Asus TUF FX705 Review (2023): My New Favourite Gaming Laptop

The Asus TUF Gaming FX705 is a mid-range gaming laptop with excellent overall performance at a fair price (starting at $999; reviewed at $1,299). The GeForce GTX 1060 GPU and 6GB of VRAM in the 17.3-inch TUF Gaming FX705 can run contemporary games at medium-to-high settings, despite the fact that it isn't equipped with one of Nvidia's more recent, more potent RTX graphics cards. A comfortable keyboard and a vibrant, 144-Hz IPS display are also features of the laptop. Although the FX705 has a large, hefty chassis and poor speakers, it is still a fantastic value and has made it to our list of the best cheap gaming laptops under $1,000.

Asus TUF Gaming FX705  Specs

Asus TUF Gaming FX705 Pricing and Configurations

An Intel Core i5-8300H processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 GPU are included in the $999 base model FX705. A Core i7-8750H processor, 32GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a secondary, 1TB HDD, as well as a GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM were all included in our $1,299 review unit. An online retailer like Amazon offers a Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and GTX 1060 GPU configuration for $1,199.

Design

You can take a breath with relief. The unsightly red lighting bolts that erupted from the corners of the TUF Gaming FX504 last year have been eliminated by Asus. The only decorative element on the lid is made up of indents that run from each corner to the center. The Asus tuf fx705 has a stylized X design that gives it the appearance of being Captain America's replacement shield.

The smooth, gray metal surface of the lid is adorned with a chrome Asus logo. The unassuming exterior has a cutout through which LED indicators can be seen, giving it a bit of flair.

A black plastic deck with a TUF Gaming logo on the bottom-right corner is visible when the laptop is opened. The deck's center is covered in a horizontal brushed texture, while the edges are bordered by a vertical pattern that clashes. The Asus tuf fx705 tries very hard to have an aggressive “gamer” look thanks to sharp contours near the fan vents and around the keyboard. A parallelogram-shaped power button and the TUF Gaming logo are also present on the deck. 

The excessively brushed plastics on the deck, the honeycomb pattern on the back, and the stippled finish on the Asus tuf fx705's thin bezels are just a few of the textures I don't like on this laptop. The FX705 is larger and heavier than the Overpowered Gaming Laptop 17+ (15.6 x 10.3 x 1 inches, 5.7 pounds), the 15.6-inch HP Omen 15, and the Lenovo Legion 7000 (14.2 x 10.4 x 1 inches, 5.4 pounds) (14.2 x 10.5 x 0.9 inches, 5.3 pounds).

Ports

Gamers will appreciate the Ethernet port and HDMI input on the FX705, even though they will lament the lack of a USB Type-C port.

Also on the left side of the Asus tuf fx705 are a headphone jack, a USB 2.0 port and a pair of USB 3.0 inputs.

I preferred it if Asus had divided those USB Type-A ports onto the laptop's two sides. A Kensington lock is the only item on the laptop's right side.

Display

It's time to sell your computer. The TUF Gaming FX705's large 17.3-inch, 1080p display creates a rich, detailed image, and the panel's 144-Hz refresh rate permits fluid, blur-free gameplay.

When I watched a trailer for the upcoming movie Teen Spirit, the image on the screen was so clear that I could see the stitching in Dakota Fanning's shirt. When the pop singer entered the stage, the display erupted in a rainbow of vivid hues. 

From Fanning's mustard-yellow waitress uniform to the deep, neon-pink tones illuminating the wall behind her, the Asus tuf fx705's display produced a variety of colors. As my Shadow of the Tomb Raider character moved through the display's beautifully rendered detailed jungle, I had the strong urge to dive into the stunning turquoise-blue water. The perilous Peruvian jungle's flora and fauna appeared almost lifelike with graphics on Ultra. The vegetation was a vivid, dark green, and I could make out specific tree leaves hanging far above me.

The sRGB color gamut is 123 percent covered by the FX705's display. The Omen 15's (111%), Gaming Laptop 17+'s (120%), and the typical mainstream gaming laptop's (111%) displays aren't quite as vibrant. 

Even more colors are produced by the Legion Y7000's 15.6-inch screen (153 percent), though. The display on the Asus tuf fx705 has an average brightness level. The Omen 15 (266 nits), Gaming Laptop 17+ (260 nits), Legion Y7000 (277 nits), and the average for the mainstream gaming category are all brighter than the Asus gaming laptop at its peak luminance of 270 nits (273 nits).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Asus tuf fx705's bouncy keyboard was a real pleasure to type on. Thanks to the 1.7 millimeter travel of the RGB backlit keys on the FX705, I never bottomed out when tapping away at them (above our recommended minimum of 1.5 mm). 

I also valued the strong, substantial feedback they gave me each time I exerted the 62 grams of force necessary to activate a key. Furthermore, despite a full number pad taking up the right side of the deck, the keys are big and evenly spaced out.

The WASD keys on the Asus keyboard have clear keycaps, making them easier to identify when pursuing enemies in first-person shooter games. The RGB backlit keyboard has basic effects like breathing and strobing, and you can change the colors and select different ones using the Aura Core software.

On the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I typed 122 words per minute quickly with a 94 percent accuracy rate. While faster, that is less accurate than my typical speed of 119 wpm with a 5% error rate.

The quick and responsive 4.1 x 2.8-inch touchpad is located under the keyboard. With little effort, I used Windows 10 gestures like pinching to zoom and three-finger swipes to switch between windows. The FX705's touchpad has small gray arrow ticks in each corner that enhance its appearance. My only issue with the touchpad is that when I tapped on it, it made a loud knocking noise as if it were loose.

Audio

Dual side-firing speakers on the Asus tuf fx705 are disappointing. As soon as I reached the maximum volume, the FX705 was hardly able to fill the small lab space. I noticed a distinct lack of low end when I listened to Glass Animals' “Youth.” 

During the chorus of this experimental track, the deep rumble I was expecting sounded thin and splashy. To the speakers' credit, the guitar and strum sounds produced by conventional instruments were clearly distinguished from the complex electric sounds created by a synthesizer. 

On the other hand, when I switched to Flora Cash's “You're Somebody Else,” Cole Randall's delicate vocals sounded clear but far away, and when I listened to the song at 50% volume, I had to strain to hear details in the song. These muted speakers detracted from the flawless sound design of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Lara Croft's cargo pants brushed against the leaves, and I could hear the leaves rustling, but only with the volume at 80% or higher. 

Positively, I could hear birds chirping overhead and the whooshing of an arrow as it flew through the air because high-frequency sounds were airy and clear. You can modify the sound profile of the FX705's speakers using a DTS audio app that was preinstalled on it. 

A complete equalizer is included, along with a number of preset modes, some of which performed better than others. For instance, Bass Boost did nothing to enhance the low end, while 3D mode separated sounds and increased volume while degrading clarity. Since volume leveling appears to increase output without lowering quality, I advise leaving it on.

Gaming and Graphics

Although RTX cards are currently all the rage, the GTX 1060 inside the TUF Gaming FX705 still has plenty of power. I averaged a smooth 58 frames per second while swinging from one tree branch to the next in Rise of the Tomb Raider (1920 x 1080, High settings). As I rummaged through the dense jungle floor in search of ammunition and supplies, the RX705 didn't lose a frame.

Despite similar price competitors offering marginally better gaming performance, the TUF Gaming FX705 performed admirably on our synthetic gaming benchmarks. The FX705 maintained a frame rate of 36 on our Rise of the Tomb Raider test, exceeding our 30-fps playability threshold. 

The GeForce GTX 1060 GPU-equipped Gaming Laptop 17+ (37 fps) and Legion Y7000 (37 fps) provided comparable performance, while the Omen 15 (50 fps) outperformed its competitors. Each laptop outperformed the average for mainstream gaming (35 fps).

On our Hitman test, the TUF Gaming FX705 managed to surpass the average frame rate for mainstream gaming (66 fps), but it lagged behind the Omen 15 (88 fps), Gaming Laptop 17+ (71 fps), or the Legion Y7000 (67 fps) (70 fps). 

The TUF Gaming FX705 managed to maintain our minimum recommended frame rate of 30 fps while playing Metro: Last Light, but it fell well short of the Omen 15 (58 fps), Gaming Laptop 17+ (46 fps), and the Legion Y7000 (46 fps). The FX705 switches to an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU to save power when you aren't running graphics-intensive applications or demanding games.

Performance

Our TUG Gaming RX705 review unit, which has a Core i7-8750H CPU and a whopping 32GB of RAM, handled every challenge I gave it. Even after I opened 20 tabs of Google Chrome, four of which were playing 1080p videos—two on YouTube and another pair streaming Apex Legends on Twitch—the laptop never stutter during normal use. But when I realized Shadow of the Tomb Raider had been downloading on Steam the entire time I had been browsing the internet, I was astounded. 

The Geekbench 4 test, which gauges overall performance, gave the TUF Gaming FX705 a laugh and a perfect score of 23,179. The Legion Y7000 (Core i7-8750H, 22,474), Omen 15 (Core i7-8750H, 21,870), Gaming Laptop 17+ (Core i7-8750H, 22,633), and the typical mainstream gaming laptop all fell short of that goal (20,748). 

The TUG Gaming FX705's 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (and secondary 1TB, 7,200-rpm HDD) duplicated 4.97GB of mixed-media files at a rate of 391.5 megabytes per second in just 13 seconds during our file transfer test. The Gaming Laptop 17+ (256GB SSD, 203 MBps) and the Omen 15 (256GB, PCIe NVMe M.2/2TB, 5,400-rpm HDD, 231) fell short of that benchmark, as did the average for the mainstream gaming category (329.1 MBps). 

The FX705 was defeated by the Legion Y7000 (256GB SSD/1TB 7,200-rpm HDD, 636 MBps), which also bested the competition. The TUF Gaming FX705 struggled a little more with our video-transcoding test. A 4K video needed 10 minutes and 45 seconds on the Asus gaming laptop to be downsized to 1080p. Even though that exceeds the average for mainstream gaming (11:10), it is slower than the Omen 15 (10:25), Gaming Laptop 17+ (8:59), and the Legion Y7000 (9:24).

Battery Life

On our Laptop Mag battery test, which involved continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the TUF Gaming FX705 performed admirably, lasting for 4 hours and 19 minutes. The FX705 was outlasted by the Legion Y7000 (4:28) and the typical mainstream gaming laptop (4:26), while the Gaming Laptop 17+ (2:36) and Omen 15 (3:47) shut down much earlier than the Asus.

Heat

Under a heavy workload, the FX705 maintained its coolness. The touchpad warmed up to 82 degrees Fahrenheit after we streamed a 15-minute HD video in full screen. The keyboard's underside and center both reached 89 degrees, which is below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard reached 92 degrees. 

The temperature was 95 degrees at the bottom, in the left-hand corner. After playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Ultra for 15 minutes, the dual fans on the underside of the Gaming FX705 did a respectable job of preventing the laptop's large chassis from overheating. 

The bottom panel reached a maximum temperature of 94 degrees, while the touchpad only warmed to 80 degrees. The keyboard's bottom-right corner and the chassis' bottom-right corner both ascended to 118 and 104 degrees, respectively. Although I would have preferred less warmth, we've seen much higher readings from similar gaming laptops.

Webcam

If you want to stream your gaming sessions, you'll need to purchase an external webcam. When I took a selfie in our dimly lit office, the 720p webcam above the FX705's display produced a dark, blotchy image. My face was so hazy that the webcam appeared to have been smudged. Unfortunately, wiping it with my fleece cuffs did not improve the situation.

Although the overall image was dark and gave the impression that an orange filter was covering the lens, the camera was able to capture both the light and dark blue hues in my jacket.

Software and Warranty

The Asus GX705's preinstalled apps are probably never going to be used. Among these unnecessary programs is Asus Giftbox, a simple portal that recommends apps and provides you with exclusive deals in the Windows Store. The only function of Asus Keyboard Hotkeys, which is present in the FX705's list of apps, is to enable shortcut hot keys in the background.

The Installation Wizard is only intended to assist you in installing additional Asus apps, and the Asus Power Scheme app is similarly minimal. The only app that the Gaming FX705 comes pre-installed with that is actually useful is MyAsus, which gives you access to support, system diagnostics, and software updates. 

Another helpful utility app that enables you to launch games from Steam and update graphics drivers is Nvidia's GeForce Experience. On the TUF Gaming FX705, additional third-party applications include two Candy Crush games, Dolby Access, Fitbit Coach, McAfee Security, and Phototastic Collage. An annual warranty is included with each TUF Gaming FX705 unit. Asus' performance in our Tech Support Showdown, Best and Worst Brands, and Best and Worst Gaming Brands reports can be seen below.

Bottom Line

Anyone looking for a large, midrange gaming laptop should consider the TUF Gaming FX705. The 17.3-inch, 144-Hz display on the FX705 is vivid and detailed, and the GTX 1060 GPU and Core i7 CPU offer top-notch all-around performance. 

The FX705 has some drawbacks in addition to not having any particularly noteworthy features. However, the FX705's subpar speakers are a disappointment, and a better webcam will probably cost more money. But neither of those is a deal-breaker, especially when you consider how reasonably priced the FX705 is. 

We recommend the Dell G7 15, a sub-$1,000 gaming laptop with strong overall performance and a long battery life, if you don't mind scaling down to a 15.6-inch display. However, it is difficult to ignore its dim display and subpar keyboard. Another great 17-inch laptop with great performance and a gorgeous display is the HP Omen 17, but it costs a little more than the FX705 and does not have a GTX 1070 graphics card. 

In conclusion, the TUF Gaming FX705 is a superb midrange gaming laptop that provides potent performance and a vibrant display at a reasonably low cost.

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