ASUS TUF FX505DV Laptop Review

The Exterior

For starters, the ASUS FX505DV looks very good in the ‘Stealth Black’ style. Although, as noted earlier, other colors are available, of the three I think that this is the one I would say is the most attractive and certainly the one I would pick. The aesthetics, however, do go far further than just the coloring.

The sleek black (almost charcoal) style of the laptop looks very nice and professional. Although this is a gaming laptop, this wouldn’t look out of place in an office, on a train, at your favorite coffee shop or just sat on your desk at home.

Detailing

Although not unusual for ASUS laptops, the branding here is kept to a minimal, but stylish level. The most obvious aspect is the branding to the center of the top of the laptop. It is, after all, practically front and center. Even this, however, is perfectly sized and with with the silver, really accentuates the look.

One of the more subtle aspects of the design can be found on the top of the laptop. Each corner has a slightly raised angular section. While these are not overly noticeable at first, the more you look the more you begin to like them!

We’ve used some lighting in the picture below to show how these really stand out and actually give a really nice overall aesthetic with that ASUS logo to the center.

This design is carried on to the interior surrounding the keyboard and, therefore, makes it perhaps a little more notable here. As a styling choice, however, we really love it!

In terms of outright branding, the only other place you’ll see the ASUS logo is internally below the screen. This is, again, both subtle and stylish and really fits in well with the overall design.

Finally, as is often seen with laptops, the bottom right corner of the keyboard area is used as a little advertising space with a number of stickers highlighting the key features of the ASUS FX505DV laptop. Most notable amongst these, however, surely has to be that AMD Ryzen badge.

Ports and Connections

Being a laptop, it’s more than possible that you’re going to want to hook a few things up to it. Be it USB storage, a mouse or just your phone for a quick charge. Fortunately, the ASUS FX505DV offers you more than enough for the average user, albeit with something of a catch.

The ASUS FX505DV only has ports on the left side of the laptop. So, pretty much what you see here is what you get. This is mildly disappointing as many laptops tend to spread the ports out, particularly the USB connectors (relatively) equally on either side. Put simply, you have more than enough, just not perhaps where you would want them to necessarily be.

Ventilation & Air Flow

As laptops do generally tend to run a little warm (and noisy) it’s important that they have some good airflow. Fortunately, the ASUS FX505DV has two nice large main air exhaust vents to the rear. With the passive intake cooling vents primarily located to the underside and edges.

ASUS is keen to push their exclusive HyperCool technology here which consists of the Anti-Dust Cooling (ADC) system and HyperFan design. This should, all going well, provide decent temperatures all while (hopefully) keeping the noise levels at a reasonable volume.

Keyboard & Mouse

The keyboard comes with RGB features that can be controlled and customized either manually through the function keys or via the ASUS software pre-installed to the laptop.

With a full key interface (including a numerical pad) the keystrokes are nice and responsive and should be entirely suitable for gaming or office functions.

The center of the keyboard does feel a little spongey with any keystroke around the middle largely resulting in the immediately surrounding area also pushing down a little. I don’t see this as being a problem (and I certainly didn’t experience any) but it would perhaps have been a little more reassuring to not see this happen.

I have made it abundantly clear on more than a few occasions that I am not a fan of the mouse ‘scratch-pads’ offered on laptops. I, nearly always, usually end up plugging in a mouse. In this instance, and has often been the case with ASUS laptops, I was willing to use it here! The movements were nice and smooth and the ‘button’ presses are nice and firm. You could easily use this on a daily basis and not have any complaints!

Battery

The battery block is a pretty standard design with not much remarkable to say about it. On a positive note, the cable length is excellent and with the main block located near the center, you shouldn’t have any problems using this.

In terms of the laptops actual battery life, well that depends on what you are doing. Defaulting to an ‘economy’ mode while unplugged, the laptop will happily last you an impressive amount of time. You can, of course, change this to ‘performance’ (the default setting when plugged in). Off charge, the difference between the battery lifespan between these modes is pretty substantial. In addition, in ‘economy’ mode the performance is much more limited. So, we would strongly recommend that if you plan to use this for gaming then you at least give it a good charge prior, make sure it’s set to performance or failing which, just keep it plugged in!

Display

Our particular model of ASUS FX505DV came with a 15.6″ 120Hz display. The images presented were nice, clear and crisp and looked pretty amazing. Even despite the 1080p limitations which are generally the standard for laptops.

It does come with a webcam, so if you are regularly making conference calls or just want to record a bit of video, you have a nice option here that is of a surprisingly good quality.

Size & Weight

The ASUS FX505DV weights between 2.2KG to 2.3KG depending on what overall specification you go for. This is still very light and as you can see in the picture below, despite it being a little thicker than your ‘ultra-slim’ models, it’s not a fatty either!

Overall

Sleek and stylish are the two words I take away from this laptop design. As noted earlier in the review, ASUS has tried (and succeeded) in finding a balance between all environments with the FX505DV.

With the aesthetic aspects out of the way, however, it’s time to find out how this laptop performs. I’m ready for some AMD and Nvidia action!