Finding a balance between design and performance in a budget gaming laptop can be tough, but Asus may have done it with its newest TUF Gaming A14. Going for a slightly less aggressive aesthetic than its predecessors, the TUF Gaming A14 feels more luxe than its price suggests while giving you a laptop that wouldn’t look out of place in the office. Not to mention delivering enough oomph for respectable frame rates in modern games.
Perhaps the biggest shock when initially unboxing the TUF Gaming A14, however, was its weight and size. This 14-inch design is new for the 2024 TUF lineup, and it’s surprisingly light for a gaming laptop at 3.22 pounds. Its 16:10 screen aspect ratio is a little taller and less wide than a typical 16:9 display (like a TV), helping it feel pretty compact.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
For comparison, the TUF Gaming A14 has very similar dimensions to the decidedly nongaming laptop the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1, despite including a mobile GeForce RTX 4060 graphics chip, an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, and all of the cooling components necessary to keep temperatures down while gaming. Other specs include a 1-TB solid state drive for storage and 16 GB of RAM, plus an additional M.2 slot if you want to add more storage later. That’s an impressive setup for a laptop that looks and feels rather unassuming at first glance.
The top and bottom of the chassis are covered by metal in a handsome dark gray, which complements the black color scheme found around the screen and on the keyboard deck. This isn’t your typical loud and RBG-infused gaming laptop, which I appreciate as someone who doesn’t necessarily want to stand out like that when I’m out of the house. However, the understated look may not be for everyone, especially if you like a bit of flash on your tech.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
