Asus Gaming V16 Review
The Asus Gaming 16 laptop doesn’t try to be the flashiest laptop in its segment, and that works in its favour. It offers a near-perfect balance of performance, design, and functionality without going overboard on price or gimmicks. Sure, the RTX 4050 isn’t a showstopper, and the battery life could have been better, but for gamers who want solid 1080p to 1440p performance in a well-built, understated chassis, this machine delivers.
The Good
- Balanced design and build quality
- Strong gaming performance
- Excellent display for gaming and work
The Bad
- Mediocre Battery Life
- Underwhelming Audio Quality
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Design
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Display
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Sound
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Performance
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Battery Life
In a market overflowing with gaming laptops that often swing between bulky beasts and ultra-premium machines, the Asus Gaming 16 (V3607VU-RP550WS) aims to strike a middle ground.
Powered by the Intel Core 5 210H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, this laptop promises to deliver a competent gaming experience while remaining practical for everyday use.
After spending a good amount of time with the machine, here’s how it stacks up across the board.
Design
The Asus Gaming 16 feels premium without screaming “gamer.”
There are no RGB light strips or overly aggressive design elements here. Instead, you get a clean, matte-finished chassis.
It’s built with a mix of aluminium and high-quality plastic, striking a good balance between durability and weight.
Weighing in at around 1.95 kg, it’s not exactly lightweight, but it’s manageable for a 16-inch gaming laptop.
The build is robust, with minimal flex on the keyboard deck and lid.
The laptop also includes a decent selection of ports, which include two USB-C (one with Thunderbolt 4), and two USB-A ports, aside from an HDMI 2.1 port and a combo audio jack.
Display and Sound
The highlight of this laptop is its 16-inch WUXGA resolution IPS panel with a 144Hz refresh rate.
The 16:10 aspect ratio is ideal for both gaming and productivity, giving you extra vertical screen real estate, which is a subtle but impactful upgrade from the more common 16:9 format.
Colour accuracy is decent with 100% sRGB coverage, and brightness levels are satisfactory for indoor use, although it struggles slightly in brightly lit environments or near windows.
The display is G-SYNC compatible, which helps reduce screen tearing in fast-paced gaming.
While contrast and black levels aren’t quite OLED-tier, the panel delivers smooth visuals and immersive clarity.
Asus has equipped this machine with dual bottom-firing speakers, the sound quality of which is decent for casual gaming or video streaming, with acceptable highs and mids.
However, bass is predictably thin, and audio can get muddled at higher volumes. It’s serviceable, but most gamers will still prefer using a good pair of headphones for better spatial awareness and immersive sound.
Gaming Performance
Under the hood, the Asus Gaming 16 packs an Intel Core 5 210H paired with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB VRAM.
While the 4050 isn’t the top-of-the-line option in Nvidia’s 40-series, it handles 1080p and even 1440p gaming surprisingly well when paired with DLSS 3.0. In our testing, titles like Cyberpunk 2077 ran at an average of 55-60 FPS on High settings with DLSS enabled.
Call of Duty: Warzone and Valorant both comfortably crossed 120 FPS, making full use of the 144Hz refresh rate.
Thermals are well-managed, but under stress, the laptop does get warm. Despite that, it avoids severe thermal throttling, and fan noise remains within tolerable limits.
Everyday Performance
Beyond gaming, the Asus Gaming 16 proves to be a capable daily driver.
The 16GB DDR5 RAM and 512GB SSD ensure brisk multitasking and fast boot times.
Apps open quickly, Chrome runs smoothly with multiple tabs, and even light photo/video editing tasks are well within reach.
Battery Life
Battery life is average, with around 5 to 6 hours being accessible with light use (web browsing, office tasks). And that drops significantly during gaming.
That’s expected for a gaming machine, though a slightly larger battery would’ve added more versatility.