ASUS ROG Azoth review: Company vs Custom
Will the ROG Azoth be the miracle cure-all to ASUS's keyboard line-up?
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Today, we bring you our full ASUS ROG Azoth review. Expectations are unusually high this time, as ASUS’s own marketing materials describe it as ‘bristling with DIY features traditionally found on premium custom keyboards’ and capable of ‘unprecedented typing experiences’.
Will these bold promises turn out to be pure marketing waffle as they usually are? Can the Azoth hold a candle to a traditional custom mechanical keyboard? Can we write any more rhetorical questions? Let’s find out.
It’s no secret that the custom mechanical keyboard community has been lightyears ahead of the big companies for a while now. Custom boards allow for far more customization, offering lower prices, and generally offering gaming performance on par with what top dogs like Razer, Corsair, and ASUS are bringing to the table.
Well, it appears that large brands have finally started to notice their lack of popularity in the custom scene. Last year we reviewed the Corsair K70 Pro Mini Wireless, which impressed us with being hot-swappable and giving us PBT keycaps out of the box.
This made us hope that other companies would follow suit. So, let’s find out if that’s the case here too with our ASUS ROG Azoth review.
ASUS ROG Azoth specs
ASUS ROG Azoth mechanical gaming keyboard
Switch type
ROG NX Red, Brown, or Blue
Form factor
75%
Connectivity
USB Type-C, Bluetooth 2.0, 2.4GHz wireless
Hot-swappable?
Yes, with 3-pin Cherry-style switches
Keycaps
Double-shot PBT
- Pre-lubed switches
- Hot-swappable
- Included lube kit
- Feels super solid and weighty
- Easily dissassembled
- Expensive
- Toggle switch for the screen can be too sensitive
Switch type
ROG NX Red, Brown, or Blue
Form factor
75%
Connectivity
USB Type-C, Bluetooth 2.0, 2.4GHz wireless
Hot-swappable?
Yes, with 3-pin Cherry-style switches
Keycaps
Double-shot PBT
Weight
1164g/2.5lbs
Layout
ISO or ANSI
Backlight
Per-key RGB
Stabilizers
Clip-in style
What’s in the box & setup
- ASUS ROG Azoth mechanical gaming keyboard
- Switch opener
- Keycap puller
- Switch Puller
- Lube station
- Lube brush
- Small tub of Krytox 205 switch lube
- 3x spare ROG NX switches
- 2.4GHz wireless dongle
- Dongle Extender
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Stickers !
- Quick start guide
- Warranty info
The ROG Azoth comes in a very secure box that’s frankly a little over-engineered. We’re thankful for this, though, as the 1164g/2.5lbs board could do some serious damage to itself if insecure in transit.
As such, you get plenty of foam, plastic peels, and soft anti-scratch bags to keep everything looking tidy, so unsurprisingly our press sample arrived in pristine condition.
What was surprising, however, was the sheer amount of accessories included with the ROG Azoth. Hidden right under the keyboard lies a sort of beginner custom keyboard kit, including quite a few things that we’ve never seen in a big-brand gaming keyboard before, but we’ll get to that when we talk about the switches. Spoiler alert, it’s good news.
The setup was the same as it ever is. Plug it in with the included USB Type-C cable, use the 2.4GHz dongle, or connect via Bluetooth 2.0. Each of these connection methods is as easy as usual, and none of them provided any additional noticeable latency.
As usual, there’s some software to consider, in this case, ASUS Armory Crate. The OLED screen on this keyboard makes us recommend actually using the software more than we otherwise would, so install that too.
Design
In the last few years, we’ve seen big brands grow up a bit. Gone are the excessive logos, flame decals, and overwhelming amounts of superfluous plastic.
The only remaining pimple left over from the last couple of years of puberty is RGB lighting, however, just like adult acne, it’s only a dealbreaker for those who are very picky. Unlike adult acne, however, it can be turned off at the flick of a switch.
We get the feeling that this keyboard is designed to be as appealing as possible to the custom keyboard crowd, not only with its typing experience and construction but with the design too.
The ASUS ROG Azoth has a super standard 75% from factor. This is an increasingly popular layout these days as it retains a full row of function keys, arrow keys, and nice-to-haves like Ins, Del, PgUp, and PgDn.
Unlike a lot of the custom competition out there, there is no traditional volume knob or typical media buttons in the upper right. instead, ASUS ROG has seen fit to provide us with a 2-inch, 256×64-pixel, grey-scale OLED screen here instead, with physical, addressable controls located on the right-hand-side border of the keyboard.
The OLED screen can be used to display fun gifs or system information in real-time, however, that’s nerd stuff so we found something actually useful to put on there. Cheers, Charlie.
The legends on the keycap still retain the characteristically angular and bullish look of the Republic of Gamers, however, they are clear enough and not quite stylized enough to be disliked. The shine-through legends also illuminate wonderfully thanks to the per-key RGB lighting, which can also be customized any way the user likes via Armory Crate.
For the less creative among us, there are plenty of presets stored on the board itself, which can be cycled through using the control on the edge of the OLED screen. We found this button to be a bit too sensitive actually, moving the board around quickly can sometimes actuate it, though this is only an occasional annoyance.
We also found a peculiar hooded figure on the nearside of the F12 keycap. Confused and apprehensive, we tapped it and watched in amazement as every open window was minimized immediately. We aren’t sure exactly what ROG had in mind when they designed a key capable of hiding everything you’re looking at instantly. Although, we can be sure the teenagers that make up a not-insignificant share of their target market will appreciate this feature.
Build quality
Supreme is the word to describe it. The mixture of cold-to-the-touch metal and firm, premium plastics feels lovely. With a significant 1164g/2.5lbs weight, there are no doubts regarding the Azoth’s solidity.
All of the included accessories echo the keyboard’s robust nature, with the exception of the lube brush, with our artsy photographer and therefore de facto brush critic describing it as ‘promiscuous‘. Wait, what?
Erm, anyway, we are also blessed with PBT keycaps and almost no flex whatsoever, despite the plastic bottom shell, which according to ASUS’s marketing material is to ensure a reliable wireless connection as an entirely metal outer casing would disrupt the signal too much.
Additionally, many keyboard enthusiasts prefer partial or full plastic construction as it can improve the sound and physical typing sensation, speaking which:
Typing & gaming performance
We’ll get this out of the way right now. the ASUS ROG Azoth is not quite as good as what can be built by a skilled custom mechanical keyboard person. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but for those of you hoping that big gaming brands have finally caught up, we’re pleased to report that they’ve never been closer.
ASUS should be proud that they’re the closest to date, as, out of all the gaming keyboards we’ve tested over the years here at WePC, this is the closest one has ever come to feeling like a custom-built board.
Cracking the Azoth open, (mercifully easy with the removal of 10x hex bolts) it would appear that ROG has spared no expense here as we find layer upon layer of fun stuff, lifting off the top case we find the following:
- Silicone Gaskets to insulate the switch plate both the mounting plastic and the metal top plate
- A 3.5mm silicon noise-absorbing pad
- A PORON foam pad to reduce case-ping, improving acoustics
- Another silicon pad to prevent the plastic bottom case from echoing.
Those of you familiar with r/mechanicalkeyboards will recognize this list of material, which also means that ROG has been paying attention to the community. Unfortunately, it’s a notoriously hard-to-please community, so they’ll still find a problem with this keyboard, but that’s enthusiasts for ya.
Our sample came with ROGs NX Red linear switches which are courteously pre-lubed as are the clip-in stabilizers, making the amusingly tiny pot of Krytox 205 the perfect size for topping up the Azoth over the years. The board is of course hot-swap compatible with 3-pin switches too, so feel free to slap any of your favorites in there if and when you feel like switching up your typing experience.
It would also appear that ASUS even hopes that you will, as they’ve silk screened their logo onto the PCB, in addition to the names of the corresponding keys above each socket. Not only on the front, as each switch is labeled on the underside of the PCB too. This makes the ASUS ROG Azoth far easier for someone to mod.
Speaking of which, the out-of-the-box typing experience is far and away the best we’ve seen from ASUS, and it manages to easily eclipse their contemporaries, like Razer and Corsair, even the mighty Mountain should be quaking in its snow-boots.
The combination of foams, pads, and gaskets makes the ASUS ROG Azoth a dream to type on. The gaskets provide a more gentle bottom out than a standard mount, and the symphony of material layers creates a satisfying, even marbled noise. However, it falls short of the venerable ‘thoc’, though some tactile switches would bring it very close.
Gaming on the ROG Azoth is also a great experience, which should come as no surprise. While ASUS is new to this level of custom quality, they are well-practiced when it comes to latency, polling rate, and all the other technical stuff that’s important for gamers.
The included custom kit is lovely too with a brush, switch puller, opener, and of course a pot of the gold standard Krytox 205. Annoyingly the ‘lube station’ is perfunctory at best, as it’s the size of a playing card and about as well-suited to holding switches.
However, we aren’t used to anything even close to this being included, so the cheap laser-cut acrylic was still very impressive.
ASUS ROG Azoth: Final verdict
Turns out, our concerns about the marketing material being superlative nonsense were wrong, and ASUS has managed to live up to their promises.
What we have here is something we’ve been hoping for over the last few years, a company that’s made a product that’s able to compete with something passionately made by an enthusiast.
We saw baby steps made with the aforementioned K70 Pro Mini Wireless, and a surprisingly tactile experience from Mountain with the Everest 60, followed by a glut of impressive quality boards from many other companies.
The ROG Azoth is the culmination of these improvements, finally bringing a board to the table that a custom builder would be proud of, with the reassuring connectivity technology that kept most gamers coming back to the big boys.
Will this trend continue? We hope so, but we know better than to get our hopes up.
ASUS ROG Azoth mechanical gaming keyboard
