Update: This popular deal is still available.
Staples has
ASUS TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop (FA507NV-EH53) on sale for
$679.99.
Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member
ShamboB 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-level 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
Top Comments
Copying over my comment from the previous iteration of this deal:
This is the best deal on a midrange gaming laptop there's been in a little while, though this laptop does have a couple caveats. The cpu is mediocre, but it has a full power mobile rtx 4060 (the current value nvidia sweetspot), and a decent screen (though with poor brightness). The chassis is decent, and 16gb of ddr5 is acceptable for this price point. Having only a 512gb ssd is a bit of a bummer, but realistically you generally want to upgrade your laptops ssd anyways (and this laptop has two m.2 slots).
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). Amd competitors in this price range are rare, and at 1080p supporting dlss rather than only fsr is a major advantage. I would've previously said nvidia's drivers are also a meaningful advantage, but nvidia's drivers since the 50 series launch have been garbage. If you get this laptop, update to game ready driver version 566.36, which is the most recent actually stable driver. There have been deals of the asus tuf a16 with the rx 7700s instead at a relatively similar price in the past, but that laptop hasn't been in this price range for a little while to the best of my knowledge.
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. Worth noting is the sample notebookcheck tested was 270nit, so the screen may be slightly brighter than advertised.
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 in a dual channel configuration (16gb is decent for the price), this cpu doesn't support ddr5 faster than 4800mt/s. There are two user accessible ram slots, officially supporting up to 32gb ddr5 4800 (64gb likely possible). 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 a rather good 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.
52 Comments
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Or create a Windows 11 dvd/usb via the official Microsoft Create Windows Installation Media (https://www.microsoft.c
Either way requires some technical know-how but if it's a new laptop, there's really no data loss even if you mess up somehow. You can always reinstall fresh Windows 11 Home from Microsoft and download drivers from Asus.
Found this at a similar price
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I prefer the A14 with the Ryzen 9 HX 370, 32Gb, and 2.5k screen. It's basically only sold by 1 retailer now and is $1600. Going to have to bite the bullet as there's literally nothing else at 14" with 32Gb under $2K, etc.
As I don't play many games these days the 4060 should be plenty for DOTA & WC3R. I cared much more about the 32gb of ram as my work computer is 16gb and I find it limiting even just doing daily spreadsheet work, etc.
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RTX 4060 mobile is much weaker than desktop RTX 4060 Ti, so the difference between a hypothetical 16 GB RTX 4060 mobile and 8GB RTX 4060 mobile for gaming would be small. VRAM would matter more for things like CAD, LLM, mining or Raw photo editing.
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