Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition in review: AMD notebook under the auspices of the 7

Competitors of the TUF Gaming A16 primarily include other mid-range notebooks with AMD hardware such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA402RJ (R7 6800HS & RX 6700S) or the Lenovo Legion S7 16ARHA7 (R9 6900HX & RX 6800S). On the Nvidia side, devices with a GeForce RTX 3060 should be regarded as the main opponents. While the HP Envy 16 h0112nr has an identical maximum TGP of 95 watts, the Asus TUF Gaming F15 FX507ZM, for example, boasts a significantly higher TGP of 140 watts - at the expense of energy consumption, of course.

The case gets a good score. Asus has opted for a combination of plastic (base unit) and metal (cover) and a decent material strength/thickness. The chassis only yields noticeably under heavy pressure. Compared to other devices, the lid is also quite torsion-resistant, although fingerprints quickly collect on the metal cover.

As for the design, Asus manages a successful compromise between subtle and playful. While the dark coloring is rather plain, the manufacturer has been quite creative with some details (power button, function lights, lid shape). The workmanship also leaves no room for criticism. In the case of our review sample, all design elements come together very cleanly.

The A16 is not necessarily one of the lightest and most compact gaming notebooks. At a weight of 2.2 kg, the 16-incher is limited in its suitability for frequent trips, but most competing devices have comparable values here. The height is also a similar story at a maximum of 2.7 cm.

Connectivity

According to the Asus homepage, the range of ports varies depending on the model. For example, a USB 4 port is not on board as standard, but only installed in the better or more expensive variants. Our review device has to make do with two USB-A 3.2 Gen1 ports and two USB-C 3.2 Gen2 ports (with the latter supporting DisplayPort). A positive aspect: Power Delivery at up to 100 watts is possible on one of the Type-C ports. The A16 also has an HDMI 2.1 output, an RJ45 port, an audio jack and an opening for Kensington locks. Only a card reader is missing.

The distribution of the connections is designed more for right-handers. Due to the many ports placed on the left, using a mouse on the left side may result in limitations.

In terms of WLAN performance, the laptop lands in the midfield with send and receive rates of up to 900 MBit/s, which we measured from a distance of one meter to our new Asus Rapture GT-AXE11000 reference router. This is clearly surpassed by the Zephyrus G14 despite a similar MediaTek chip.

The webcam also delivers mediocre performance. As in most notebooks, it lacks both image sharpness and color accuracy.

The only accessories included with our review sample were a few information booklets. The 240-watt power supply unit weighs just over 500 g and measures approx. 16 x 7.5 x 2 cm, so it is neither small nor particularly bulky.

To access the internals of the TUF Gaming A16, a little more than 10 Phillips screws have to be removed from the underside. Then the entire base plate can be levered out of its anchorage with a good deal of effort. Almost all components can be seen, whereby the SSD and RAM modules are hidden behind a plastic film (see photos).

In Germany, the warranty extends beyond 24 months. This may differ in other countries, so buyers should double-check with the seller before purchasing.

The touchpad is impressive almost all across the board. In addition to its dimensions (approx. 13 x 7.5 cm), its gliding properties are also pleasing. Extremely fast inputs are possible thanks to the smooth surface. Further praise goes to the touchpad for its precision and clean gesture support. However, the click buttons at the bottom are not quite perfect. These could be a little more stable and less rickety

The TUF Gaming A16 offers a matte 16-inch display in 16:10 format. Our review model was powered by a 165 Hz panel with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200.

The TUF Gaming A16 is in the mid-range segment in terms of equipment. Passionate gamers who want to play at maximum details for years should look elsewhere for more powerful hardware.

The Ryzen 7 7735HS is an eight-core processor equipped with 16 MB of L3 cache, is manufactured via the 6 nm process and can process up to 16 threads in parallel via SMT. The base clock is 3.2 GHz, with up to 4.75 GHz possible under load. The TDP ranges from 35 to 54 watts, depending on the notebook. Thanks to graphics switching, the TUF A16 can automatically switch between the dGPU and the Radeon 680M integrated in the processor, which is definitely sufficient for less demanding games.

In the long-term test with Cinebench R15, the Ryzen 7 7735HS delivers pleasingly stable performance values without drops, which also applies to most of the competitors. The speed is consistently on par with the Lenovo Legion S7 (R9 6900HX) and HP Envy 16 (Core i7-12700H).

In the system tests, the Gaming A16 comes in last place in the comparison field (just behind the Zephyrus G14), but 7,332 points in PCMark 10 is still a good result. Somewhat annoying is the fact that the system, in its delivery state, sometimes freezes or hangs for seconds when opening programs. This is due to the Smart Access Graphic option in the Armoury Crate software, which is responsible for the GPU switch.

Asus provides our review configuration with a M.2-based 1 TB SSD. The NVMe drive offers a solid performance for PCIe standards with almost 4,000 MB/s in sequential read and around 3,000 MB/s in sequential write (AS SSD benchmark). A bonus: One M.2 slot is still free in the case.