Skip to main content

Asus made the best-looking budget gaming laptop I’ve ever seen

The Asus TUF A14 on a table at a press event.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Computex 2024 logo.
This story is part of our coverage of Computex, the world's biggest computing conference.

Asus’ TUF Gaming line has always been among the cheap gaming laptops you can buy, but they’ve always been a bit ugly and thick. But at Computex 2024, Asus has unveiled its completely redesigned TUF A14, a follow-up to the TUF A15. Asus has cleaned up the look quite a bit, reducing it from around a full inch in thickness to just 0.78 inches. They’ve also been reduced from 5 pounds to just 3.2 pounds.

In fact, the new TUF A14 (and A16) look more like Asus’ celebrated ROG Zephyrus G14 than the company’s previous budget laptops.

The lid showing the logo of the Asus TUF Gaming A14.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The new TUF A14 will be powered by AMD’s latest “Strix Point” Ryzen AI HX 370 12-core processor, which claims to offer considerable gains over its predecessor. You also get faster LPDDRX5 memory clocked at 7500MHz and dual M.2 SSD storage slots, both of which support up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 drives. GPU options will include Nvidia’s RTX 4050 or 4060 with a 100W TDP and a built-in MUX switch with Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus support.

Recommended Videos

The display specs also sound pretty good with the option of a 14-inch 16:10 QHD+ IPS panel with a 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 100% sRGB coverage, and 400 nits of peak brightness. In terms of port selection, there’s a USB 4 Type-C port that supports DisplayPort 2.1 and Power delivery 3.0 (100W), a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, HDMI 2.1, an audio combo jack, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.

The battery is rated at 73 watt-hours, and Asus will be bundling a 200W charging brick with the laptop.

Other notable features include a military-grade chassis with metal bottom and top covers, a 1080p webcam with IR support, a 1.7mm travel distance keyboard, dual Arc Flow fans coupled with heat pipes for efficient cooling, and a larger touchpad.

Although it’s a big step up for the A14, it also comes with a higher price. Asus is asking $1,400, and that’s with a last-gen AMD CPU. It has yet to confirm pricing on the model packing a next-gen Strix Point chip.

Asus is also updating the 16-inch TUF A16 with similar specifications and new design like the 14-inch model, with the only difference being the larger display and the option of a more powerful RTX 4070 GPU. It’s also a bit thicker and heavier, as you’d expect, at 4.85 pounds and 1.01 pounds. The other change is that the TUF A16 comes with just a 720p webcam.

Kunal Khullar
Kunal Khullar is a computing writer at Digital Trends who contributes to various topics, including CPUs, GPUs, monitors, and…
Asus built a perfume dispenser into a laptop, for some reason
The Asus Adol Book 14 sitting among several accessories.

Asus just launched the weirdest laptop I've ever seen. The Adol Book 14 doesn't look much different than the Zenbook 14 OLED that Asus already sells, outside of an attractive new lilac color option. The interesting bit comes in the lid, however, as Asus included a slot where you can pack in a perfume pod.

The Adol Book 14 is a collaboration between Asus and beauty brand Anna Sui, and the laptop features several touches that reinforce that collaboration. There are etched edges on the corner of the trackpad, a butterfly on the corner of the key deck, and a small logo engraved on the lid of the laptop. The space bar also has "Live Your Dream" etched on top of it. None of that is out of the ordinary for a branded laptop, but the perfume pod is definitely the star of the show.

Read more
Why I finally gave up on gaming laptops
asus zenbook s 16 review 6

I've gone back and forth on gaming laptops for years. They continue to get faster, thinner, and lighter, and for someone who travels as often as I do, that's all important. Machines like Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and Lenovo Legion 9i prove just how much gaming laptops have to offer.

But something is changing -- at least for me. The fact that so few exciting releases have come out this year doesn't help, but it's more than that.

Read more
Asus ROG Ally X vs. Steam Deck OLED: Has the champion been dethroned?
The Asus ROG Ally X console.

It's not much of an overstatement to say that when Valve released the original Steam Deck, it started a real handheld PC revolution. Launching the Steam Deck OLED only emphasized that while there may be other, more powerful consoles on the market now, Valve's offering still stands strong against the competition. But can it hold its ground against the Asus ROG Ally X?

The two handhelds have more in common than it might seem at first glance. While both are refreshes, neither is a full-blown version 2.0. How do they stack up against each other, though? We've reviewed both ourselves, so we now know the answer to that question. Read our comparison to find out which device wins in a battle between the Asus ROG Ally X and the Steam Deck OLED.
Specs

Read more