One of the best Asus TUF Gaming F15 configurations with the 1440p 165 Hz display is too hard to find

We walked away impressed after having just reviewed the Asus TUF Gaming F15 FX517ZC gaming laptop. Our specific configuration comes with the 12th gen Core i7-12650H CPU, RTX 3050 GPU, and 1440p 165 Hz display with full P3 colors targeting a price point in the $1000 USD range. The GPU may be entry-level, but the CPU and display are some of the best in its price category. The only problem, however, is that nearly all configurations of the FX517 available online at the moment come equipped with an inferior display.

A quick search on Google and popular US retailers like Best Buy or Amazon shows only configurations with the 1080p 144 Hz panel instead of our 1440p 165 Hz panel that we reviewed. While 1080p144 might still sound pretty good on paper, this particular panel comes with both noticeably slower response times and a narrower color space than the 1440p165 panel. The gaming experience is significantly worse as a result as users will notice shallower colors and more ghosting to the point where any 1080p144 configuration of the Asus TUF Gaming F15 would be difficult for us to recommend.

The poor availability of SKUs with the 1440p165 display and RTX 3050 GPU is very unfortunate as the Asus TUF Gaming F15 FX517ZC is otherwise one of the best budget gaming laptops. It's one of the few to integrate MUX graphics switching, adaptive sync, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity without requiring users to spend hundreds of dollars more on a higher-end model. Consider yourself lucky if you can find such a SKU available instore or online.