The Bottom Line
Introduction
Man, have gaming laptops come a very, very long way.
Gone are the days of bulky laptops with power bricks that needed you to deadlift everyday, and seriously who has the time for that when there's so many games out, as well as requiring Elon Musk's personal touch on next-gen cooling technology to keep them cool.
Now you've got desktop-worthy specs inside of a laptop with multiple hours of battery life, but really who buys a laptop for gaming on-the-go... it's more for a desktop replacement with it plugged into a wall. You want the power of a desktop, sacrificing here and there -- CPU, RAM, GPU, SSD -- but getting something the desktop simply can't offer: portability.
I've purchased regular laptops as well as gaming laptops over the years, but never dived into a fully decked out gaming laptop until now. Years ago, I remember buying one of those laptop coolers to sit underneath my laptop because it just got so damn hot -- no matter what laptop you had, the tech just wasn't ready -- but with the new 7nm and 8nm nodes, it's not just possible, it's been like this for years.
But in the last 12 months or so the gaming laptop market has shifted.........
I've been wanting to dive into the world of gaming laptop reviews for a while, so our new BFFs over at Allied Gaming sent over their custom Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop with some serious power inside.
- Read more: Allied M.O.A.B-I Gaming PC Review: Core i9-12900K + RTX 3080 Ti LHR
- Read more: Allied Patriot-A Gaming PC Review: Ryzen 5 5600X + RTX 3070 8GB LHR
The company has sent over two of their desktop gaming PCs for review here at TweakTown so far, with the Patriot-A and M.O.A.B.-I with the new Intel Core i9-12900K processor and costs $10,000+ but here is the new Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, a formidable gaming laptop that crushes 1080p and 1440p (and 1600p!) gaming at 120FPS.
Allied offers some monster specs for the base Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (8-core, 16-thread) CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 8GB (150W) GPU, and a 16-inch IPS-based 2560 x 1600 (1600p, not 1440p) display at a super-slick 165Hz refresh rate. Allied keeps everything inside of the laptop cool with its "Air Force Extreme" cooling system, with a physical button on the laptop that cranks the fans to 100% during gaming sessions.
- Read more: Allied M.O.A.B-I Gaming PC Review: Core i9-12900K + RTX 3080 Ti LHR
- Read more: Allied Patriot-A Gaming PC Review: Ryzen 5 5600X + RTX 3070 8GB LHR
All of this arrives in a package that is just 27.3mm thick and weighs just 2.3kg, enough to tote around in your backpack without a problem -- offering desktop levels of gaming and workstation performance. There's up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM available inside of the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, and with 2 x M.2 2280 SSD PCIe 4.0 slots you can load up the laptop with some seriously huge, and seriously fast NVMe M.2 SSDs.
You've also got built-in enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE networking backed up by Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6E, a 4-cell Polymer 64.31Whr li-polymer battery with "approx" battery life of around 4 hours -- while Allied notes "consumption will increase" when using the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU -- but I'll have more on battery life later in the review.
Connectivity-wise there's 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0 (no HDMI 2.1 unfortunately), and 1 x USB Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen2). There's the usual 2-in-1 audio jack, as well as built-in two-channel Hi-Def audio with built-in 2W stereo speakers. Again, more on that later on into the review.
You can configure and buy the Allied Gaming Tomcat-A 16 gaming notebook right here.
Allied also offers the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop with NVIDIA's less-powerful GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
Allied Gaming Marketing + Reviewed Specs
I asked Allied for some upgrades inside of the already powerful Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, since it already has an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR6... I asked for some upgrades on the RAM and SSD.
The base configuration includes a 16GB of DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory and a 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, but I asked for 32GB of DDR4-3200 and 2 x 2TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs. I wanted to be able to have a good chunk of super-fast SSD storage for my OS and a few key games (Warzone Pacific, etc) while the other 1TB acted as my Games SSD and contained all of the games I use to benchmark GPUs, gaming PCs and now gaming laptops.
I've got to say, I really love the marketing style Allied goes with here -- things like "Power to (After)Burn" is just so good. Introducing the Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU as "The Engines" and the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB as "The Arsenal". Right under that the display is introduced with "Hit 'Em Where it Hertz" -- so good, so, so very good -- while the cooling bursts in with "Full Throttle, Not Fully Throttled".
Speaking of Full Throttle, how good was the 90s click-fest?! Loved those games. Maniac Mansion, DOTT, Sam & Max.
Allied reminds you that they've got their own range of Allied Gaming accessories, from slick gaming monitors (which I'll have a review of up soon) through to keyboards, mice, headsets, and even mousepads. You can have the full Allied Gaming experience at home, and it won't cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.
Allied Tomcat 16: Specs & Configs
The base specification for the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop is kick ass on its own, without any changes needing to be made to ensure you have a mobile gaming powerhouse in your hands.
We're talking about an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor (8C/16T) with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a 150W TDP. There's 16GB of DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory, a 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD and 16-inch 2560 x 1600 (not 2560 x 1440, but 1600p which is a really nice touch) at a slick 165Hz.
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Graphics (150W)
- Memory: 16GB [2x8GB] 3200MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM
- Operating System Drive: 500GB NVME (Gen3.0) M.2 SSD
- Display: 16" IPS WQHD (2560x1600) 165Hz
An upgrade to 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM (2 x 16GB modules versus 2 x 8GB modules) will cost you $139 AUD, while upgrading the 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD to 1
Packaging & Detailed Look
The keyboard is great to use, it's not too clicky and not too soft... while the touchpad could be a bit better, but you won't be using that very much for gaming now, will you. It looks great from a design perspective, with the fan button in the top right easy to see in the dark when you're in the middle of a game.
I love the style of the Tomcat-A 16 gaming notebook even more from the back, with the RGB lighting on the exhaust ports looking fantastic. You can tweak this with the included Control Center software on the system, through whatever colors and patterns you want. It would be hella sweet if the "A" logo lit up, and was controllable as well.
You've got USB-C connectivity, enthuasist-grade 2.5GbE networking, HDMI 2.0 -- which is good for only up to 4K 60Hz -- and some regular USB ports on the sides of the Tomcat-A gaming notebook. Plenty of connectivity, but it's a pity there's no HDMI 2.1 connectivity... while you can use USB-C hubs if you need even more USB ports on the side of the laptop.
Benchmarks: CPU + SSD/HDD
I've just upgraded my home network with some enthusiast-grade 10GbE, 5GbE, and 2.5GbE networking so now I can test the deliciously fast ethernet connectivity on gaming PCs and laptops.
Allied's custom Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptops rocks a Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE networking controller, offering around 280MB/sec of speeds over my network. It's an impressive leap to see from 1GbE that provides around 110MB/sec data transfers, but you'll need a data source (I'm using a 10GbE NAS plugged into the 10GbE port on my switch) and then the Tomcat-A gaming laptop into a 2.5GbE port.
Remember that I configured the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop with dual 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs, delivering up to 2.4GB/sec (2400MB/sec reads) and up to 1.8GB/sec writes (1800MB/sec). Transferring some large files between the SSDs on the Tomcat-A saw some wicked speeds of around 1.3GB/sec+.
Benchmarks: GPU + Gaming
I put the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop through its paces in the same way I do any gaming PC or product that I use: in the real-world. I used the laptop for my workstation for 2 weeks during the mayhem that was covering CES 2022 from here in South Australia -- where Allied made the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop -- as well as a hell of a lot of Warzone (Rebirth Resurgence).
This meant having a trillion Google Chrome tabs open, Photoshop, watching 4K videos, and streaming Apple TV+ and Netflix in 4K -- I watched the Apple TV+ exclusive "The Shrink Next Door" with Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd -- as well as The Matrix Resurrections in gorgeous 4K (as much as the movie is a flop).
The Allied Tomcat-A was an absolute powerhouse, offering desktop levels of performance from its Zen 3-based AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor -- an 8-core, 16-thread beast -- mixed with (an upgraded) 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and (also upgraded) 2 x 2TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs for super-fast storage.
But there's something I wanted to point out that I loved over other laptops in its class: Allied went with a 2560 x 1600 panel, and not a traditional 2560 x 1440 panel. 1600p versus 1440p doesn't sound like much, but anyone that's used a 1600p monitor will know the additional vertical pixels are missed so much when you go back to a 1440p panel.
The 165Hz refresh rate is more than enough for any gamer to enjoy slick speeds, mixing in the 2560 x 1600 resolution and beautiful IPS panel the 16-inch monitor on the Allied Tomcat-A 16 puts yet another smile on your face when you're using it. Whether it's desktop use or gaming, the 1600p 165Hz IPS display is awesome.
If I had to have a major criticism when using the laptop for work and gaming is that it really, really should have HDMI 2.1 connectivity so you can plug the Allied Tomcat-A 16 into your gaming monitor or TV with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. HDMI 2.1 handles up to 4K 144Hz over a single cable, but HDMI 2.1 is limited to 4K 60Hz.
Not that you'd be gaming at 4K 120Hz on the Tomcat-A, but it would be nice to plug a high-end monitor into a high-end laptop. Maybe with the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU-powered version of the laptop in the coming months.
Benchmarks Charts: 1080p, 1440p, 4K
3DMark: FireStrike + TimeSpy
Metro Exodus
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Battery Life + Gaming On-The-Go
It takes around 2 hours to fully charge the laptop from 5-10% or so, and while the company says you'll get 4 hours of playback -- which you will, depending on the resolution, bitrate, and more -- you'll get a couple of hours of gaming on the battery, max.
Like I've said throughout the review, the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop is more of a desktop replacement that isn't like those huge bulky gaming laptops of the past. This isn't what your Dad owned as an enthusiast back in the 90s, this is a next-gen powerhouse that fits in your backpack with 16 cores, up to 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 3080 GPU.
A couple of hours of gaming or being able to watch close virtually the entire just-over-4-hours of glorious movie that we call Zack Snyder's Justice League off the battery, is great. But the mobile desktop PC replacement side of things is what you want.
Power Consumption
As for power consumption, Allied is using NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a 150W TDP, so even when you're exclusively using the GPU the entire laptop consumes 160-165W of power total. This is absolutely fine, and doesn't have the laptop overheating at all.
If you're just chewing up the 8-core, 16-thread CPU then you're looking at far under 100W with the Allied Tomcat-A gaming laptop using around 80W of power with the CPU cores completely flooded.
Warranty + Upgrade Options
Allied gives you a full 2 year return to base warranty with the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, but you can also bump that up to a bigger 3 year warranty for an additional $149.
What's Hot, What's Not
What's Hot
- Kick ass design: Allied has a sleek but not over the top design with the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, where it still looks mean with its aesthetic and RGB lighting but it's also not going to light up your entire room with bling. The exhaust fans look mean on the back like they were ripped out of a fighter jet -- just like Allied's marketing.
- Desktop level performance: Man, you've got GPU performance that matches NVIDIA's previous-gen Pascal-based flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. That's not too damn bad at all... especially when you mix that with AMD's new Zen 3-based Ryzen 9 5900HX processor with 8 cores and 16 threads of CPU power.
- GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Laptop GPU: You're going to be gaming at 1080p and 1440p at 60FPS in AAA titles on the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop, and easy 1080p and 1440p 165FPS+ in esports games. I was able to easily enjoy Warzone Pacific (Rebirth Resurgence) at 1440p with NVIDIA DLSS on "Performance" mode and easily hit 140-160FPS average without a problem.
- 2560 x 1600 (1600p) display: Normally you'd get a 1440p display on a gaming laptop, but we've got a 1600p high display on the Tomcat-A 16 which might not seem like much, but those additional 160 vertical pixels are oh-so-worth it. Not just in desktop use, but in gaming use it also looks great. It's just a tiny bit more, but it is a nice touch over 1440p.
- 165Hz refresh rate: You can't have a display and call it a "gaming display" without being at least 120Hz, maybe even 144Hz, but we have 165Hz here -- you need the CPU and GPU grunt to handle it -- but it's there. If you want to ensure 165FPS+ in games moving into this year and into 2023, wait for the newer GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU with 16GB GDDR6 in the coming weeks and months ahead.
- 2.5GbE networking: I love that 2.5GbE networking is making more and more appearances in higher-end gaming motherboards and now, gaming laptops -- with Allied cramming in an enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE network connection -- capable of pumping 280MB/sec across my 10GbE network. Glorious stuff.
- Physical button to crank fans to 100%: Allied gives you a physical button to crank the fans cooling the CPU and GPU to 100% which means you can be in the middle of a game and want to ensure the CPU and GPU clocks stay as high as they can, by keeping the chips as cool as you can... having a physical button for 100% maxed fans makes things easier.
What's Not
There's not much to NOT like with the Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop... there's an 8-core, 16-thread CPU + 32GB of RAM + RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with 8GB of RAM and 2TB of NVMe M.2 SSDs. Oh, and a 16-inch 1600p 165Hz IPS display. I mean, there's not much else you can cram into it -- and yes I've got it highly configured -- but even the base specs kick ass.
- RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU with 16GB GDDR6 right around the corner: NVIDIA does have its new flagship GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU with 16GB of GDDR6 memory right around the corner, and Allied will have a new RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU-powered gaming laptop waiting in the wings. That doesn't take away from the Tomcat-A 16, but it's something to keep in mind.
- No HDMI 2.1 output: It would be nice to have a HDMI 2.1 port on the laptop, so you could output to a huge display or TV at 4K 120Hz over a single cable, whereas the HDMI 2.0 port on the Tomcat-A 16 gaming laptop only offers 4K 60Hz over the HDMI port.
Final Thoughts
Allied Gaming blew me away with their desktop gaming PC offerings with my first two system reviews on TweakTown with the Patriot-A and M.O.A.B.-I desktop gaming PCs. Made locally to me here in South Australia, by some very passionate people who love what they're doing -- you can feel it in everything from the emails to their website to the marketing style -- and it flows right into the gaming laptops from Allied, too.
The custom Allied Tomcat-A 16 notebook starts at $2999 boasting the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (8C/16T) processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with 8GB of RAM. There are super-fast PCIe 3.0-powered NVMe M.2 SSDs inside which give you multiple gigabytes per second of speeds, as well as enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE networking.
Allied does something a little different with the Tomcat-A 16 with an interesting 2560 x 1600 resolution display on the 16-inch IPS panel, with the 1600p resolution offering just a touch more vertical pixels that make the 16-inch display feel bigger. It's also awesome for desktop work, with additional pixels always welcome on a display.
Gaming on the Allied Tomcat-A 16 was an absolute blast, with Call of Duty: Warzone cranking along at 1600p 165FPS easily with DLSS set to "Performance" mode. Virtually any game with DLSS 2.1 -- unless it's something like Cyberpunk 2077 of course -- will handle 1440p or 1600p at 165FPS with the right detail settings. The display is super fast and crisp, but not too bright -- not OLED bright -- which isn't good for those all-night gaming sessions.
- Read more: Allied M.O.A.B-I Gaming PC Review: Core i9-12900K + RTX 3080 Ti LHR
- Read more: Allied Patriot-A Gaming PC Review: Ryzen 5 5600X + RTX 3070 8GB LHR
Allied makes the entire deal better offering their own accessories, so you could buy the perfect desktop replacement on the go with a desktop-powered laptop, keyboard, mouse, headset, even a backpack -- hell, you could easily tote a 32-inch 1440p 165Hz monitor around and plug it into the Tomcat-A 16 -- I did for my CES 2021 coverage.
I had the laptop, keyboard, mouse, headset, all of my cables for the laptop, and then the Allied Expanse 31.5-inch 1440p 165Hz gaming monitor, and all of its cables. All of this was in the Allied backpack, which I took to a hotel to live a kind of "CES 2022" experience without the huge trip through the fortress otherwise known as Australia, to Las Vegas.
It all fit into the back, packing a huge amount of silicon power on the go. I didn't use the battery side of things much, as I don't think you should be buying a gaming laptop and expecting some powerhouse with 3-4 hours battery while the CPU and GPU are at max clocks and you're gaming away.
But more of a thing where you need desktop levels of power with a fantastic design, a great 16-inch 1600p 165Hz IPS panel, and have it mobile where you can pack it into your bag, throw the power cable in and you've got your mobile desktop PC. In that way, the battery is still great offering a couple of hours of intense Warzone matches, as well as an entire movie and a bit on Netflix.
All-in-all, Allied has a great-looking, formidable mobile gaming PC -- with its one-touch 100% fan button on the laptop cranking the fans up during gaming sessions. The mobile power side of things improves when you configure it with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of NVMe M.2 SSDs, especially if you want to have lots of games installed on the laptop. You can of course pump that up even more, by throwing something like a Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB NVMe M.2 SSD.
Starting at $2999, the custom Allied Tomcat-A 16 gaming notebook packs monster performance for your dollar... and in a world where we might not be traveling anywhere as much... some people want desktop levels of power in a laptop. It might be for work, work away from home, domestic flights, long stays in hotels, quarantines, etc... gaming laptops with this much power are a Godsend to some people.
Allied's custom Tomcat-A 16 gaming notebook is definitely worth your attention, and I can't wait to see what they can do next with the Ryzen 9 6900HX processor and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU in the coming months.