You don't need to wait for Black Friday to get a great deal on one of the best gaming laptops I've ever tested.
The Asus TUF Gaming A14 enhances the best features of the Zephyrus G14, boosts CPU power with AMD’s Ryzen AI chip, and makes smart compromises without feeling like a downgrade — all to make it affordable.
And now, it's even cheaper. The TUF Gaming A14 with RTX 4060 is now $1,349 at Walmart, which is a shocking $150 off given the fact that it literally just came out.
So why is this the gaming laptop I always go to when my mates ask which one to buy? I mean for $250 more, you could get the ROG Zephyrus G14 at Best Buy in all its aluminum unibody OLED glory. But I think that’d be the wrong decision, because the TUF Gaming A14 manages to do something that I haven’t seen a gaming laptop do in years — it manages to find a perfect balance.
And by balance, I mean it manages to be all things to suit all your needs. Let me break it down into the three things you’d want to buy a gaming laptop for: to play games well (duh), to also be good for getting stuff done too, and to be well-built for portability with the longevity to go through your demands.
Playing games well
This is not to say the Zephyrus G14 isn’t good at playing games, as our test results for that laptop shows (plus you could bump up to an RTX 4070 if you’re feeling keen, whereas the TUF Gaming A14 is limited to RTX 4060).
| Benchmark | Asus TUF Gaming A14 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) | Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS) | Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra | 5626 | 6108 | 5993 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 2029 | 2285 | 2226 |
| 3DMark Port Royal | 5299 | 6254 | 6155 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p) | 29.6 FPS | 39.1 FPS | 30.8 FPS |
| Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) | 58.1 FPS | 65.6 FPS | 62.2 FPS |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 (1080p Ultra) | 36.1 FPS | 29.4 FPS | 27.2 FPS |
| F1 23 (1080p) | 39 FPS | 45 FPS | 40 FPS |
But the CPU is also pretty important when it comes to PC gaming, and you really feel that speed boost in games that rely on both components heavily like Cyberpunk 2077. Turn on DLSS 3.5, and you can see frame rates of over 70 FPS if you tune the game right!
Plus, those games look great on the QHD+ IPS display. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not OLED. You do miss out on that deep contrast ratio and color, but that’s not to say this screen isn’t crispy, contrasty or colorful. In fact, it’s all of those (and smoother too at 165Hz refresh rate).
Getting stuff done
That AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 makes this a Copilot+ PC, and with it comes a certain expectation of performance and power efficiency (more on that last bit later). But AMD’s new chip is a bonafide screamer when it comes to ripping through the general day-to-day. Multitasking is a cinch, and creative pro tasks are handled ably.
| Benchmark | Asus TUF Gaming A14 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) | Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS) | Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6.3 single-core | 2863 | 2580 | 2425 |
| Geekbench 6.3 multicore | 13729 | 12891 | 13091 |
| SSD transfer rate (MBps) | 1566.7 | 1532.8 | 1784.7 |
| Handbrake transcode 4K to 1080p (mm:ss) | 03:22 | 04:16 | 03:55 |
But the other key thing here is the ergonomics for working, and Asus has knocked it out the park with a great keyboard and touchpad combo that feel great to type and click on, with no sponginess anywhere in its presses. There's just great tactility all round.
Going all day
With its sleek 3.2-pound frame, this is easy enough to stash in a backpack without worrying about it or feeling any overt increase in weight on your back. The aluminum shell on the lid gives it a premium aesthetic, and the plastic base doesn’t feel cheap to the touch at all.
And finally, let’s turn our attention to the battery life — the fatal flaw in a lot of gaming laptops. Normally, by this point, I’m telling you to stay near a charger for work and play. That is certainly the case when it comes to gaming with just under 2 hours of playtime on one charge, but not anymore with working.
| Laptop | Web surfing battery test (hh:mm) | PCMark 10 gaming battery test (hh:mm) |
|---|---|---|
| Asus TUF Gaming A14 | 12:05 | 01:47 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | 06:45 | 01:05 |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 | 08:42 | 01:39 |
You see, the TUF Gaming A14 offers a leapfrog in stamina, that tops out at just over 12 hours of battery life in our web surfing test. This is a significant moment for gaming laptops, where I can tell you that if you are away from a charger, so long as you’re just working, you don’t need to worry about that plug for the day.
