Asus ROG Azoth X Review: A Space-Age Gaming Keyboard

A batch of mechanical keyboards struggle pinch aesthetics. It’s difficult to get right! If nan styling is overdone, you mightiness inhibit functionality aliases conscionable person excessively overmuch going connected visually. If you instrumentality to nan basics, you mightiness extremity up pinch a bland keyboard. Whichever measurement you go, there’s still a chance you’ll get it incorrect and person thing that doesn’t look good.

But there’s been an influx of really well-designed keyboards of late: Keychron’s K2 HE Special Edition is simply a awesome example, on pinch nan Mchose GX87 Ultra, not to mention nan countless high-end civilization keyboard kits disposable today. With astir of these keyboards, keycaps return a backseat—even if they look good, they’re usually reasonably modular and minimal.

Asus takes nan other attack pinch nan ROG Azoth X: A elemental achromatic case, but colorful and stylized keycaps. It’s not nan astir accepted design, but they look really bully and negociate to liven up a table without taking complete your setup. This keyboard manages to look bully without sacrificing substance—the Azoth X has 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, 1,000-Hz polling, and an soul assembly that makes it some nosy to type connected and easy to modify. It's disposable successful achromatic pinch either click aliases linear NX switches, and includes a silicone wrist rest. All that costs a beautiful penny, though, astatine $300.

Deep and Snappy Typing

This keyboard is astir comparable to Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% successful typing experience. Both usage a metallic apical lawsuit and a integrative bottommost lawsuit pinch a gasket equine strategy and a integrative plate. The stiffness is similar, arsenic are nan sound profiles. The biggest quality is nan move options: Razer’s 75% keyboard is only disposable pinch tactile switches, while Asus offers linear and clicky switches.

The portion I received came pinch Asus’s Snow linear switches. These are a reasonably ray linear move pinch a deeper typing sound and a accordant smoothness passim nan full keypress. They aren’t nan smoothest switches I’ve tested, but nan clash felt erstwhile typing is some minimal and consistent, resulting successful a typing acquisition that’s still enjoyable. These switches besides person minimal stem wobble, meaning keypresses consciousness unchangeable and assured erstwhile typing. They require little unit than a Cherry MX Red switch, requiring 53 grams of unit to afloat bottommost retired compared to nan MX Red’s 60 grams. This quality is noticeable and makes nan switches consciousness much responsive without arsenic overmuch consequence of mis-inputs compared to a genuinely lightweight (sub-50g) spring.

The gasket-mounting system that holds nan keyboard successful spot feels for illustration a operation betwixt a gasket equine and an o-ring mount, since nan rubber gaskets are pressed tightly into nan wrong of nan case. This intends nan typing consciousness is accordant crossed nan full keyboard, and feels much connected to nan lawsuit compared to a modular foam gasket. It still has immoderate of nan bounce and softness expected from a gasket mount, but it is little than galore comparable keyboards.

The stabilizers successful nan Azoth X are modular plate-mounted, lubed from nan factory. While plate-mount stabilizers are typically going to consciousness little unchangeable than PCB-mount, nan ones utilized present still consciousness bully and person nary rattle retired of nan box.

Space-Age Aesthetics

There are a batch of things I for illustration astir nan design. The keycaps are somewhat flatter than nan mean keycap and person a two-piece assembly pinch a transparent backmost for RGB diffusion. The lawsuit has a sleek and angular creation that looks stylish and space-age without taking up a batch of room.