ASUS TUF Gaming 14" FA401WV-WB94 Black 2024

A powerful 14-inch gaming laptop that's heavier than it looks and cheaper than it should be. Grab it at the US price, skip it at the high end of the European range.

The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 surprised us. It's a 12-core chip that boosts to 5.1GHz, and it handles gaming and creator workloads without breaking a sweat. The RTX 4060 with 8GB of VRAM is solid for 1440p gaming, especially with the MUX switch letting the discrete GPU talk directly to the display. The 16GB of LPDDR5X is fine for most tasks, but it's soldered, so you can't upgrade it later. That's a bummer for a gaming laptop. The 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD is fast and roomy enough to start, landing in the 80th percentile for storage.

The TUF A14 sits in a weird spot. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max crushes it in AI and creator workloads, but costs way more and isn't a gaming machine. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 is a better pure gaming laptop with more upgrade options, but it's bigger and heavier. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is the closest direct competitor, and it's lighter with a similar GPU. Honestly, if portability matters, the OMEN Transcend 14 is the better pick. If raw gaming performance per dollar is your thing, the TUF A14 at the US price is hard to beat.

The value story here is all over the place. In the US, you can find it for $1,234, which is a steal for this spec sheet. In Europe, prices swing from EUR 1,807 to EUR 1,998 depending on the store. That's a EUR 191 spread, which is annoying. If you're in Europe, shop around. The best deal we saw was at the lower end of that range, but you'll need to check which store has it in stock. At the US price, this is a no-brainer. At the high end of the European range, you're paying a premium for the compact form factor that doesn't quite deliver on portability.

The ASUS TUF A14 is a weirdly good deal if you catch it at the right price. You're getting a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which sits in the 89th percentile for laptop CPUs, paired with an RTX 4060 that lands in the 88th percentile for GPUs. That's a lot of muscle for a 14-inch chassis. The 2.5K 165Hz display is also a standout, ranking in the 86th percentile for screens. But the weight is the elephant in the room. At 3.63kg, this thing is chunky for a 14-inch laptop. You're not tossing this in a bag and forgetting about it.

If you're looking for a portable laptop you can carry around all day, this isn't it. At 3.63kg, it's heavier than most 16-inch laptops. Go get the HP OMEN Transcend 14 or a MacBook Air instead. Also skip it if you need to run AI models locally. The 45.2 out of 100 AI score is one of the weakest we've seen in this category.

Buy it if you find it under $1,300 or EUR 1,850. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and RTX 4060 combo is genuinely impressive for the price, and the 2.5K 165Hz display is a joy. But know what you're getting into. The RAM is soldered, the weight is real, and the AI performance is a weak spot. If you need a portable machine, look elsewhere. If you want a desktop replacement that happens to have a 14-inch screen, this is a solid pick.