Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506, full review with opinion

Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506 Data Sheet

In a gaming PC, power is important, and the specifications of the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506 point to high performance:

Screen: 15.6-inch IPS, 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, 144 Hz refresh rate, 16:9 ratio.
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H 8-core.
RAM Memory: 16 GB DDR4 3,200 MHz (2 DIMM).
Internal storage: 1 TB Micron 2200 SSD MTFDHBA1T0TCK (2 x M.2 PCI x4 slots).
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 90W 6GB GDDR6 + Integrated AMD Radeon Vega 7.
Front camera: 720p.
Connectivity: Gigabit LAN (Re altek RTL8168 / 8111), WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Ports: 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-C gen. 2, HDMI 2.0b, LAN and 3.5 headphone jack.
Battery: 90 Wh.
Price: 1,399 euros.

Understated design

Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506, complete analysis with opinion

If anything catches your eye the first time you open the Asus TUF Gaming A15, it's the protrusion on the top of the screenIt makes it more practical to open the laptop, but it is still curious, since the marks usually leave a hole and not take it out, as is the case.

The screen frames could be better achieved, especially the lower one, which is quite bulky. In this lower part it has a cut between the hinges so that the laptop cools better and that the Status LEDs can be seen even with the lid closed.

The body, bezels, bottom, and lid are made of plastic, but the lid is not particularly prone to traces remain. It is not too spectacular in its design, besides that the touch could be improved.

The hinges are smooth and allow the screen to be opened effortlessly, which does not mean that this system feels weak or unstable.

On the left side of the laptop we have the power supply, a LAN connector, an HDMI, 2 USB Type A ports, a USB Type C (not Thunderbolt 3) and a 3.5 mm jack for headphones.

In the area on the right we only have a USB-A port.

We find that the absence of any type of biometric unlocking is a step backwards, since many of their competition bring it, well fingerprint sensor or facial sensor. In the Asus TUF Gaming A15 we have none of that.

Good level keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard can be considered as correct. The size of the keys is neither too small nor too big. The fact of having a numeric keypad seems to us to be excellent news, since it is very useful for day-to-day work.

The keys of the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506 are soft, but too spongy and short in their touch, which can cause some users miss a longer journey. The keys feel excessively rubbery when typing, something that does not leave a good experience.

The keyboard is RGB backlit and it's all controlled from the Armory Crate app. The lighting does not offer many alternatives, something that could have been improved by incorporating more possibilities, since the system works very well.

We liked the touchpad, both for its touch and its precision. The best thing about the touchpad is the incorporation of two physical buttons, like desktop mice, something that seems to us to be a very wise choice, especially when the pressure on both is good.

The screen is good and the sound could be better

Regarding the screen, this Asus TUF Gaming A15 mounts a 15.6-inch IPS panel with resolutionFull HD and a 144 Hz refresh rate.

It is a screen that looks good, in which we have not noticed any significant shortcomings, since contrast and sharpness are within a level more than correct. The coloring tends to be a bit cold.

The experience when watching movies with a lot of movement or first-rate games has been good, so we consider that Asus has done well on this screen.

I agree, it's not the best laptop screen we've seen, but it's more than enough for most users, except those who are very demanding with the visuals.

The sound has a lot of body, with bass that has presence and a fairly good perceived quality. The volume, despite not being too loud, is more than enough. In this regard, Asus has done a very good job.

Even so, the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506 only has two speakers on the sides of the laptop's base, which makes us feel the question of what its sound would be like if 4 speakers had been integrated as many other gaming laptops from its competition have.

We can play non-stop

Inside this Asus TUF Gaming A15 we have some good features that should be synonymous with high performance.

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H as processor.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 90W with 6GB GDDR6 as primary graphics card.
AMD Radeon Vega 7 as integrated graphics.
16 GB RAM memory.
1TB Micron 2200 SSD for internal storage.

The Ryzen 7 4800H is responsive at all times. It is a very linear processor, without being enormously powerful, but with a performance that has proven to be reliable in all kinds of situations.

This laptop is made for gaming and here the processor is an almost paramount asset. In this specific case, we have no complaints about the operation of the games, since it moves them easily enough to have a good experience.

The loading times are quite correct and when we are playing we have not noticed any type of slowdown or lag that bothers us and prevents us from enjoying of our favorite titles.

In any case, Asus offers us four power profiles for this TUF Gaming A15, with which we can take more advantage of the hardware, via the Armory Crate app:

Windows: here the laptop adapts to the demands of the operating system at all times.
Quiet: in this mode speeds and power are reduced so that the fan sounds less.
Performance: is the most balanced of the modes, where both the CPU and GPU are in a balanced mode.
Turbo: As much power as possible is allocated to both the CPU and the GPU, which also means that the fans work almost continuously and this mode can only be set if the laptop is connected to the mains.

Between the four modes there are quite a few differences, especially if we play with one mode or another, since the agility of the Turbo is noticeable with respect to the others.

It is evident that where we enjoy the least and where we have the lowest fps (frames per second) in our games is in silent mode, but it is also quite normal.

During the entire time we've been testing the computer, unless we explicitly put the laptop in silent mode, the fans are running very frequently(even too much) and are not exactly quiet.

In our tests with HWInfo we have verified that when playing powerful titles the temperatures of the laptop are within the moderately normal range, reaching the higher temperatures at the bottom.

This suggests that the ventilation system is working properly, despite being somewhat noisy as we have mentioned before.

In the graphics section we have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 as the main graphics and it shows. With its 1,920 CUDA cores, its 6 GB GDDR6 and its cores for ray tracing, it gets quality results where 1080p graphics are exceedingly fluid.

When it comes to storage, we have 1TB on a drive NVMe SSD with QLC (Quad Level Cell) technologyThis technology allows a greater amount of storage on SSDs, although they suffer from the drawback that as the drive fills up its speed becomes a little slower.

We haven't achieved unreasonably high speeds on this drive, but enough for users to have a good experience with the SSD, as reading has passed the 1,500 MB/s and, for its part, in writing it exceeds 1,700 MB/s

As far as software is concerned, we would like to mention Armoury Crate, Asus' own software, of which we have already left a few more lines up. This software is divided into several sections, where we will have different options and even recommendations.

Start: In this tab we will manage the performance parameters, but we will also have information about CPU and GPU statistics (frequency, frequency of memory, usage, temperature and voltage), memory and storage (how much RAM and ROM is left), fan speed and even a game launcher.
System: where we will manage processes while we play, choose the keyboard lighting and a graph where we will see parameters of the computer itself.
Aura: where we can synchronize devices compatible with Aura's LED lighting.
Game Library: here we will keep track of all the games we have installed.
Desktop profile: is the place where we will configure some system parameters, connected devices or some application, always managed by profiles, so that each user has their own.
Offered: In this section Asus recommends game and application offers, as well as a redemption system.
News: is the place where the brand will tell us the most relevant news from its gaming world.
User Center: where we can make a backup copy of all the configurations we make of Armory Crate.
Settings: is the typical configuration section that all applications have.

Good autonomy

The battery that comes inside the Asus TUF Gaming A15 is 90 Wh, and we have put it through several tests to verify its durability.

With silent mode activated, screen at 75% of its brightness, WiFi activated and using the computer only with office programs, it has gone to 8 hours of use disrupted.

If we continue with silent mode and 75% brightness, but use the computer to watch YouTube or Amazon Prime videos at 1080p, we have found ourselves with little more than 8 hours of use.

At the moment we put everything to the max, with Turbo mode, screen at 75% of its brightness, WiFi activated and playing NBA 2K20 at maximum graphics. The computer has lasted us on just under 3 hours.

Therefore, it is advisable to always play with the Asus TUF Gaming A15 plugged into the mains.

To charge the battery from 0 to 100% it takes about two and a half hourswith the 230 W charger that comes with the laptop.

Price and opinion

Overall, we found the Asus TUF Gaming A15 FX506 to be a good laptop in almost every way.

It has details that could be improved such as the fact that it has a plastic casing, the keyboard that is too rubbery and that has absences such as Thunderbolt 3. Some type of biometric unlocking or a more efficient speaker system, although the sound is not bad at all.

But it is a fairly balanced gaming laptop in all that it offers us, which does not stand out in anything specific, but it does reach a good overall level, taking into account that we will pay almost 1,400 euros if we want to get one.