ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review: This is a mouthful

The ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition is a mouthful when you have to tell someone the name of your laptop. And if you are using it, people will ask “What laptop is this?” While it doesn’t have an RGB strip running across the chassis, this machine has all essentials to be called a gaming laptop.

One of the quirks of a TUF gaming laptop is that people don’t really believe this is an ASUS machine, because they think ASUS only makes the ROG ones. But right from the unboxing, you can clearly tell this is an ASUS laptop and a gaming one at that.

ASUS TUF- Where did it come from?

Some context before we dive into this ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review. The ASUS TUF series actually started as a durable motherboard lineup in 2010. Then in 2013, ASUS launched the AMD-based TUF Sabertooth motherboard.

After the motherboards, ASUS launched the TUF Gaming K7, an optical mech keyboard. And after this, the world’s first gaming monitor with concurrent motion blur reduction, the TUF Gaming VG32VQ. Cut to 2023, and we have an entire TUF Gaming lineup that borrows heavily from all the innovation done in its name.

I believe this is enough context, now we can get to the quick unboxing and detailed review of ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Box contents

This comes in a simple but stylish cardboard box that looks better from behind for some reason. Inside the box, you’ll find the laptop, a chunky 240-watt power brick, and some paperwork. While it is a proprietary power brick, you can also use a 100-watt USB C charger to power this laptop.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition specifications

Build, design, and upgradability

These are the three parameters on which you judge a laptop as soon as you hear about it. And this one seems to tick most of the boxes. According to an ASUS support page, TUF gaming laptops earn the TUF badge because they’re Military Standard (MIL-STD 810) tested. However, the A16 Advantage isn’t on that list but is still pretty well-built.

The triangular rubber foot reduces chassis flex and raises the laptop for better heat dissipation

The chassis barely has almost no flex, and that’s thanks to a clever bit of design under the laptop. ASUS planted this orange triangular foot under the laptop to reduce the chassis flex, and slightly raise the laptop for better heat dissipation. The other rubber feet are also well-matched with the chassis colour so you’ll not be able to tell which one is the rubber strip without touching it.

On the left side, you get DC-in, LAN, HDMI 2.1, 2 USB-C ports, 1 USB-A port, and a headphone jack. Another USB-A port and a Kensington lock reside on the left side. Now one of the USB-C ports is USB-4 and allows Type-C charging for this device, which is good.

The big chassis of the A16 comes with a lot of upgrade options. Aside from the 1TB pre-installed SSD, you have two more M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD Slots with up to 2TB per slot expansion. Moreover, you get 2 x SO-DIMM sockets for a total expansion of up to 32 GB. So, you can upgrade this laptop over the years when you feel the need.

The design continues to impress when you open the laptop. The function keys are in separate groups, so they’re more accessible for keyboard shortcut users. There are four customizable keys on top of the keyboard. By default, these are mapped for volume up, down, mic mute, and Armoury Crate.

You’ll see heat vents on the spine, sides, and under the laptop. These are backed by the 84-blade Arc Flow fans, so even if the outside of the system runs hot, it remains cool on the inside. In my testing too, I found it releasing heat from every direction, but no drop in performance.

Display and speakers

I’ve been a “compact tech” guy for as long as I can remember. I used a 13-inch MacBook Air, then a 13-inch Dell Inspiron and my daily driver is an iPhone 12 Mini. This was for context to tell you that the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 is the first big laptop I’ve used as a daily driver. And I’m starting to realize why bigger screens are better, and why the A16 is sitting in a sweet spot on the TUF lineup.

It is packing a 16-inch IPS Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) 165Hz display. It has an anti-glare coating and a 7ms fast response time. At 250 nits, it isn’t the most suitable outdoor use machine, but amply bright to watch movies like Avatar and Tenet. And when you’re using it in low light or in a dark room, the display can go dim enough to not strain your eyes.

Thanks to the 16:10 aspect ratio, it is a tall screen, and office work is a breeze as you can see more vertical information. You will find black bars at the top and bottom while watching videos. But then again, the screen is big enough that you’ll probably not mind the bars.

Coming to the speakers, it is a mixed bag. They’re detailed, but not loud enough. There’s virtually no bass, but if you’re in a quiet room, the overall sound separation works well. They are Dolby Atmos speakers and come with AI noise cancellation. So, if you’re on a video call and the other person has a lot of noise in their audio, this laptop’s speakers will block the noise, and improve the audio output.

It is impressive tech, but I wish ASUS gave it better-sounding speakers so it could be a good multimedia machine. This also has enough space to fit a decent sound system, so ASUS, if you’re reading this, make better speakers happen on the next one, please.

Keyboard and trackpad

The TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition has a decently large trackpad

The big chassis game continues with my “smaller laptops are better” concept shattering as I type on the A16’s keyboard. It has no fancy bells and whistles, but it is a simple, well-spaced keyboard. You get 1.7mm key travel, 3 steps of brightness adjustment, and a dedicated number pad.

The number pad is appreciated because you can use it to quickly enter your Windows pin since there’s no fingerprint sensor or facial recognition. I like the customizable hotkeys, but if were a more tactile keyboard, it would be more fun to type on.

It has a fairly large glass trackpad, as you can see from the image above. It is fast & responsive, and gestures are smooth too. However, the trackpad also has a mushy feeling that is carried forward from the keyboard. It could’ve been clickier for better feedback, but you won’t feel the need to press too hard, as it is a responsive trackpad. And for the more serious users, there are enough ports, and Bluetooth 5.2 to pair an external mouse.

Software

On the software front, the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition is running Windows 11 Home. Windows multitasking is a breeze, thanks to the powerful processor and the big display. You’ll also find the Armoury Crate app and the AMD software Adrenaline Edition on board.

Both these apps offer similar insights and tuning options. I prefer the Armoury Crate over the AMD Software as you can easily toggle between modes and the general interface is simpler on the Crate. While Armoury Crate gets a dedicated AC key on the keyboard, you can quickly launch the AMD tool with Alt+R.

Performance

Ah, another gaming laptop I get to benchmark and be impressed with the scores. I mean benchmarks are great, but real-world performance and use leave different impressions. Benchmarks let you look into the soul of a machine, and the TUF A16 doesn’t budge. I ran Cinebench single-core twice and then ran Heaven 4 on battery power, but there’s no throttling or excess heat.

When I was running Cinebench, I was writing a news story in the background, with some other tabs open for reference. I don’t recommend doing this, but the laptop was smooth enough for me to almost forgot there’s a benchmarking app running in the background.

Real-world usage

I believe there are three stages to using this laptop to its full potential. In the first stage, we have Windows and Silent mode. This puts the GPU in a relaxed state, only waking it up when you need the power. So, you get about seven hours of battery life on mixed usage in these modes.

In the second stage, there’s the performance mode. When you want to run heavy workloads or edit videos and play games on battery power. The battery life comes down to four to five hours in this mode, but you feel the responsiveness go up. The last one is the Turbo mode with the GPU set to “Ultimate” from the Armoury Crate app. Use this when the machine is plugged in and you can throw virtually anything at it.

I was playing Far Cry 6 on Turbo mode with walkthroughs open in Chrome, downloading Tekken on Steam, and writing this review with about 10 more tabs open. Maybe if I opened Premier Pro too, then it would start to throttle a bit, but that’s an unrealistic workload to begin with.

Gaming and heat management

I already mentioned the Far Cry 6 and Tekken gameplay in the last section, but here are some more insights. AAA titles drain the battery in about one to 1.5 hours flat. The system runs cool, but the heat from the vents causes some issues. For instance, the last ASUS machine I used was the Flow Z13, and you can read that review here. I liked the cooling on it because all the heat went upwards with nothing coming to your palms or the sides.

With the TUF A16, the heat vents on the sides heated up my mouse. I left it there for 10 minutes, and it was hot to the touch when I came back. Although the performance takes no hit, just remember to keep the mouse slightly away from the laptop when not using it.

As for gaming itself, the 165Hz display, the 7ms response time, the chip, GPU, and performance tuning, all come into their own. In my testing, I found no frame drops or abrupt lags even at maxed-out graphics. You can throw heavy titles at this machine and play them without an external display. You will need a mouse though, but that’s the only add-on you need to play games on the A16.

Battery

The ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition has a 4-cell 90 Watt-hour battery. It is enough to power this device for six to eight hours of mixed-use. But when you’re gaming or editing videos and photos, this comes down to roughly two hours of usage. It is a decent battery by industry standards, but I have my own concerns.

The more you charge a battery, the faster the charging cycle count goes up. And more charge cycles mean the battery health will take a bigger hit over time. So, you can expect the battery standby time to deplete over time. However, there are barely any gaming laptops out there that can beat this battery life with these specs and display.

ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review: Verdict

I’ll start with the nitpicking. This laptop is heavy, the vents heat up anything around them, the display could’ve been brighter, and the speakers have the necessary tech, but lack the audio output. With that out of my system, I don’t find anything to complain about this laptop.

I’ve been using it in the office during the day and gaming in night. Almost never shut it down in my two weeks with it, and it runs just fine. Also, the quirks I mentioned above, if you buy a gaming laptop, you know you’re signing up for the average battery and the heat.

That said, the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition is difficult to beat at this price. And not just this machine, the whole TUF lineup has good specs to offer at reasonable prices. This A16 laptop costs Rs. 1,39,990 at the time of writing this review. At this price, you get top-tier specs with 1TB SSD storage and 16GB RAM to start with. On top of that, you can upgrade the RAM and SSD whenever you want.

So that’s my ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review. It is a mouthful to say but has the specs to justify its name. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and if you feel I’ve missed something, feel free to add.