpack, and the geometric back panel ensured solid airflow for all its critical components.
The laptop has dual USB Type-C ports with DisplayPort and USB 4. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
The TUF A14 comes with a 180-degree hinge, meaning that it can be laid down flat for those of you who like to put it under their external monitors to use the keyboard and trackpad. The 180-degree hinge mechanism sits above the back vents so that the airflow is not obstructed. The all-terrain chassis is military-grade certified (MIL-STD-810H), though it’s available in just one colour, JAEGAR Gray.
A portable powerhouse
What really impressed me about the TUF A14 is its versatile, high-end computing performance. It is powered by a top-of-the-line AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 processor paired with an integrated Radeon 890M iGPU that can reach 2.9 GHz speeds. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor has four Zen5 as well as eight Zen5C cores to take on background workloads and provide great power efficiency when you need it.
You also have the option to pair it with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 for better gaming performance with a max TGP of 110W in Manual mode.
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The TUF A14 supports up to 32GB of LPDDR5X dual-channel memory at 7500MHz, a 2TB M.2 Gen 4 SSD for ample storage, plus an additional SSD slot. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
While playing around and testing the TUF A14 on performance, I remembered how I used to set up games without a discrete GPU on my desktop and it would crash and burn the moment I launched it. Nowadays, on an integrated GPU alone, you can play AAA games with respectable frame rates albeit at modest settings. It made me realise how much chip-makers like AMD have been able to achieve in the integrated GPU domain.
It has an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 with Zen 5 architecture and 50 TOPS NPU. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
AMD has also added 50 tops NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in lieu of the AI applications that will come in. Regarding the AI capabilities of the TUF A14, Microsoft has not yet rolled out Copilot+PC updates for gaming laptops. But once it does, AI features such as hand gesture detection and eye gaze correction as well as Copilot tools such as Recall, Cocreator, email summarisation, live captions, studio effects, etc, are expected to be integrated into the device at a kernel level.
The TUF A14 has a dedicated Copilot button to launch the AI bot. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
The gaming experience
I found that the processing power of the TUF A14 could easily handle competitive online multiplayer games like Counterstrike and Valorant, with an average of above 60fps in medium settings and 1080p resolution.
It makes for an immersive gaming experience with features such as DLSS super-resolution that uses AI to reconstruct prior lower-resolution frames into higher-resolution frames. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 also uses AI to add more frames and pixels in order to improve image quality.
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Screenshot of a game on Roblox. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
The TUF A14 comes equipped with a 14-inch 2.5K 165Hz display that delivers sharp visuals with 100 per cent sRGB colour gamut coverage and brightness that can go up to 400 nits. Its enhanced cooling system with two 5V fans and full-width exhaust vents made no noise even during heavy workloads; although, there was one time when the underside of the laptop emitted a lot of heat after being left on charge for a couple of hours.
Screenshot of March of Empires: Age of Lords (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
I was also not entirely pleased with the speaker’s performance as it definitely lacks bass. When I tried to watch a movie by placing the laptop on the bed, the sound was muffled due to the location of the speakers.
Regarding the keyboard, it resembles a regular desktop design which makes switching back and forth with other PCs easier. The keys have good feedback but the gamer in me was slightly disappointed to know that there is no RGB lighting. However, it does have a dedicated CoPilot key which instantly pulls up the chat screen so you can ask the AI bot queries. The 16:10 glass touchpad is quite large and smooth for swiping but it feels a bit jarring when you press down on it.
1.7mm key travel, white backlight keyboard. (Image: Karan Mahadik/The Indian Express)
A three hour gaming session can drain the 73Wh battery fairly quickly; though with 100W Type-C fast-charging, it can be restored to 100 per cent in about 30 minutes.
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The verdict
The ASUS TUF A14 gaming laptop has been developed to cater to a wide array of needs, making it a great choice for gamers as well as content creators, students, and working professionals. The Taiwanese tech giant has done well in packing the processing capabilities of the Zephyrus lineup into a slightly more affordable 14-inch laptop, thus maintaining portability and hitting the mark in terms of performance. The TUF A14 also stands ready for when those AI updates start being rolled out by developers.
