Staples has
ASUS TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop (FA507NV-EH53) on sale for
$679.99.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member
tektek for sharing this deal.
Specs (
source):
- AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS 6-core, 12-threads (3.3Ghz Base / 4.6GHz Boost) Processor
- 15.6" FHD 250-nits 45% NTSC IPS Anti-Glare 144Hz Matte Display
- 16GB DDR5-4800 RAM Memory
- 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive Storage
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
- Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax 2x2 MU-MIMO + Bluetooth 5.3
- 720p HD Camera
- Chiclet Backlit Keyboard 1-Zone RGB
- Ports:
- 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL
- 1x USB-C 4 (support for DisplayPort, 40Gbps)
- 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x RJ45 Ethernet
- 1x Headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm)
- Windows 11
- 90Wh Li-ion 4-Cell Battery w/ 240W AC Power Adapter
- 13.94 x 9.88 x 0.98" (4.85 lbs)
Warranty: 1-Year Limited Parts & Labor
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Top Comments
Specs: https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-.../techspec/
The primary downside to this laptop is the cpu, the 7535HS is a 6-core cpu using the one and a half generation old zen3+ architecture (basically zen3 cores with an improved memory controller and additional pcie capabilities). It has the rather weak rdna2 based 660m for an igpu. In terms of raw cpu performance, expect it to perform slightly better than the old 6600hs. It will be meaningfully slower than the newer generation zen4 and 5 cpus in higher end laptops. Having 6 cores may also start becoming a bottleneck in a couple of years, but it's generally sufficient for midrange gaming currently. Likewise, while the zen3+ cores aren't terribly powerful by modern standards, the mobile rtx 4060 isn't powerful enough for the cpu to be a major bottleneck in most games.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the current value sweetspot, it's the cheapest nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram (the absolute bare minimum for modern 1080p gaming). The 4060 in this laptop is the full power 140w variant, though keep in mind performance scaling heavily drops off past 100w. While the mobile rtx 4070 is around 20% faster, the 8gb of vram remains the primary constraint, and it's nowhere near worth the price premium. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4080, is enormously faster and has 12gb of vram, but you'll pay at least twice as much for even a refurbished 4080 laptop. The brand new mobile rtx 5000 series laptops aren't worth the enormous price premiums, blackwell is basically a refresh of ada lovelace without any major improvements, and you'd need to purchase a mobile rtx 5070ti or higher to get more than 8gb of vram. Multi frame generation is also utterly pointless if your monitor is below 180hz refresh rate (and 4x mode isn't viable without at least 240hz refresh rate).
The screen on this laptop has very good specs for a laptop of this price in all metrics except brightness. The brightness is only 250 nits which is the bare minimum, if you primarily use your laptops in bright environments or outside this is a major downside. Otherwise, the screen is 1080p (standard at this price, and you wouldn't want higher resolution with the 4060), 144hz refresh rate (decent for midrange gaming), 100%srgb gamut coverage (good for this price point), supports G-Sync (very unusual at this price), and has a MUX Switch + Advanced Optimus. If this screen was 300nit+ it'd be incredible at under $700, but with a brightness of 250nits it's still pretty good.
This laptop has a rather large 90whr battery which is very good for the price. While the zen3+ cpu isn't exceptionally efficient, I'd still expect fairly good battery life for a gaming laptop.
This laptop comes with 16gb (2x8gb) of ddr5 4800 (16gb is decent for the price), this cpu doesn't support ddr5 faster than 4800. There are two user accessible ram slots, officially supporting up to 32gb ddr5 4800. There are two user accessible m.2 slots, one of which is occupied by the 512gb gen 4 ssd.
The array of ports is quite decent, there's no thunderbolt (obviously), but it has hdmi 2.1 frl, 1x usb3.2 supporting power delivery and displayport output (with gsync, 10gbps)), a usb4 port (40gbps), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5gbps), and a RJ45 LAN port. The wifi is only gen 6, which is slightly disappointing but ultimately not terribly consequential. The keyboard is backlit.
This laptop is fairly heavy at 2.20 Kg (4.85 lbs).
Overall, if the mediocre cpu and low screen brightness aren't dealbreakers for you, this is an excellent deal. It's also worth keeping in mind there's currently lots of uncertainty regarding how tariffs will affect pricing, so if you need a laptop now it may be prudent not to wait.
55 Comments
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Specs: https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-.../techspec/
The primary downside to this laptop is the cpu, the 7535HS is a 6-core cpu using the one and a half generation old zen3+ architecture (basically zen3 cores with an improved memory controller and additional pcie capabilities). It has the rather weak rdna2 based 660m for an igpu. In terms of raw cpu performance, expect it to perform slightly better than the old 6600hs. It will be meaningfully slower than the newer generation zen4 and 5 cpus in higher end laptops. Having 6 cores may also start becoming a bottleneck in a couple of years, but it's generally sufficient for midrange gaming currently. Likewise, while the zen3+ cores aren't terribly powerful by modern standards, the mobile rtx 4060 isn't powerful enough for the cpu to be a major bottleneck in most games.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the current value sweetspot, it's the cheapest nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram (the absolute bare minimum for modern 1080p gaming). The 4060 in this laptop is the full power 140w variant, though keep in mind performance scaling heavily drops off past 100w. While the mobile rtx 4070 is around 20% faster, the 8gb of vram remains the primary constraint, and it's nowhere near worth the price premium. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4080, is enormously faster and has 12gb of vram, but you'll pay at least twice as much for even a refurbished 4080 laptop. The brand new mobile rtx 5000 series laptops aren't worth the enormous price premiums, blackwell is basically a refresh of ada lovelace without any major improvements, and you'd need to purchase a mobile rtx 5070ti or higher to get more than 8gb of vram. Multi frame generation is also utterly pointless if your monitor is below 180hz refresh rate (and 4x mode isn't viable without at least 240hz refresh rate).
The screen on this laptop has very good specs for a laptop of this price in all metrics except brightness. The brightness is only 250 nits which is the bare minimum, if you primarily use your laptops in bright environments or outside this is a major downside. Otherwise, the screen is 1080p (standard at this price, and you wouldn't want higher resolution with the 4060), 100%srgb gamut coverage (good for this price point), supports G-Sync (very unusual at this price), and has a MUX Switch + Advanced Optimus. If this screen was 300nit+ it'd be incredible at under $700, but with a brightness of 250nits it's still pretty good.
This laptop has a rather large 90whr battery which is very good for the price. While the zen3+ cpu isn't exceptionally efficient, I'd still expect fairly good battery life for a gaming laptop.
This laptop comes with 16gb (2x8gb) of ddr5 4800 (16gb is decent for the price), this cpu doesn't support ddr5 faster than 4800. There are two user accessible ram slots, officially supporting up to 32gb ddr5 4800. There are two user accessible m.2 slots, one of which is occupied by the 512gb gen 4 ssd.
The array of ports is quite decent, there's no thunderbolt (obviously), but it has hdmi 2.1 frl, 1x usb3.2 supporting power delivery and displayport output (with gsync, 10gbps)), a usb4 port (40gbps), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5gbps), and a RJ45 LAN port. The wifi is only gen 6, which is slightly disappointing but ultimately not terribly consequential. The keyboard is backlit.
This laptop is fairly heavy at 2.20 Kg (4.85 lbs).
Overall, if the mediocre cpu and low screen brightness aren't dealbreakers for you, this is an excellent deal. It's also worth keeping in mind there's currently lots of uncertainty regarding how tariffs will affect pricing, so if you need a laptop now it may be prudent not to wait.
Specs: https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-.../techspec/
The primary downside to this laptop is the cpu, the 7535HS is a 6-core cpu using the one and a half generation old zen3+ architecture (basically zen3 cores with an improved memory controller and additional pcie capabilities). It has the rather weak rdna2 based 660m for an igpu. In terms of raw cpu performance, expect it to perform slightly better than the old 6600hs. It will be meaningfully slower than the newer generation zen4 and 5 cpus in higher end laptops. Having 6 cores may also start becoming a bottleneck in a couple of years, but it's generally sufficient for midrange gaming currently. Likewise, while the zen3+ cores aren't terribly powerful by modern standards, the mobile rtx 4060 isn't powerful enough for the cpu to be a major bottleneck in most games.
The mobile rtx 4060 is the current value sweetspot, it's the cheapest nvidia mobile gpu that has 8gb of vram (the absolute bare minimum for modern 1080p gaming). The 4060 in this laptop is the full power 140w variant, though keep in mind performance scaling heavily drops off past 100w. While the mobile rtx 4070 is around 20% faster, the 8gb of vram remains the primary constraint, and it's nowhere near worth the price premium. The next step up, the mobile rtx 4080, is enormously faster and has 12gb of vram, but you'll pay at least twice as much for even a refurbished 4080 laptop. The brand new mobile rtx 5000 series laptops aren't worth the enormous price premiums, blackwell is basically a refresh of ada lovelace without any major improvements, and you'd need to purchase a mobile rtx 5070ti or higher to get more than 8gb of vram. Multi frame generation is also utterly pointless if your monitor is below 180hz refresh rate (and 4x mode isn't viable without at least 240hz refresh rate).
The screen on this laptop has very good specs for a laptop of this price in all metrics except brightness. The brightness is only 250 nits which is the bare minimum, if you primarily use your laptops in bright environments or outside this is a major downside. Otherwise, the screen is 1080p (standard at this price, and you wouldn't want higher resolution with the 4060), 100%srgb gamut coverage (good for this price point), supports G-Sync (very unusual at this price), and has a MUX Switch + Advanced Optimus. If this screen was 300nit+ it'd be incredible at under $700, but with a brightness of 250nits it's still pretty good.
This laptop has a rather large 90whr battery which is very good for the price. While the zen3+ cpu isn't exceptionally efficient, I'd still expect fairly good battery life for a gaming laptop.
This laptop comes with 16gb (2x8gb) of ddr5 4800 (16gb is decent for the price), this cpu doesn't support ddr5 faster than 4800. There are two user accessible ram slots, officially supporting up to 32gb ddr5 4800. There are two user accessible m.2 slots, one of which is occupied by the 512gb gen 4 ssd.
The array of ports is quite decent, there's no thunderbolt (obviously), but it has hdmi 2.1 frl, 1x usb3.2 supporting power delivery and displayport output (with gsync, 10gbps)), a usb4 port (40gbps), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5gbps), and a RJ45 LAN port. The wifi is only gen 6, which is slightly disappointing but ultimately not terribly consequential. The keyboard is backlit.
This laptop is fairly heavy at 2.20 Kg (4.85 lbs).
Overall, if the mediocre cpu and low screen brightness aren't dealbreakers for you, this is an excellent deal. It's also worth keeping in mind there's currently lots of uncertainty regarding how tariffs will affect pricing, so if you need a laptop now it may be prudent not to wait.
Good for desktop replacement / kids / students. Not so much for travel.
Since the Nitro's I've done an Asus Zenbook and Lenovo something-pad and both are under 3 pound with small AC adapters and I don't think I can go back to briefcase laptops for travel.
YMMV - upgradable everything IS a nice point on these
edit - OH and it's not usb-c powered, uses a round port brick.... thumbs down for me, I love having usb-c powered laptops, one less adapter and cord to keep up with when traveling.
https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/f...aming-a15/
Good for desktop replacement / kids / students. Not so much for travel.
Since the Nitro's I've done an Asus Zenbook and Lenovo something-pad and both are under 3 pound with small AC adapters and I don't think I can go back to briefcase laptops for travel.
YMMV - upgradable everything IS a nice point on these
edit - OH and it's not usb-c powered, uses a round port brick.... thumbs down for me, I love having usb-c powered laptops, one less adapter and cord to keep up with when traveling.
https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/f...aming-a15/
Working IT, I have seen so many usb c charging ports go bad ( entire motherboard replacement) but I have rarely ever seen a barrel port going bad
Working IT, I have seen so many usb c charging ports go bad ( entire motherboard replacement) but I have rarely ever seen a barrel port going bad
With regards to the ssd, I'd recommend getting a 2tb tlc dramless (dram increases power consumption) drive when a decent one goes on sale again. Decent modern hmb (host memory buffer) drives are generally fast enough for use in a laptop, even as an os drive. A good example of previous deals would be something like the 2tb msi spatium m482 which has gone on sale a couple of times at $86 (though I doubt we'll see prices that good again in the short term). Make sure to get a tlc drive, not a qlc drive. Avoid drives using the innogrit ig5236 "rainier" controller, and any drives using ymtc nand less than 232 layers. When it comes to brands, I recommend those with at least a moderate presence in western markets, domestic chinese brands often switch out components for export models.
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I see it's ddr4. Doesn't appear to have g sync but is a 144hz
https://www.walmart.com/ip/MSI-Th...martBanner
To be fair, we are a dell shop and it could be a dell issue
CPU comparison [cpubenchmark.net]
A16 info [notebookcheck.net]
Hopefully someone knowledgeable in these cpus can shed some light.
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