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An Asus TUF Gaming A16 2025 on a white background, fit with an RTX 5050.
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Asus TUF Gaming A16 (2025) review

Big, hot, and just a little too expensive.

(Image: © Future)

Our Verdict

If it was only just a little bit cheaper. The Asus TUF Gaming A16 mixes an entry-level GPU with a fairly hot CPU and produces something that can run the latest games with little fuss. It’s heavy and makes a bit of noise, but that’s fine: the main issue here is that it costs just a bit too much, and your eye will be drawn by other offerings at the same price point.

For

  • 5050 acts like it’s bigger
  • Strong CPU performance
  • Lots of useful USB

Against

  • Should be cheaper
  • Gets hot and noisy
  • Quite heavy

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The entry level is a funny place to be. While laptops with RTX 5080 and 5090 GPUs are pored over, looking for every little fluctuation in frame rate to discover the different effects various CPUs and cooling solutions have on the rendering ability of Nvidia’s finest silicon, the low end tends to get lumped into an amorphous mass.

In fact, 18WENKU hasn’t reviewed many laptops with an RTX 5050 GPU. Creeping through the dusty stacks, marvelling at the symmetrical book stacking (just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947) and trying not to attract the attention of the librarian, I could find only one other point of reference: the Medion Erazer Scout 15 E1.

It didn’t do particularly well when put through the testing regime, which might have something to do with the Core i5 13420H and low, low price, but if you’re looking for PC gaming on a budget, it’s worth a look.

TUF Gaming A16 (2025) specs:

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Buy if...

✅ You’re really keen on Asus products: there's little to set this laptop apart from similar machines from Lenovo and Acer, so buy whichever one has the better pricing on the day you go to the shops.

Don't buy if...

❌ You’d rather pay a bit less or a bit more: there's no shame in gaming on integrated graphics, but an entry-level laptop like this can start to make you dream of larger numbers, and a machine with a 5070 isn’t that far away.

The IPS panel can go pretty bright, at 385 nits, and its resolution doesn’t over-stretch the GPU, bringing its 165 Hz refresh rate into sight if you enable multi-frame generation in compatible games (or just run older ones that consume less resources). The only drawback is if you’re using the A16 for anything that requires accurate colour reproduction, as while it’s capable of displaying 100% of the sRGB gamut, it only manages 80% or so of wider spaces such as Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 - you’ll need an external monitor for that kind of thing.

Asus has seen fit to stuff a 90 Wh battery in the A16, which leads to a kind of interesting dichotomy. Leave it looping a video, which leads it to switch off the Nvidia chip and rely on the CPU’s Radeon 780M integrated cores, and you can get almost eight hours of life out of it. Fire up a gaming benchmark that activates the 5050, however, and this drops like the aforementioned millstone to just an hour and a quarter. You’ll be wanting to carry the charger with you, though it will also top up over USB-C if you can feed it enough watts.

The TUF Gaming A16 for 2025 is big and heavy and makes a lot of noise. It also manages to keep pace with laptops that should, in theory, beat it, which is the setup for a heartwarming story of a plucky underdog gaming laptop that becomes the people’s good-value champion. The thing is, it’s just a little too expensive for this to be true. When Gigabyte’s A16 and the Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen10 (both 5060-equipped) are cheaper, and that Erazer Deputy is much less money, the best thing to do with the TUF A16 is wait for some sort of discount.

Razer Blade 16 gaming laptop
Best gaming laptop 2026

1. Best overall:
Razer Blade 16 (2025)

2. Best budget:
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen 10

3. Best 14-inch:
Razer Blade 14 (2025)

4. Best mid-range:
MSI Vector 16 HX AI

5. Best high-performance:
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10

6. Best 18-inch:
Alienware 18 Area-51


👉Check out our full gaming laptop guide👈

The Verdict
Asus TUF Gaming A16 2025

If it was only just a little bit cheaper. The Asus TUF Gaming A16 mixes an entry-level GPU with a fairly hot CPU and produces something that can run the latest games with little fuss. It’s heavy and makes a bit of noise, but that’s fine: the main issue here is that it costs just a bit too much, and your eye will be drawn by other offerings at the same price point.

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