Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY-BQ002T review

TUF FX505DY is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor with 4GB Radeon RX 560X at the helm of graphics. This is backed by 8GB of RAM and 1TB of HDD to boot. With AMD hardware that’s a lot cheaper than its Intel and Nvidia-toting competitors, we always hope that we’ll see a performance that at least comes close to rivalling more expensive laptops.

Sadly, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY isn’t that laptop. It has a distinctly budget performance which feels at odds with its price. This is not a smooth and slick experience, with Windows 10 often feeling a bit laggy when opening up programs and switching settings.

But, a budget gaming laptop that performs like a budget laptop isn’t that much of a bad thing. It’s certainly better than an expensive laptop performing like a budget laptop, and we’ve seen our share of those.

This is a bit disappointing none the less. Looking at the benchmark results, first of all, you can see that the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor and AMD Radeon RX 560X with 4GB of VRAM aren’t amazing performers.

In benchmarks from 3DMark, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY can just about muster 30 frames per second (fps) on low settings in Total War: Warhammer II. While playing PUBG on Medium settings, the laptop manages to clock in 52fps consistently. Switching the graphics to low, we were able to squeeze out 60fps from the TUF FX505DY, although with some stutters here and there.

With Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is a pretty recent game that’s graphically intensive, if you set the presets to ‘Lowest’, you can play it at around 47 fps. It makes the game look like a PS3-era game in some ways, but it is playable.

Now, the fact that the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY did better in the graphically-intensive Shadow of the Tomb Raider compared to the CPU-intensive Total War: Warhammer II suggests that the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor might be holding this laptop back – more so than its graphics card.

At this price point, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY remains a lot cheaper than many other gaming laptops. It’s not aimed at hardcore gamers that want to play the latest games at high frame rates. Those people will need to buy a more expensive machine which is able to keep up with the latest titles.

In our real-world tests, with the settings set low, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY performed fine with older games or ones that aren’t graphically intensive. And, if you whack down the settings low enough, you can get a decent score.

One thing we should point out is that this thing gets noisy when you play games. In its promotional materials for the TUF Gaming FX505DY, Asus has made a big deal over its ‘HyperCool’ technology, which includes Anti-Dust Cooling and powerful dual-fan design. While this worked well to keep the laptop cool – it certainly didn’t show any signs of overheating – it does mean you have to put up with the fans whirring during gameplay.

Keyboard, I/O and Battery life

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The TUF Gaming FX505DY’s keyboard is inspired by desktop-gaming keyboard layouts, which means you should expect the kind of quality and comfort you’d get from a desktop PC keyboard. The keys are a decent size, which makes it easy for fast typers to hit the correct letters, and Asus promises the keyboard is good for 20 million key presses.

The keys also have a 1.8mm key travel. This is rather shallow, so the keyboard doesn’t feel as responsive – or satisfying –  to type on as a desktop keyboard. The WASD keys are also highlighted to help FPS players – though if you’re a keen player it’s unlikely you’ll really need any help finding those essential keys.

During our use, we encountered no issues with the keyboard. It feels pretty slick in regular usage and it shines when stuck in combative situations during a round of PUBG. 

As far as the I/O ports are concerned, you get a decent array of ports, most of which you’d expect on a gaming laptop at this price point. So, you have a USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.1 ports, an Ethernet port, combo audio jack and HDMI 2.0 port. These are all placed along the left-hand side of the laptop, and there’s a port for the power charger as well. 

Gaming laptops are renowned for having short battery life. With the smaller screen size and lower powered CPU and GPU, you may have hoped that the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY would fare better in this regard. Sadly not, though.

In our battery life tests, which runs a looped 1080p video with the screen brightness set to 50%, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY lasted four hours and 28 minutes.

With the PCMark 8 Battery life test, which emulates regular tasks such as web browsing, video calls and word processing, the laptop just inched over 2 hours and 49 minutes before turning off. This is short, even by gaming laptop standards.

It seems with a smaller body, the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY has to make do with a smaller battery as well.

Verdict

The Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY is an affordable gaming laptop. The compact yet rugged design makes it a great choice for carrying around with you. Just how much you like this laptop depends on your expectations.

But, the TUF Gaming FX505DY is woefully underpowered for playing modern games on high graphics settings. And if that's your expectation going in to get a gaming laptop, you're going to have to shell out more money on an expensive laptop. Battery life is also very short.

So, while it does some things right – we like its use of AMD tech as an alternative to Intel and Nvidia, its rugged design, slim bezels and low price – you’ll need to think carefully about what you want from a gaming laptop before you get too tempted by the Asus TUF Gaming FX505DY’s relatively low price.

Image Credits: TechRadar India

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