The LAN port is especially welcome on a gaming laptop, offering as it does faster and more reliable network speeds. It’s a good selection, and should allow you to hook up your favorite peripherals without the need of an adapter. The chunky design also allows Asus to pack in plenty of ports, with an Ethernet port, HDMI, two standard USB ports and a USB-C port on the left-hand side, along with a port to plug in the power supply, while on the right-hand side there’s another standard USB. It gives the laptop extra protection from knocks and bumps, and there's also a honeycomb design on the base of the machine, which keeps the device from sliding about, with the cells in the structure housing cooling vents. The industrial design is certainly appealing, and it’s functional too. There’s the almost obligatory RGB lighting for the keys, and the all-important WASD keys are further highlighted with a translucent coloring, leaving you in no doubt that this is a laptop for gaming on. On opening the laptop, there are even more design choices to appeal to gamers. The chassis comes in two colors: Fortress Gray (the color of our review model, as pictured) and Bonfire Black. It’s certainly a design that doesn’t shy away from the fact that this is a gaming machine, but it’s not completely overboard either – and if you’d like to give it some more gamer cred, the Asus TUF A15 comes with a sheet of stickers to cover the laptop with.

Some ultra-thin and light gaming laptops feel so delicate that you’d be frightened of taking them out of the house – not so with the Asus TUF A15. This isn’t a rugged laptop that you could drop from a height and not worry about it, but it’s a gaming laptop you’d happily chuck in a backpack and take to friends’ houses and LAN parties.

As the ‘TUF’ moniker alludes to, the Asus TUF A15 places build quality and durability at the forefront of its design.

As with other gaming laptops in Asus’ TUF series, the Asus TUF A15 is a big, chunky device that’s a far cry from Asus’ Zephyrus range – but then, that’s part of the appeal.

Asus tuf a15 17 inch