The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 (2025) is ASUS’ latest attempt to make gaming laptops more affordable without compromising on core features. Priced at ₹80,990, it enters a highly competitive mid-range segment but brings with it an interesting mix of updated chassis and slightly older internals. While it’s not a spec monster, the F16 aims to be a reliable everyday gaming companion with enough horsepower for popular AAA and esports titles, wrapped in a durable and no-nonsense design.
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The 2025 refresh brings a new chassis that stays true to the TUF series’ rugged, understated look. It’s built using premium-grade plastic that not only feels solid in hand but also helps keep the weight manageable. The chassis is largely flex-free, especially around the keyboard deck and palm rest areas, which speaks to its structural integrity. It also does a good job of resisting fingerprints and smudges, making it ideal for everyday use.
Visually, the laptop looks more refined this time around, with narrower bezels that give it a more modern and compact feel despite sporting a 16-inch display. The angular edges and subtle TUF branding keep it aligned with the brand’s tough-gaming DNA without making it look overly aggressive or flashy.
The keyboard is full-sized and includes a dedicated numpad, which is great for productivity tasks like data entry or spreadsheets. The keys themselves are well-spaced, tactile, and offer satisfying travel, making them comfortable for both extended gaming sessions and long hours of typing. The WASD keys have a slightly highlighted design, which adds a touch of gamer flair without going overboard.
The touchpad is generously sized, smooth, and very responsive to gestures. It has a matte finish that feels nice to the touch and doesn’t register accidental inputs easily. The top-right corner of the touchpad also features the ASUS TUF logo, a small but distinctive detail that adds to the laptop’s overall character without being distracting.
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One of the strongest points of the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is its 16-inch FHD+ display with a tall 16:10 aspect ratio. The 90% screen-to-body ratio gives the laptop a modern, immersive feel, and the thinner bezels help make full use of the larger screen size without making the device feel bulky. The matte anti-glare coating does an excellent job at cutting down reflections, which makes the display particularly pleasant to use in well-lit indoor environments like classrooms or offices.
The panel itself offers good viewing angles, with minimal colour and contrast shift even when viewed from the sides, which is great for sharing your screen or watching content from different positions. The 144Hz refresh rate combined with a 3ms response time ensures smooth motion in games and general usage, whether you’re scrolling through web pages or engaging in fast-paced shooters. It’s a noticeable improvement over standard 60Hz panels and helps bring an extra layer of fluidity to the overall experience.
Brightness peaks at 300 nits, which is decent for most indoor situations, though you might struggle under direct sunlight. Colours are reasonably accurate for general use and media consumption, though creators looking for colour-critical work may still want to connect an external calibrated display.
As for audio, the built-in speakers are serviceable. They’re loud enough for casual use, watching YouTube videos, meetings, or in-game audio cues, but lack depth and bass. For a more immersive experience, especially in FPS titles or cinematic games, a good pair of headphones or external speakers is recommended.
As mentioned, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 features a combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 210H processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ampere edition with 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM. However, when compared to two other popular laptop GPUs, the RTX 4050 and RTX 4060, the RTX 3050 falls behind. In 3DMark’s TimeSpy and Fire Strike benchmarks, the RTX 4060 (as seen in the Lenovo model) proves to be the most powerful, offering 8GB of VRAM and higher power limits, which explains why it consistently tops performance charts. For example, in the 3DMark TimeSpy benchmark, the Lenovo scores 9,348, approximately 63% higher than the ASUS TUF Gaming F16’s score of 5,727. The Gigabyte G6X, powered by the RTX 4050, also outperforms the ASUS, achieving a score of 8,813, roughly 54% higher.
This performance difference boils down to raw GPU power and memory bandwidth. The RTX 3050 in the ASUS is an older Ampere-based chip with only 4GB of VRAM and a lower 65W TGP, which limits its ability to handle newer, more demanding games, especially at high settings. On the other hand, both the RTX 4050 and 4060 offer much better future-proofing, especially for users aiming for 1080p gaming at high or ultra settings. In synthetic workloads like TimeSpy Extreme and FireStrike Ultra, these gaps only widen, further highlighting how dated the RTX 3050 now feels in 2025. While the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 may still handle casual gaming or esports titles well, it clearly lags behind when compared to laptops equipped with newer-generation GPUs like the 4050 and 4060.
When comparing CPU performance across the Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 (Intel Core i7-13620H), Gigabyte G6X (Intel Core i7-13650HX), and ASUS TUF Gaming F16 (Intel Core Ultra 5 210H), the Gigabyte G6X clearly comes out on top in both Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 6 tests. In Cinebench R23, which measures CPU rendering performance, Gigabyte leads with 1863 points in single-thread and 14,504 in multi-thread performance—showing strong capabilities for both everyday tasks and multi-core workloads like video editing or 3D rendering. Interestingly, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 holds its own in single-thread performance, scoring 1736, which is slightly ahead of Lenovo’s 1546. This means that for light tasks such as browsing, word processing, or navigating the OS, the ASUS may actually feel snappier than the Lenovo.
However, when it comes to multi-threaded performance, which matters for heavy multitasking or demanding applications, the ASUS falls behind with 11,364, compared to Lenovo’s 12,740 and Gigabyte’s leading score. Geekbench 6 paints a similar picture—Gigabyte dominates with a single-core score of 2560 and multi-core score of 13,478. ASUS again scores well in single-core (2315), beating Lenovo (2025), but trails significantly in multi-core workloads with a score of 7684, which suggests limitations in tasks that use all available CPU cores.
At 1080p High settings, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 lags significantly behind the Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 and Gigabyte G6X in gaming performance, largely due to its weaker RTX 3050 GPU. In demanding titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Metro Exodus, ASUS struggles with just 39 and 53.8 FPS respectively, while Lenovo and Gigabyte comfortably push past 90 FPS. Even in older or more optimised games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Gears 5, ASUS remains 30–50% behind. If you’re aiming for smooth high-settings gameplay in 2025, the ASUS falls short, while Lenovo and Gigabyte offer a much more capable experience.
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In conclusion, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 (2025) stands out with its sturdy design, immersive display, and decent single-core performance, making it a reliable option for casual gamers and everyday users. However, it clearly falls behind competitors like the Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 and Gigabyte G6X in both CPU multi-threaded tasks and GPU-intensive gaming, primarily due to its dated RTX 3050 GPU and DDR4 memory. While it holds up for lighter workloads and esports titles, those seeking high-performance gaming or future-proof specs will find better value in similarly priced alternatives equipped with newer-generation hardware.
