The Asus TUF Dash F15 is a stealthy and minimal offering by Asus that packs a punch under the hood.
And if you are an individual who wants the horsepower of a high-end device without rainbow puke, then you gotta give the Asus TUF Dash F15 a chance.
Dash 15’s great I/O
The Asus TUF Dash F15 does not disappoint when it comes to I/O. On the left side, you got two USB C port one of which supports Power delivery and Display port output, an HDMI port, Gigabit LAN, a charging port, and a USB 3.2 port. On the right side, there’s a single USB 3.2 port.
So overall, the Asus TUF Dash F15 has solid I/O.
Asus TUF Dash F15’s stealthy chassis
As mentioned earlier, the Asus TUF Dash F15 does not have RGB all over the place like your traditional gaming laptop. The aluminum lid and the keyboard deck carry the consistent black and minimal look that the rest of the chassis has.
And apart from the looks, the Asus TUF Dash 15 doesn’t fail in being durable. Its aluminum chassis provides it with great durability and rigidity. Giving it a great premium feel.
Asus TUF Dash F15’s keyboard, Trackpad, and Speakers.
Keyboard
The Asus TUF Dash F15 makes for an excellent programming laptop with its keyboard. The keys have medium travel and require little actuation force. Making it great for long typing sessions.
The keyboard also has Numpad and dedicated multimedia keys, which is a nice addition. Though this keyboard lacks RGB backlighting, it isn’t a problem since its white backlit contrasts greatly with the rest of the TUF Dash 15’s minimal aesthetic. And the WASD keys are colored white, so they stand out in the dark.
But if RGB backlighting is something you love, you might wanna look elsewhere. However, we advise you to read on, as the rest of the TUF Dash 15 specs are not something to sleep on.
Trackpad
There’s not something out of ordinary here. The Asus TUF Dash 15 trackpad tracks well and accurately with ample room to move around, And it has the TUF logo on the top right for aesthetics.
Speakers
The speakers are nothing special either. Don’t expect to listen to music on these as they lack any bass and only produce mids, which makes them useable for watching a youtube video or listening to a podcast.
Asus TUF Dash F15 buttery smooth display
Unlike last year’s model starter model with a 60Hz display, the 2022 TUF Dash 15 starts with a 1080p 144hz display. The Dash 15 is available in 1080p 300Hz and a QuadHD 165Hz display. But the one we have here right now is the 1080p 144Hz display.
The display is not the best thing about the TUF Dash 15. Though the display gets bright enough at around 350 nits, it struggles to produce accurate colors.
By covering only 47% of Adobe RGB and 62.5% of sRGB color space, this display is unsuitable for any productive work, such as video editing. Though we would like to mention that the FHD 300hz and QHD 165Hz panel models are known to have exceptional color accuracy. So if you want to get the Dash 15 without compromising on the display quality, that’s what you should look for.
But since it’s a gaming laptop, the display does a great job in games. The 144Hz IPS panel makes gaming a delight. Taking headshots in Warzone and Fortnite has never been more fun, thanks to its buttery smooth refresh rate.
Asus TUF Dash 15 beastly specs
Powering the 144Hz IPS panel is Core i7 12560H, packing in 10 cores (6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) and 16 threads that comfortably boost up to 4.7Ghz. Along with an RTX 3060 with a power budget of a total of 105W. Though this is not the most powerful RTX 3060 mobile, it’s still a very capable one.
The 2022 Dash 15 also includes a MUX switch that wasn’t present in last year’s model. It allows you to bypass the iGPU and lets the display directly connect to your dedicated GPU, allowing for lower gaming latency.
This configuration is a significant improvement from last year’s Asus TUF Dash F15, which had i7-11370H that was paired with a relatively weaker RTX 3050ti. GTA V comfortably reaches 140FPS, and Witcher 3 reaches 130FPS along with games like CS GO reaching over 200FPS at high settings with ease. Here are some other games that were tested on the TUF Dash 15 ata high settings.
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Forza Horizon 4 -100FPS
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AC Valhalla – 66FPS
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Resident Evil Village – 104FPS
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COD Warzone: 80FPS
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Cyberpunk 2077- 72 FPS
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RDR2 – 70FPS
On traditional benchmarks, the Asus TUF Dash 15 were the following:
Single core score:
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Cinebench R15: 261
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Cinebench R20: 690
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Cinebench R23: 1791
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Geekbench:1768
Multi-core score:
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Cinebench R15: 2137
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Cinebench R20: 5175
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Cinebench R23: 13562
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Geekbench: 10703
Other Benchmarks
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3DMark 13 TimeSpy: 8327
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3DMark 13 FireStrike:19030
As for the rest of the specs, unlike last year, Asus moved on from DDR4 to DDR5 RAM, allowing the memory to operate at much higher speeds. Our unit has 16GB RAM and 1TB of SSD, which may run low when you try to download your entire stream library.
In such a case, you might look into buying an external hard drive or an additional SSD, but we will talk on expansion later.
Battery life
The battery life of the Dash 15 is nothing out of the ordinary. Being a gaming laptop, it’s obvious you would have to plug it in when you plan to game. However, on casual use, the Asus TUF Dash 15 76Wh battery comfortably lasts around 8 hours, but your mileage may vary according to your use.
Expansion and Upgradability
Earlier, we said that the included SSD drive may end up being small for your use case. But you shouldn’t stress much about it as the SSD on the TUF Dash 15 can be replaced down the line with a bigger drive.
And same could be said for the RAM. Though the 16GB RAM is more than enough for gaming, you would need to upgrade the RAM down the line if you consider doing some creative work, such as making learning video editing on Premiere Pro. And this can be easily done with the two RAM slots.
Conclusion
So, is the Asus TUF Dash 15 worth buying? If you are planning to buy a gaming laptop that doesn’t go crazy over gamer aesthetics while also delivering a solid performance without breaking the bank, you can not go wrong with the Asus TUF Dash 15.
However, if you prioritize creative work or RGB lights, you might want to look at other options.
