It's hard to get a budget gaming laptop right, but the Asus TUF A15 manages to square away some top-tier components without sacrificing build quality and design. It's already a particularly well-priced machine, with costs coming in lower than that of the Acer Nitro 16 on average, but Best Buy has just returned this RTX 4070 configuration back down to a record-low.
The A15 is now available for just $999.99, a full $400 off the separately impressive $1,399.99 MSRP. That's the cheapest I've ever seen the A15 - and the only time I've seen an RTX 4070 gaming laptop price go lower than this was when the lower quality HP Victus 16 took a tumble down to $899.99 back in October. That model featured only half the SSD storage space, and the actual machine doesn't stand up to the Asus TUF A15's quality - it's currently the best gaming laptop at the budget end of the spectrum.
The A15 itself has been threatening to drop under $1,000 for a few weeks now but only managed to hit sales prices of between $1,050 and $1,100 in that time. For reference, RTX 4070 rigs like this tend to stick to a minimum $1,199 sales price outside of major sales events. As we turn the corner to official Black Friday gaming laptop deals, more and more offers are starting to hit the shelves. Considering this is the first time I've ever seen a $999.99 price tag on this model, this could well be the season's biggest offer so far.
Should you buy the Asus TUF A15?
The Asus TUF A15 stands in direct contrast to the kind of budget laptops I normally test. I reviewed an RTX 4060 configuration, and that weaker GPU beat both the Alienware M16 and HP Omen Transcend 16 in synthetic Time Spy and Fire Strike benchmarks. Those are both machines that sit far higher than the A15 on the pricing spectrum. Considering this RTX 4060 configuration posted three-figure framerates across Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and Returnal, it's easy to assume the RTX 4070 model featured today is going to smash through similar titles.
This is a budget gaming laptop built to offer raw performance at the best price possible, but that does mean some sacrifices in the display. If you don't mind spending a little more, the Acer Nitro 16 did put up a better picture overall in my testing. It's more difficult to find on the shelves (the best I've got today is a $1,165 sale price on an RTX 4060 configuration at Amazon), but the 165Hz panel runs smoother than Asus's and offers better brightness and contrast levels.
Still, even the RTX 4070 version of the Nitro 16 that I tested only just moved past the RTX 4060 inside the Asus TUF A15. I averaged an extra 9fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider testing, and an extra 4fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms from the RTX 4070 model - and it even performed slightly worse in Returnal benchmarks. It's not quite as optimized under the hood as the TUF A15, so pure performance hunters should stick with today's offer.
We're also running through all the latest Black Friday gaming PC deals, with plenty of discounts lining the shelves already. Or, for more portable play, check out the best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals and latest Black Friday Steam Deck deals.
