Leaping into the high-end enthusiast typing space, Asus has launched the ROG Azoth wireless keyboard. The Asus ROG Azoth is a superb keyboard, with just about everything a user would need for an excellent gaming and general-use experience, with a few extra features to make it a compelling board for the DIY keyboard crowd. Asus undoubtedly has a solid competitor in the enthusiast-grade keyboard space; however, the ROG Azoth’s one big caveat is its mandatory use of Asus Armoury Crate–a sluggish piece of software that brings the whole experience down a notch.

At $250 USD, the Asus ROG Azoth competes directly with well-established wireless keyboards, including the Logitech G915 Lightspeed, Razer Deathstalker V2 Pro, and SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless. Like these boards, the ROG Azoth has a full suite of high-end niceties, like full RGB backlighting, high-quality mechanical keys, and extraordinarily low latency that's perfect for gaming. But as much as the Azoth feels similar to these boards, it also stands out as the only keyboard offered by any of these PC giants that lets users customize it to their liking.

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Asus ROG Azoth: Build Quality and Feature-Set

Asus ROG Azoth Keyboard OLED

The Asus ROG Azoth is a 75% compact keyboard, meaning that users will have to adjust to a more compact layout of 84 keys than the usual 104. The 75% compact form factor is fine for most use cases, especially for FPS games where desk space is needed for those wide mouse sweeps. That said, the ROG Azoth is an incredibly heavy keyboard at just over 2.5 pounds. For those who enjoy shifting their keyboards around their desk and find themselves doing things like angling the keyboard diagonally or moving it closer or farther away regularly, this keyboard really doesn’t like to budge. However, that added weight is all because of the ROG Azoth’s excellent build quality. This is by far one of the best-built mechanical keyboards on the market.

The entire top of the ROG Azoth is composed of a premium-feeling brushed metal, while the underside sports a thick plastic chassis that isn’t prone to cracking or bending any time soon. Additionally, the Azoth has a neat OLED screen in the top right corner of the front plate, which can display information like system time and computer temperature and even tell users what song is playing on Spotify. It’s not a game-changing feature by any means, but the added quality-of-life enhancements presented by this OLED screen do make the Azoth’s high price feel slightly more justified.

Each keycap has a textured finish that feels great while typing and, surprisingly, does an excellent job at ensuring that a user’s fingers don’t slide to the wrong key. Key spacing feels right and even roomy, considering the keyboard's form factor. Inside the chassis lies a monstrous battery rated for 130 hours without the use of lighting; however, in practical use, the ROG Azoth can last well over a week and a half set to half brightness and with the sleep setting on. The only downside to such a large battery is that it takes a fairly long time to charge from an empty state, in turn making the ROG Azoth a wired keyboard for a day if users forget to charge overnight.

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Asus ROG Azoth: A Smooth Typing Experience

Asus ROG Azoth Keyboard Typing
HI TEST

Typing on the ROG Azoth is an absolute joy. In contrast to most other keyboard manufacturers, Asus has elected to use a proprietary key switch solution instead of standard Cherry MX switches. However, these switches still feel as tactile and clicky as any other switch, and users are free to replace them if they wish. Each keystroke feels remarkably smooth thanks to the ROG Azoth’s factory pre-lubed switches and also has a satisfying click at the keyboard’s actuation point, which is a bit higher and more responsive than many other mechanical keyboards at lower price points.

Bringing the whole experience together is the ROG Azoth’s snappy latency using a 2.4 GHz dongle, which ends up feeling almost identical to a traditional wired keyboard’s response times. The ROG Azoth is also immediately responsive when coming out of sleep mode, which many wireless products still struggle with. Moreover, the keyboard can swap between wireless, wired, and Bluetooth modes on the fly, which is excellent for those who plan to use the Azoth with multiple devices like a Steam Deck. Thanks to its wide feature set and flexible compatibility options, the ROG Azoth definitely feels like the Swiss Army Knife of keyboards, and the longer this keyboard has been in use, the more appreciated that fact has become.

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The Asus ROG Azoth Brings DIY to the Mainstream

Asus ROG Azoth Keyboard Custom

Besides its top-tier build quality and stellar typing experience, a lot of what makes the ROG Azoth a compelling choice is how it bridges the gap between mainstream consumers and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. The Azoth feels like a starter board for those who want to try their hand at the keyboard-building space but want to make sure they have a great keyboard, no matter what. Choosing which board, stabilizers, keycaps, and switches to buy for a first-time build can be a daunting and pricey process; however, Asus has alleviated much of that frustration with this board.

In the box, the ROG Azoth comes with a keycap remover, a switch remover, a small tub of Krytox switch lubricant, and a brush for applying lubricant. Disassembling the Azoth is a breeze, further making this board an excellent choice for DIY newcomers when considering its robust toolkit and painless tear-down process. However, these aren’t features that many general consumers necessarily look for in a keyboard, which positions this particular keyboard as a more niche option in a growing market of high-end consumer keyboards. The ROG Azoth feels great, sounds great, and has a handy OLED screen, but many wireless mechanical keyboards can offer a similar feel and functionality at $50 to $100 less than this one. Those keyboards will likely be better suited for those who will never consider modding their keyboard and will be a more sensible spending choice over the ROG Azoth.

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Asus ROG Azoth: Brought Down By Software

Asus ROG Azoth Keyboard Hero

While everything about the Asus ROG Azoth, from functionality to user customization, has been head and shoulders above what most mainstream keyboards offer, Asus falls short on the software side. To get the most out of the ROG Azoth, users must install the Asus Armoury Crate software to configure the board’s lighting and OLED screen and set up various keyboard profiles should they need them. Unfortunately, Armoury Crate is a mess of a program.

Asus Armoury Crate is an awfully bloated and often resource-intensive piece of software that gets in the way of the user at almost every turn. The program regularly hangs for seemingly no reason and takes a long time to load, even on a higher-end computer with an SSD. Occasionally, Armoury Crate will have issues recognizing the ROG Azoth after a firmware update or will fail to apply whatever graphic or information a user wants on the keyboard’s OLED screen. Additionally, the user interface isn't intuitive and feels like traversing a bed of nails and advertisements to change one setting.

Asus ROG Azoth Keyboard Package

For all the good that Asus did making the Azoth a beautiful typing and gaming experience and packing it full of features while taking a DIY-friendly approach to the high-end consumer keyboard space, Armoury Crate does a lot to make the user never want to take full advantage of everything this product can do. Finding the best settings for the keyboard and then never opening up Armoury Crate again is the best way to go about building a healthy relationship with the ROG Azoth.

In spite of Armoury Crate, the Asus ROG Azoth is undeniably among the best wireless gaming keyboards on the market. Typing on this board is sublime, and it has everything that an enthusiast-grade keyboard should have and then some. However, for $250, the ROG Azoth is definitely a tough pill to swallow. Those genuinely keen on receiving the best typing and gaming experience out there or who are in the market for their first DIY keyboard that will undoubtedly perform well at a reasonable price for the hobby should look toward the ROG Azoth. Otherwise, this board’s $250 price tag is a bit high in a space where competitors offer a comparable experience, perhaps with fewer niceties like an OLED screen, but also at a lower cost.

The Asus ROG Azoth is available now. Game Rant was provided a retail unit for the purposes of this review.

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