ASUS TUF Dash F15 (2022) Laptop Review

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 2022 has a gamer aesthetic with design elements that convey a 'tough' build, but because it's all-black with only a few white-color keys, it doesn't feel overdone and won't stick out too much in a professional work environment. There are air vents on both sides of the laptop and the back. On the bottom, you can find the speakers near the front and more air vents near the back.

The build quality is excellent. The construction is a mix of metal and plastic, and it feels very sturdy, exhibiting only a small amount of flex in the display and none on the keyboard deck. The whole device feels hefty, with evenly distributed weight. The finish doesn't scratch easily, but like most dark-color finishes, it's a fingerprint magnet. The feet are strong and adhere firmly to the bottom.

The hinge is outstanding. It feels relatively smooth when opening and closing the laptop, and it's very stable. There's only a tiny amount of screen wobble when typing aggressively. The hinge has a lot of resistance, but you can still open the laptop with one hand. The resistance just makes fine adjustments more challenging, so you may have trouble getting it to the exact angle you want.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 isn't overly bulky or heavy, so it's relatively easy to carry around. Its power adapter is compact and lightweight.

The serviceability is good. Accessing the internals is easy; you only need to remove 12 Philips screws and pry open the bottom panel. The plastic clips holding the panel feel sturdy and clip back into place without any issue. The two M.2 SSD slots support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs but don't support SATA drives. The wireless adapter is likely user-replaceable due to its connector, but it's very hard to access. As such, we consider it non-replaceable. You can see the service manual here.

• ASUS TUF Dash F15 laptop
• 180W power adapter and cord
• User guide

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 is available with the following displays:

• 15.6" IPS 1920 x 1080 144Hz
• 15.6" IPS 1920 x 1080 300Hz
• 15.6" IPS 2560 x 1440 165Hz

At 15.6 inches, the FHD (1920 x 1080) displays look decently sharp. You can make out individual pixels if you're very close to the screen, but it isn't a problem at normal viewing distances. If you want the best visuals, the QHD (2560 x 1440) panel is the sharpest, with a pixel density of 188 PPI. However, you need to pair it with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, as the other GPUs will struggle to reach high frame rates at 1440p.

As mentioned in the screen specs section above, you can get the ASUS TUF Dash 15 with an FHD 144Hz, an FHD 300Hz, or a QHD 165Hz display. The FHD 144Hz has a rather slow response time, causing noticeable ghosting behind fast-moving objects. The FHD 300Hz and QHD 165Hz panels likely have a faster response time, but again, you'll have to pair the QHD panel with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 to get the most out of it.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15's 1080p 144Hz panel has a good contrast ratio for an IPS panel. However, it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This level of contrast results in blacks that look gray in dim settings. The other panels will likely perform similarly.

The FHD 144Hz display doesn't get very bright, meaning you may have visibility issues in well-lit or sunny environments. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, though, which is great for dark room viewing as it causes less eye strain. The other panels will likely have the same brightness.

The reflection handling is great. The display's matte finish does a good job of reducing the intensity of bright reflections. The reflections are visible when viewing light-color content with the screen at maximum brightness, but it's not too bad. It's mainly dark-color content that you'll have the most trouble with because the matte coating causes a halo effect around bright reflections, resulting in a hazy look in other areas of the screen.

The black uniformity is passable. There's almost no clouding, but there's visible backlight bleed at the bottom corners and the top of the display.

The ASUS TUF Dash has a mediocre horizontal viewing angle. The image dims and washes out quickly as you move to the side. You have to be more or less directly in front of the screen to see an accurate image.

The vertical viewing angle is okay. It's a little better than the horizontal viewing angle, but the image still dims and washes out fairly quickly when viewing from above and below.

The display's accuracy is great out of the box. The white balance is outstanding, and the color temperature is very close to the standard 6500K target. Most of the color inaccuracies are minor; it's mainly the primary colors that are visibly off because the display has a narrow color gamut and can't produce those colors. The gamma is slightly too high in most scenes, making the image darker than it should be.

The FHD 144Hz display's color gamut is bad. It doesn't even have full sRGB coverage, making most content look slightly washed out. It also has bad coverage of wider color spaces like Adobe RGB and DCI P3, so it isn't suitable for photo editing or viewing and producing HDR content. The manufacturer advertises the FHD 300Hz display to have full sRGB coverage and the QHD 165Hz display to have full DCI P3.

The backlight is flicker-free, which helps reduce eye strain.

The ASUS TUF Dash has a great keyboard. The layout feels spacious and is easy to get used to, and the keycaps feel high-quality. The keys are stable, have a lot of travel, and provide satisfying tactile feedback. However, they require a fair amount of force to actuate and might cause some fatigue over time. Typing noise is very low and isn't bothersome in quiet settings. You can adjust between three backlight brightness levels or turn it off completely.

The touchpad is great. It's large, and it feels smooth even though it's plastic. It tracks all movements and gestures well, even around the edges, and there are no issues with palm rejection or actions like dragging and dropping. You can click almost anywhere on the touchpad except at the very top, and the click mechanism feels satisfying.

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 2022 has good speakers. They sound relatively clear and natural, but they have very little bass and don't get very loud.

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 2022's webcam is okay. The image is well-exposed, and the colors look good. However, some smaller details and textures look blurry, and there's also some noise in darker areas. Voices sound loud and clear but slightly boomy and unnatural over the microphone.

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 has a great port selection. The two USB-As support USB 3.2 Gen. 1 data transfer speed (up to 5 Gbps). The USB-C closest to the front of the device supports USB 3.2 Gen. 2 data transfer speed (up to 10Gbps), DisplayPort Alt Mode, and Power Delivery. Power Delivery allows for fast charging of mobile devices. The other USB-C supports Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed and video output to two 4k displays at 60Hz).

The wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi AX201.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core i5-12450H (8 cores/12 threads, up to 4.4GHz, 12MB cache)
• Intel Core i7-12650H (10 cores/16 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 24MB cache)

Both CPUs are high-performance mobile processors typically found in gaming laptops and mobile workstations, and both have a hybrid design with a mix of performance and efficiency cores. The Core i5-12450H has four performance and four efficiency cores, while the Core i7-12650H has six performance and four efficiency cores. Only the performance cores have Hyper-Threading—the ability to process multiple threads simultaneously—which is why the number of cores and threads seems odd. They can both handle demanding tasks like gaming, as well as production workloads like video editing and 3D animation. The Core i7-12650H is faster, although the difference is minimal in GPU-limited games where CPU utilization is relatively low.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 is available with the following discrete GPUs:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop 4GB GDDR6 (75W TGP with Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop 4GB GDDR6 (75W TGP with Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop 6GB GDDR6 (105W TGP with Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop 8GB GDDR6 (105W TGP with Dynamic Boost)

All four GPUs belong to NVIDIA's RTX 30-series and come with features like ray-tracing and DLSS. The RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti are very close in performance and are best suited for 1080p gaming at medium or low settings. The 3050 Ti is only about 10% faster than the 3050 on average. The RTX 3060 is a good step up from the RTX 3050, giving you higher frame rates at 1080p with medium or high settings. The RTX 3070 is the fastest and is best suited for the QHD 165Hz panel. This laptop has a MUX (multiplexer) switch to allow the GPU to send information directly to the display without going through the integrated GPU, meaning you'll see dramatically better performance than on laptops that lack this feature. The performance difference can be anywhere from 10% to 25%, or more in some cases. If you want an NVIDIA 40-series laptop with Frame Generation support, check out the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 8 16 (2023).

You can configure this laptop with 8GB or 16GB of memory. Both configurations are in single-channel mode, which can reduce performance in some games. If you want to get the most performance out of the laptop, it's best to add a second memory module so that it runs in dual-channel mode.

You can configure the laptop with 512GB or 1TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable. There are two SSD slots; both support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSDs.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 2022 has an overall outstanding score in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. The numbers are a little low compared to laptops with a similar CPU because this laptop's memory is in single-channel mode. Adding a second memory module to run in dual-channel mode will improve performance. The Intel Core i7-12650H is a good deal faster than the Core i5-12450H, so while both CPUs can handle demanding tasks, the Core i7 will provide a smoother experience overall. For GPU computing tasks, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 performs very well. However, if you perform VRAM-heavy tasks, it's best to go with the RTX 3060 or 3070.

The Intel Core i5-12450H in the ASUS TUF Dash F15 performs exceptionally well in Cinebench R23, making it suitable for rendering and other CPU-heavy workloads. The Intel Core i7-12650H will perform better due to its increased core count and faster clock speeds.

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 2022's 3D rendering performance in Blender is excellent. The Intel Core i5-12450H can complete renders relatively quickly; however, there's no need to render with the CPU because the dedicated GPU can do it significantly faster, especially when using NVIDIA Optix hardware acceleration. The other GPUs will perform better, with the RTX 3070 being the fastest.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU in the ASUS TUF Dash 15 scores well in the Basemark GPU benchmark. The RTX 3050 is mainly a 1080p 60 fps gaming GPU. It can push over 60 fps in graphically demanding titles, but you'll have to play at medium or low settings. The RTX 3050 Ti is about 10% faster, which means it can push over 60 fps with fewer tweaks in the settings. The RTX 3060 will get you closer to 80 or 90 fps with high settings in demanding games. The RTX 3070 is the fastest GPU and best suited for 1440p gaming.

The 512GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD performs exceptionally well. Its fast read and write speeds allow the system to boot up, launch apps, and transfer files quickly. The 1TB storage drive will likely be slightly faster, as larger SSDs tend to perform better.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 has mediocre battery life. Even with a light workload, you'll have to plug it in to get through a typical 8-hour work or school day. The battery life for video playback is pretty good, though; enough time for a couple of full-length movies. The battery life while gaming is short but still excellent for a gaming laptop with a high-refresh display, an H-series CPU, and a dedicated GPU. Models with an FHD 300Hz or QHD 165Hz display will have shorter battery life, and the same goes for models with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or 3070. If you plan to use the laptop for productivity tasks and want a model with longer battery life in light uses, check out the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023).

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 2022's performance in Borderlands 3 is acceptable. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 can push comfortably over 60 fps with only a few tweaks in the settings. There are some noticeable stutters, as the frame rate sometimes drops drastically, but they don't happen all that often. Every CPU and GPU configuration can run this game smoothly, provided you lower some settings, especially with an RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti.

Civilization VI runs well. This game isn't particularly GPU-intensive, so every GPU can push high frame rates and provide smooth gameplay. The turn time is decent with an Intel Core i5-12450H; upgrading to the Core i7-12650H will only improve it slightly.

The ASUS TUF Dash's performance in CS:GO is excellent. Every configuration can run this game smoothly, though upgrading to the Core i7-12650H or a faster GPU will result in higher frame rates. You can even run this game at 1440p without any issues.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 with an Intel Core i5-12450H and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 can push over 60 fps at high settings in Shadow of the Tomb Raider; however, the game stutters a lot at regular intervals due to memory bandwidth limitations, as the 16GB is running in single-channel mode. Adding a second stick of RAM to run in dual-channel mode will result in significantly smoother gameplay. Every configuration can run this game and other similarly-demanding titles smoothly; you just have to upgrade the RAM.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 has mediocre thermal and noise handling. The keyboard is only mildly warm when idle, and the fans are barely audible. Under load, the keyboard deck gets hot; however, the hot spot is near the top, away from where most people rest their hands. Although the fans get a little loud, the noise is mostly the sound of heavy airflow, so it isn't particularly annoying. That said, this is only in the default Performance mode. They get louder in the Turbo mode, up to 53 dBA.

The ASUS TUF Dash's performance over time is outstanding. Neither the CPU nor the GPU gets particularly hot under load. The CPU throttles, but the performance loss is very minimal.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 has a few pre-installed applications, including:

• C-Media Audio Control Panel: Lets you change the sound profile and tweak the EQ.
• MyASUS: Contains system and warranty information.
• Armory Crate: Lets you monitor the system status and control the fan and power profiles.
• AI Noise Cancelation: Suppresses background noise when using the microphone.