If you’re looking for a “tough” gaming laptop that won’t set your wallet on fire, Asus introduced two new solutions under its TUF Gaming FX banner. The FX505 dons a 15.6-inch screen while the FX705 sports a 17.3-inch screen, both of which support a 1,920 x 1,080 (aka Full HD) resolution with up to a 144Hz refresh rate.
“As with all TUF Gaming products, FX505 and FX705 are built to withstand everyday abuse,” the company says. “They are put through rigorous quality and durability tests that exceed industry standards, and they have also passed the demanding military-grade MIL-STD-810G test for sudden jolts. The reinforced chassis and hexagonal design on the bottom add structural rigidity to make them even sturdier.”
Both models are based on two of Intel’s latest eighth-generation processors for laptops: The Core i5-8300H four-core chip and the Core i7-8750H six-core chip. For graphics, you will see up to a GeForce GTX 1060 discrete graphics chip from Nvidia with presumably 6GB of dedicated video memory. The laptops also support up to 32GB of system memory (DDR4) clocked at 2,666MHz.
For storage, these laptops appear to include two drives: Up to a 512GB PCI Express-based M.2 SSD as the primary drive and up to a 1TB Seagate FireCuda hybrid drive as secondary storage. Meanwhile, the port complement includes two USB-A ports (5Gbps), another slower USB-A port (480Mbps), an HDMI 2.0 port, an Ethernet port, and a headphone/microphone combo jack supporting DTS Headphone:X audio.
For wireless connectivity, the laptops provide Bluetooth 5.0 along with support for up to 1.73Gbps through a Wireless AC Wave 2 component (2×2) capable of accessing the 160MHz channels on compatible routers. Other general features rounding out these laptops consist of an HD webcam and a backlit keyboard with customizable RGB lighting. Asus says the keys have a travel distance of 1.8mm and a duration of 20 million presses.
Keeping these laptops cool is the company’s HyperCool system featuring separate fans and heatsinks for the CPU and GPU. These fans are located directly under the keyboard to prevent your fingers from playing hot potato while you’re in the heat of the on-screen action. Adding to this design is a patented trapezoid-cut lid to enable the laptop to eject more hot air from the rear. Asus says this design enables up to a 25 percent better cooling performance than the competition.
“Cooling performance can degrade over time, with dust and particle buildup impeding airflow through thermal fins,” the company adds. “Patented Asus dust tunnels help to guide dust and particles off to a separate chamber to be ejected from the system, keeping the thermal fins clear for stable long-term cooling performance.”
Both laptops will be on display during the Gamescom convention in Germany. Retail availability won’t be until sometime in September for a currently unknown “affordable” starting price.
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