ASUS TUF A16 Pro Ryzen Edition Unboxing

Preface

Photos taken at the end of 2025. If I hadn't recently taken out the camera and powered it on, I might have actually forgotten about these photos 😂

Hahaha I've been pretty lazy lately, lots of unboxings I haven't shared. There's a content boost that's about to expire, so I'm knocking this out before the deadline~

Last time I mentioned I was working on a product: Indie Dev Laoyao Emerges | A Late Unboxing and Ramblings on the 15-inch MacBook Air M4

Lately AI products have exploded again. During Spring Festival it was ByteDance's seedance2.0; now every video platform is flooded with all kinds of AI-generated videos and short dramas. Then they hyped the hell out of openclaw, a toy project foreign developers vibe-coded (tokens aren't selling, help us~🐸)

Every industry is filled with an atmosphere of restlessness and anxiety. Feels like every time you wake up something new is trending, and you could be left behind by the times at any moment hhh

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OK, enough of the aside, back to the topic. At the end of last year my Mechrevo 14X broke again—frequent random black screens and reboots. Hadn't even owned it a year, and this was already the second time sending it in for repair (first repair: Less than half a year in, my Mechrevo 14X crashed too……)

And as a work tool, I can't go a day without a computer. To have something I can use reliably, I decided to get a first-tier brand laptop. This time I went with the TUF A16 Pro, but honestly it's just okay……

Packaging

For the looks, I specifically paid a few hundred extra for the cyan version. The packaging didn't disappoint—Tianxuan-hime looks pretty nice 😄

Front

Back

Side

This color scheme is pretty nice

The other side is the spec sticker

Unboxing

What's in the box is pretty simple. After taking out the laptop, there's just a simple manual underneath

On the two sides, one is the cable, the other is the power adapter

This power adapter is really huge, basically the same as the power brick from the Flying Fortress I bought when I started college ten years ago

Manual

Split into three parts: the manual, warranty card, and so on

Charger

This power adapter is big and heavy. Feels like it looks pretty much the same as the charger from the Flying Fortress I bought ten years ago.

If I'm taking it out, I might still need to buy a GaN charger myself, otherwise this thing is just too heavy.

The Laptop Itself

This protective band has a pretty nice feel

A-side

This color scheme is pretty nice

From another angle (weird, the color cast is a bit strong—maybe something went wrong during color grading)

B-side and C-side

Pretty standard

Peel off the protective film and take a look

I like the color of these WASD keys

But I really hate this asymmetrical keyboard layout and these ad stickers in the bottom-right corner

After powering on, these WASD keys even have different lighting colors—looks nice

D-side

The bottom design is okay, very plasticky, but nobody looks at the bottom anyway

Sides

Left-side ports

Right-side ports

The top—no ports haha, just the vents

Hardware Info

After unboxing and checking the laptop's exterior is fine, the next thing to do is power it on and test.

The config I bought is: 8940HX, 16G+1TB, 5060. A bit cheaper than the 9950 one, but even after the government subsidy it's still almost 8000. Not great value.

Storage Info

Don't know what brand the drive is

SSD Speed Test

But the speed is pretty fast

Display Color Gamut

CPUZ

GPUZ

Stress Test

No issues with the hardware config.

Next is the stress-test segment. This is important—you can tell whether the laptop's performance delivery has any problems. Laptop build quality these days isn't great.

Single Stress Test

CPU-only stress, power immediately pulled to 102W—aggressive 👍

CPU-only stress thermally throttled after 8 minutes, power dropped to 92W

GPU-only stress, 114W, maxed out

Still holding 114W after 10 minutes, very stable 👍

Combined Stress Test

Start them together!

At this point the CPU is at 87W, the GPU at 90W

After 10 minutes of combined stress

CPU 56W, GPU 110W

Overall the performance delivery is still very solid, it's just that the noise is way too loud—there's a sound like a plane taking off.

Benchmarks

Won't run Master Lu this time.

Just 3DMark. I picked it up on Steam during last year's winter sale.

Wrap-up

The TUF A16 Pro Ryzen Edition's performance is unquestionable—delivery is pretty aggressive.

Stability remains to be seen, but noise control is definitely a problem. It's so damn loud!

And after carrying it to work for a while, I found I completely can't get used to commuting with a gaming laptop anymore. It's just too heavy 😂

Once you're used to thin-and-lights like the Mechrevo Unbound 14X and the MacBook Air, going back to a gaming laptop is truly ultimate torture. Friends who haven't used a thin-and-light might not get it—it's just a couple kilos heavier, right? The difference is actually huge. A backpack with only the Mechrevo Unbound 14X (1.4kg) is effortless, even carrying it in hand to a meeting room is easy. But the TUF A16 Pro has real heft in your hand, and carrying it every day is a heavy burden too. So I've decided to use it as a desktop 🤣

As for value, first-tier brands, let's not even go there. Head out and turn left for Mechrevo.

That said, Lenovo acquired a brand called Lecoo and actually put out a 5060 gaming laptop under 6000. That value is maxed out, and you still get first-tier brand after-sales. Before Spring Festival a friend wanted something cheap that could also game, and I recommended this 😄

that's all

Next I'll keep tinkering with NAS and Home Assistant, see if I can combine them with AI to make something new 😎