This $649 RTX 4060 laptop is the cheapest way to get into gaming and content creation — save $250 off this jaw-droppingly capable laptop

Asus TUF A15 on red background with big savings text overlay

(Image credit: Future)

What is it? The Asus TUF Gaming A15 is the most affordable laptop on the market right now with an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU and 16GB of memory. Nothing comes remotely near and while it has a gaming label attached to it, its performance will appeal equally to solopreneurs, budding programmers and creatives.

A fantastic versatile laptop with a GPU

Graphics card: GeForce RTX 4060
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5-7535HS
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

Looking for a solid all-rounder laptop on a budget? One that can do gaming and creative work (and coding and AI)? You won't find a better option than this heavily discounted Asus TUF at Staples. With an RTX 4060 graphics card and Ryzen 5 CPU, this notebook is more than capable of running most games smoothly and delivering fast renders in your preferred CAD software. Although not a high-end machine, this Asus is superb value for money.

What makes it special and why should I buy it? It offers unbeatable value for money thanks to a balanced configuration with barely any corners cut. Its headline specs, a 6-core AMD Ryzen 7 7535HS CPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM (in dual channel configuration), a 512GB Gen4.0 SSD and an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 GPU, are exceptional for a product in this price bracket. This is powerful enough for 1080p gaming and for pretty any generic scenario I can think of. Heck, you should even be able to use it for CAD and some chunky content creation. Asus literature says that the GPU will reach 233 AI TOPS with an up-to clock speed of 2.42GHz (140W TDP).

How much does it cost? The Asus TUF Gaming A15 costs only $649.99 (FA507NV-EH53) at Staples.com with free delivery. That is a saving of $250 (about 27% off the sticker price) which makes it a great deal in our books. Asus sells it direct for $899.99, just a few dollars more than at Walmart.

What else should I know? It’s a gaming laptop, so expect it to be bulkier which is not necessarily a bad thing as it can be upgraded more easily. Since it has a 15.6-inch display,there’s a full numeric keypad as well. Top points for having a backlit keyboard as well. The screen itself is a 250-nit full HD model which is the ideal screen resolution. At under 25mm thick and weighing only 2.2Kg, it still manages to be MIL-STD-810G compliant which means that it can take a fair share of knocks and bumps. I love its huge battery as well. 90WHr is one of the highest I’ve seen on a recent laptop in this price range. Asus opted for a barrel-type adaptor which frees one Type-C connector, one of the seven ports that equip the A15.

Any cons? Tabitha Baker, from Gamesradar, pointed out that the Asus TUF Gaming A15 has a slightly soft-feeling keyboard and its display was less bright than the competition. But she also highlighted the solid construction and use of premium materials, a rarity on a laptop - gaming or not - at this price point.

Other sub-$700 laptops with a discrete GPU

Graphics card: RTX 4060
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS
RAM: 16GB DDR5 RAM
Storage: 512GB SSD

The MSI Thin 15 B7VF-461US ($680 at Newegg and Walmart) matches the A15 specwise but is slightly more expensive and has no numeric keypad, something that may miff some users. Worse perhaps, its 52.4Whr battery is only a fraction of the A15. I’d only consider it if its Asus rival was out of stock. PCGamer also posits that the RTX 4060 GPU on the laptop is a 45W model but I couldn’t find anything to back that claim.

See more: check out all of today's laptop deals at Staples

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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