ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (2021, RTX 30) vs TUF Gaming A17 (2020) – what are the differences?

ASUS’ TUF Gaming lineup has seen significant attention from consumers and ASUS themselves, who now have two brands that are dedicated to gaming devices.

The most recently updated TUF Gaming laptop, the A17 on the surface looks like it only got an update in its internals, but if you dig in deeper, you will start to notice the little things that go way far in improving the overall user experience and user satisfaction with the device.

For a closer look at the TUF Gaming A17, look no further than our in-depth review, where we go all-in even on the smallest of the quirks and features of the device. For the purpose of this article, however, we will only mention the things that are different from its predecessor, the TUF Gaming A17 (2020), in order to save you some time.

To start off on the outside, with the design, it is different, and we believe for the better. The new A17 as a more toned-down design with a tiny TUF Gaming logo on the corner of the lid along with big TUF lettering on the side, which while might sound intrusive and too much, is actually easy on the eyes and give it a bit of spice. Another difference is in the dimensions, with the new one being offered in two configurations with sizes of 399.2 x 268.9 x 22.1 ~23.9 mm (WxDxH) and 399.2 x 268.9 x 23.3 ~24.8 mm (WxDxH). The previous year’s model was quite thicker having a profile of around 26mm.

Display-wise, previously you could choose between two 17.3-inch Full HD IPS panels with either 60 or 120Hz refresh rate. For the 2021 version of the A17, ASUS has removed the 60Hz option and gives you a Full HD 144Hz IPS panel with the same size of 17.3 inches.

Moving over to the specifications, we get the newest additions from AMD and NVIDIA in the faces of the Ryzen 5000-series CPUs and the RTX 3000-series GPUs, which are an upgrade from the previous Ryzen 4000-series processors and the GTX 1600-series graphics cards.

The characteristic that might get more overlook is the I/O and features, but we believe that the seemingly little things like this can have a large impact on how a device feels and what the user experience is. The I/O here is quite rich with three USB 3.2 Type-A ports (Gen 1) and one USB 3.2 Type-C port (Gen 2), where on the previous machine one of the Type-As was a USB 2.0 port.

Additionally, you have an HDMI port, an audio jack, and a Kensington Lock Slot. Thanks to the Zen 3 AMD CPUs you get support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, which were missing in last year’s model.


All ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (FA706, RTX 30):


All ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (FA706):

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments