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You’ll receive the laptop, 200Watt power brick with 6 ft cable, 3 ft power cable, TUF gaming decal stickers, and a quickstart booklet showing you how to charge and power on the laptop. It measures 14” wide, 10” long, and 1” thick, weighing in at just under 4.5 lbs; keep in mind the power brick adds another pound when travelling. The mecha-inspired exterior of the unit has a metallic look but is a lightweight, sturdy plastic. The shell has a matte-finish, with an embossed TUF logo in the middle, sharp bevels at the edges and engraved accents in each corner. Like the F-series TUF Gaming laptops, there is a cutout at the back so you can view the status LEDs when the lid is closed. The out-of-the-box specs for the R73050T are decent with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor, 8 GB DDR5 4800MHz RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti GPU, and 512GBs of SSD storage.
On the bottom are several air intake and exhaust vents and the rubber feet in the corners along with several solid protrusions raise the laptop off your desktop to ensure stability and air flow. On its left, you’ll find the power port, Ethernet jack, full-size HDMI 2.0b output (delivering up to 1440p @ 144Hz or 4K @ 60Hz), two USB-C and 1 USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and a combo input/output audio jack. On the opposite side is an additional USB-A port and Kensington lock slot. Note that neither of the USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4 or Power Delivery charging, though the second one does have DisplayPort 1.2 output with G-Sync. You’ll notice at the front lip, the screen has a small extended tab in the center, which not only gives you purchase to lift open the screen, but also houses the front-facing 720p webcam and dual-microphone array with two-way AI noise-cancelation.
The 15.6” IPS panel offers 144Hz refresh rates at 1080p, has an anti-glare matte coating, and is decently bright at around 250 nits (max); the built-in panel supports SDR video in the RGB colorspace, and the colors and contrast are quite decent. Connectivity wise, it supports WiFi 6 bandwidths for fast downloads, less buffering, and reduced server lag when using a compatible router or network. I found that the 56Wh battery lasts around 2 hours of casual use at 100% brightness. It does charge quickly, however, and you can top up to 50% battery life in just 30 minutes. You’ll also be able to upgrade the RAM and hard drives by removing the bottom panel. There are two slots for DDR5 4800 MHz RAM chips, and you can install up to two 16GB RAM sticks for a maximum of 32GB.
For gaming, this unmodified build can handle medium to high graphics in most current games though I recommend setting your system to ‘Turbo’ mode in the ASUS Amoury Crate software. I saw an average of 120 fps and higher in games like CS:GO and an average of 70-90 fps in other RPG titles like Path of Exile; both were set to max graphics with smooth, stutter-free visuals and gameplay. The full RGB backlit keyboard illuminates the keys well and is adjustable in color, brightness, and animation, however, are not individually addressable for custom patterns. These edge-lit chiclet style keys have a soft tactile feedback, highlighted WASD keys, and full numpad on the right-hand-side. The Dolby Atmos speakers actually sounded pretty good, fairly open and full, with a bright balance though not much bass. They’re still decent for watching movies and streaming music, even though you won’t get a high-fidelity listening experience from them. But, you can always plug in or pair with a set of Bluetooth headphones for better audio.
Overall, I feel this laptop is a good value for an entry to mid-level gaming laptop. It can handle most AAA title games with fairly decent graphics performance, has a nice aesthetic, and performs well for gaming, work and casual uses. The system is upgradable to push a little more performance out of it and the native screen and GPU deliver a visually satisfying experience. It also weighs less than most top tier portable gaming rigs and has plenty of battery life making it a great choice for on-to-go users.
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