ASUS TUF Gaming A16

We're looking at the entry point into the 2025 TUF Gaming A16 lineup: the FA608UM-NS73, pairing AMD's Ryzen 7 260 with an RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, 16GB of DDR5 memory and a 512GB SSD.

At around $1,540 (SHI), it undercuts most 16-inch RTX 5060 gaming laptops while keeping the 16:10 165Hz display that pricier A16 configs get too.

The A16's 16-inch panel runs a 16:10 1920x1200 IPS at 165Hz, which gives you real vertical space for browser tabs and spreadsheets alongside a refresh rate that easily keeps up with competitive shooters.

LaptopMedia measured this panel at 364 nits and 97% sRGB, ahead of the washed-out panels common on cheaper gaming laptops. It's not OLED, so contrast is ordinary, but color and response are strong for the price.

The Ryzen 7 260 is an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 4-based chip with a 45W default TDP and up to 54W configurable, paired with Radeon 780M graphics that sit idle once the MUX switch hands off to the RTX 5060.

ASUS rates the RTX 5060 at up to 115W with Dynamic Boost. We don't have independently measured sustained wattage for this exact chassis, so we can't confirm how close it runs to that ceiling under a real 30-minute load. Treat the on-paper number as a ceiling, not a guarantee.

ASUS doesn't publish sustained CPU or GPU wattage for this configuration, and no outlet has measured this exact 2025 chassis yet, so we're leaving those fields blank rather than guessing.

TUF Gaming chassis have historically run warm under load with audible fans, and the cooling design here is carried over from prior A16 generations. Expect that same pattern until independent testing says otherwise.

ASUS specs a 90Wh battery, generous for a 16-inch gaming laptop and among the largest in this price bracket. We don't yet have a measured light-load runtime for this exact SKU.

Gaming laptops with this battery size and a MUX-switchable APU typically land in the 6 to 8 hour range for browsing and video with the discrete GPU off, and closer to 90 minutes under sustained gaming load.

The TUF A16 keeps ASUS's utilitarian gamer look: a reinforced aluminum-look lid, MIL-STD-810H durability testing, and a chassis built to survive backpack abuse rather than impress on a desk.

At 2.20kg it's not a thin-and-light; it's a laptop you set down, not carry all day.

ASUS ships a standard chiclet keyboard with per-key RGB backlighting, full-size arrow keys, and a numpad, useful if you use this machine for spreadsheets too.

The trackpad is functional but not a highlight on any TUF laptop we've reviewed. This is a keyboard-first machine that expects a mouse for actual gaming.

ASUS doesn't break out the port selection by count for this chassis, and neither retailer listing we checked does either. What we can confirm is that Thunderbolt is not supported, so external GPU enclosures and high-bandwidth docks are off the table.

Expect the standard mix of USB-A, USB-C, HDMI and Ethernet that ASUS puts on every TUF Gaming laptop.

Two SO-DIMM slots hold the 16GB of DDR5-5600, up to a vendor-rated 64GB maximum. ASUS's listing doesn't state whether the 16GB ships as one stick or two; we're treating it as a dual 8GB dual-channel configuration with no free slot, since that's the more common setup at this capacity on 2-slot gaming laptops, but this is an assumption, not a confirmed teardown, so treat the free-slot count as unverified.

Storage uses two M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots with one populated by the 512GB SSD, leaving one free slot for an added drive without replacing the original.

The closest rival is the Lenovo LOQ 15, pairing a similar Ryzen 7 250 and RTX 5060 for around $1,199 to $1,300 depending on the sale. Lenovo's LOQ is lighter and usually cheaper, with a smaller 15.3-inch panel and no MIL-STD durability testing.

If you want the biggest screen and battery in this class, the A16 wins. If price is the only variable, the LOQ 15 usually undercuts it.

The FA608UM-NS73 lists for $1,540 at SHI as of this writing, and this exact SKU has also shown up at Newegg. Gaming laptop pricing moves often with sales, so treat this as a snapshot rather than a guarantee.

If you want into the A16 family at the lowest entry price without giving up the 16:10 165Hz display or the 90Wh battery, this configuration does the job.

Just don't expect us to promise sustained gaming performance numbers we haven't seen independently measured yet.