Review: Asus ROG Azoth X Gaming Keyboard

A lot of mechanical keyboards struggle with aesthetics. It’s hard to get right! If the styling is overdone, you might inhibit functionality or just have too much going on visually. If you stick to the basics, you might end up with a bland keyboard. Whichever way you go, there’s still a chance you’ll get it wrong and have something 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 a great example, along with the Mchose GX87 Ultra, not to mention the countless high-end custom keyboard kits available today. With most of these keyboards, keycaps take a backseat—even if they look good, they’re usually fairly standard and minimal.

Asus takes the opposite approach with the ROG Azoth X: A simple white case, but colorful and stylized keycaps. It’s not the most conventional design, but they look really good and manage to liven up a desk without taking over your setup. This keyboard manages to look good without sacrificing substance—the Azoth X has 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, 1,000-Hz polling, and an internal assembly that makes it both fun to type on and easy to modify. It's available in white with either click or linear NX switches, and includes a silicone wrist rest. All that costs a pretty penny, though, at $300.

Deep and Snappy Typing

Photograph: Henri Robbins

This keyboard is most comparable to Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% in typing experience. Both use a metal top case and a plastic bottom case with a gasket mount system and a plastic plate. The stiffness is similar, as are the sound profiles. The biggest difference is the switch options: Razer’s 75% keyboard is only available with tactile switches, while Asus offers linear and clicky switches.

The unit I received came with Asus’s Snow linear switches. These are a fairly light linear switch with a deeper typing sound and a consistent smoothness throughout the entire keypress. They aren’t the smoothest switches I’ve tested, but the friction felt when typing is both minimal and consistent, resulting in a typing experience that’s still enjoyable. These switches also have minimal stem wobble, meaning keypresses feel stable and confident when typing. They require less force than a Cherry MX Red switch, requiring 53 grams of force to fully bottom out compared to the MX Red’s 60 grams. This difference is noticeable and makes the switches feel more responsive without as much risk of mis-inputs compared to a truly lightweight (sub-50g) spring.

The gasket-mounting system that holds the keyboard in place feels like a mix between a gasket mount and an o-ring mount, since the rubber gaskets are pressed tightly into the inside of the case. This means the typing feel is consistent across the entire keyboard, and feels more connected to the case compared to a standard foam gasket. It still has some of the bounce and softness expected from a gasket mount, but it is less than many comparable keyboards.

The stabilizers in the Azoth X are standard plate-mounted, lubed from the factory. While plate-mount stabilizers are typically going to feel less stable than PCB-mount, the ones used here still feel good and have no rattle out of the box.

Space-Age Aesthetics

Photograph: Henri Robbins

There are a lot of things I like about the design. The keycaps are slightly flatter than the average keycap and have a two-piece assembly with a transparent back for RGB diffusion. The case has a sleek and angular design that looks stylish and space-age without taking up a lot of room.

The OLED screen in the corner is responsive, easy to customize and surprisingly functional. It shows information like battery life, connection method, CPU and GPU usage, and the current mapping for the side knob with minimalist and high-contrast graphics. My only concern is that, with how small some of the icons are, they could be difficult for some folks to read at a glance.

I like most of the keycaps. The black-and-white styling with purple and magenta highlights creates a really fun design motif, and the space imagery feels reminiscent of ultra-clean sci-fi designs in Portal 2 or Counter-Strike’s Asiimov skins. The keycaps are printed using dye sublimation, and unlike some other dye-sub keycaps, the printing has sharp, defined edges and consistent coloration. Even the gradients have consistent coloration without any graininess or fading around the edges.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The clear backing on the keycaps is a cool alternative to standard shine-through keycaps. Instead of lighting up the text on top of the keys, the keycaps diffuse the lighting across the back to make it look like they’re glowing from underneath. I’d compare the look to the thrusters underneath a hovercraft, which leans into the sci-fi influence and creates an impressive visual effect.

When it comes to the smaller details, Asus starts to lose me. Some of the branding on its keycaps feels a bit silly and on-the-nose, with the enter key saying “JOIN THE REPUBLIC” and left shift saying “GAME ON” without any alternative keycaps with normal text or symbols. Aesthetically, I’m a bit confused by the idea of the “Republic of Gamers (ROG)” being an actual organization to join, and why the keyboard you’ve already bought is telling you to join said group. I’m a bit annoyed that there aren’t any alternative keys that describe their function, especially when the unique shape of these keycaps makes it difficult (maybe even impossible) to find replacements.

This is a consistent issue I’ve had with Asus—its branding for its ROG products is excessive. The last Asus keyboard I reviewed, the Falchion Ace HFX, had the same issue with the huge “REPUBLIC OF GAMERS” text across the top of the keyboard. However, that was entirely an aesthetic problem, while here it's a direct trade-off for functionality. It’s not a huge deal (I still like the styling of this keyboard overall, and this issue won’t bother most buyers), but it’s worth noting.

Convenient and Customizable

Photograph: Henri Robbins

Disassembly was shockingly simple. Ten screws span the outside and can easily be removed to have full access to the internals. The main assembly is connected to the daughterboard with a ribbon cable, and can be disconnected and removed without having to touch the OLED screen, which is part of an entirely separate secondary board. Because the screen isn’t attached to the gasket mount system, it won’t be put under any stress when typing. The same is true for the USB-C port, which is located on a daughterboard underneath the main PCB alongside the battery.

Inside the keyboard, three layers of sound-damping foam create the Azoth X’s deep and clean typing sound. The keyboard also has hot-swap sockets, which means switches can be swapped out without having to desolder or even disassemble the keyboard (however, I always recommend disassembling the keyboard to support the hot-swap sockets from underneath).

Asus' Armoury Crate is one of the most effective gaming software programs I’ve tested. It's easy to use, lightweight, and doesn’t include unnecessary add-ons (an issue I noted with SteelSeries GG’s extra features and built-in advertisements). Asus consistently includes tooltips, explanations, and instructions on how to use features and settings, which is helpful for software that isn’t in use constantly.

Gaming Performance

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The Azoth X is a competent gaming keyboard. The switches feel great, and the 1,000-Hz polling rate is more than enough for nearly every use case. While it doesn’t compete with cutting-edge Hall effect (HE) switches with rapid trigger functionality and customizable actuation points, the Azoth X has the sound, charm, and predictability of a standard mechanical keyboard—all things that can be absent with Hall effect keyboards.

While I wouldn’t recommend this keyboard over an HE (like the Wooting 80HE) for gaming at professional levels, it’s certainly good enough for anyone playing games casually. I found it serviceable for every aspect of my daily computer use, which included gaming, word processing, photo and video editing, and general browsing. The switches feel snappy and responsive, and the polling rate was quick enough for nearly everything. The OLED display in the corner is a nice accessory with both practical and fun uses. Features like on-screen system monitoring can help with game optimization, while multimedia controls let you control music or videos at a glance without having to minimize your game.

What makes this keyboard stand out is how good it feels to use. Mechanical keyboards have been around for years and, as a result, people have become really good at getting a specific sound, feel, and experience out of them. Keyboards designed from the ground up for sound and feel, like the Azoth X or the BlackWidow V4 75%, show how enjoyable the end user experience can be when these lessons are used to build a specific keyboard.

If you’re looking for a customizable mechanical keyboard that finds a middle ground between gaming performance and satisfying user experience, the Azoth X and the BlackWidow 75% Pro are neck-and-neck. Both of them feel great to type on, have useful OLED displays in the corner, and are supported by intuitive and well-made software. The difference is ultimately the switches and the styling: If you prefer a darker color scheme and tactile switches, the BlackWidow 75% may be the way to go, but if you prefer a lighter keyboard with linear or clicky switches, the Azoth X is the right choice.