ROG Azoth Review: The Finest Caviar of Pre-Built Mech Keyboards with Customizability

With more and more consumers outgrowing their prebuilt keyboards into custom builds, it is no surprise that the latter tempts many eyes as it has customizability like no other. But ROG understands this, so, they have gone to their drawing board to make something impressive. Here’s our ROG Azoth Review.

ROG Azoth Review

It’s a 75% Keyboard, which hits a nice, sweet Spot

The thing about keyboards for me is that I have personally used Full size which I am okay with and TKLs which have been better than I anticipated. Quite recently, reviewing a 60% keyboard was not something I fancied – as it was a hit-and-miss experience. But that’s not the case with the ROG Azoth because it falls in the 75% profile. That means, you get the function row, dedicated arrow keys and even some of the other command keys. This is a profile I can get behind as it does allow me to use the keyboard without unnecessary shortcuts that just take the extra hassle to hit a function or even an arrow key for that matter.

Other than that, if you happen to have a smaller desk space or if you are anything like me, who wants the peripherals to take less space on a big desk – well this keyboard fits into that category very well. Another thing I do like about this keyboard is the build where the top part of the keyboard is made out of solid metal which feels good. It is a kind of a bummer to see the bottom shell of this keyboard not have metal – especially for a keyboard that’s priced on the higher side.

Made for both Windows and Mac Users

This isn’t something we get to see often with pre-builts because a mechanical keyboard like this immediately becomes a gaming peripheral over a normal kind. I wish it changes because typing on a mechanical keyboard with that recoil or feedback, is a pleasant experience. As though you are typing on a typewriter. ROG didn’t omit the fact that Mac users would want a taste of this keyboard too – so, good news – this keyboard has support for MacOS – well, even iPadOS – where I was able to use the ROG Azoth with my iPad Air with no issues whatsoever.

Connectivity-wise, quite possibly the most versatile Keyboard

Options are great, and especially if you are paying this much, it becomes a crucial feature rather than an option. That said, the ROG Azoth can connect via Bluetooth, RF 2.4 and even Wired USB-C. Now, when we started using the first two weeks – the keyboard was all finicky where the connection via Bluetooth would drop a lot and so did the 2.4GHz receiver connection. But, ROG released an update via Armoury Crate, which updated the keyboard via a wired connection.

The issue was gone since then. So, if you do happen to run through issues with the ROG Azoth, well, the good thing is that you know the keyboard has software support you can most definitely count on.

The highlight: an OLED Display

Two highlights of this keyboard set it apart from your generic pre-built keyboard. Starting with the OLED display on the top right corner of the ROG Azoth. It has a 2” OLED Display and it’s a monotone display. Surprisingly this display has the potential to do more things than I anticipated.

Animation allows you to use the pre-included GIFs or Animation to make it look cool or you could have as simple as text showing on the display. Customizing with your images is possible as we did in this video here. When you play music, you can the good old equalizer on it to bring you back to a time when music was also about that visualizer. For those who want to keep an eye on their system internals, well the System monitoring mode allows you to keep an eye on the temperature, and frequency of both GPU and CPU.

Now besides the display, there’s a three-way control knob, which you can use to control a specific setting, and the button on the side allows you to cycle through other settings, such as Volume controls, Multimedia Controls, Profiles, Display Brightness, Lighting and Customization of the display itself. You can control all of these with the help of Armoury Crate which is a great help.

Customizability is Rooted in its core

Now the display isn’t the only customizable thing. Make way for the keyboard itself. Modding keyboards is surprisingly growing popular and a lot of users are enjoying it. The ROG Azoth brings two features from those to here: A hot-swappable switch and the ability to DIY lubing for switches.

So, the Azoth comes with an ROG-exclusive switch – the ROG NX Mechanical Switch which comes in three configurations: Red, Brown and Blue. We are reviewing the keyboard with the Red switch and honestly, I love the feel of it – we will talk about this later. We mentioned a hot-swappable switch and you are not limited to just the NX switches but you can use whatever switches – be it Cherry or something else.

Secondly, ROG has included an entire DIY kit for users to be able to mod however they like. The kit consists of a switch opener, keycap puller, switch puller, lube station, brush and a bottle of the best lubricant – Krytox GPL 205. Since this isn’t our keyboard, as it is a loan unit from ROG Malaysia, we can’t quite experience the DIY part of the keyboard – but looking at the inclusion of the entire kit makes it appealing. If you are someone new to the entire keyboard customizing – well, ASUS has a video for you to watch as well.

Experience-wise, not like any Prebuilds I’ve Tried

Now let’s talk about the experience. Starting with the keycaps – these are doubleshot PBT keycaps, which makes them far better than the generic ABS keycaps which go through key shine after long-term use. ROG has added a matte and sandstone-like texture to the keycaps, which I find it nice to the touch and type on. The Doubleshot also helps with the RGB illumination which is nice. But for the most part, I used the keyboard with white illumination.

Secondly, the ROG NX Red switches feel good to type and experience. Now this switch has a 1.8mm actuation point with 55gf of total force and 40gf of initial force, altogether with a total travel of 4.0mm. These keycaps have lubricated stems and base housing which gives a much smoother feel than a non-lubricated switch – which I could tell as my daily driver keyboard, the IKBC W200 uses a Cherry MX Red. The switch isn’t the only thing that gives the quiet sound profile.

Bringing it to my third point, under the hood of the ROG Azoth – there are foams and silicone parts which dampen the sound, offer cushioning and a far too-good of typing experience. Going layer by layer, sans the metal top and the plastic shell at the bottom, there are silicone gaskets for the cushioning followed by a silicon pad at 3.5mm thick for noise absorption, then comes a PORON Foam which absorbs the case hollowness and finally another Silicone foam at the base which eliminates the “echo” of sorts.

I have said this before and to be honest, typing on this keyboard feels as if I am floating on air, tapping those fluffy clouds. I enjoy the red switches from ROG and I probably wouldn’t swap them out for something else soon – because it does offer a pleasant typing experience over all the connectivity.

That said, the angle the keyboard can be positioned also plays a vital role in giving a nice typing experience without arching your wrists too much. Usually, when you hit a keyboard’s space bar, you feel a certain hollowness. That’s not the case here even – as it is not only pre-lubed but the stabilizer it uses happens to be a little different. Interestingly, it even supports a Costar stabilizer.

On top of this, having features like on-the-fly macro and onboard memory does help a lot, if you happen to switch between multiple devices. But back to the typing experience, the ROG Azoth’s layout has a nice familiarity and is easy to pick up and learn. People who do use the right shift and control or alt key might bother a bit as the size of those keys isn’t standard and it’s a lot shorter.

Speaking of not standard, finding keycaps for this keyboard can be a bit of a challenge – especially for those it doesn’t follow the standard size.

What could be better?

The ROG Azoth isn’t all perfect. For one, if the keyboard was made entirely out of metal, it would have been very nice. Unfortunately, we get a plastic bottom shell which does feel and look cheap. Otherwise, for the most part, ROG Azoth isn’t too shabby if you ask me.

Also, for some odd reason, Armory Crate loves to crash from time to time. The software really does require some fix.

Conclusion

The ROG Azoth, without a doubt, captures all of my attention and in fact, I enjoyed this keyboard thoroughly. Be it for typing this review, or any content on our site to even playing games, the experience has been pleasant and one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. The fact that ROG jumped into customization, rather than taking the conservative approach, sets this keyboard apart from other gaming peripheral manufacturers. But all of this comes at a pretty penny – at RM 1,070 – which is not cheap at all. But it’s expected.

Given that this price can get you a stunning custom keyboard is a fact, however, if you want that ROG experience with good software support, warranty and an overall solid experience right out of the box with no hassle whatsoever, that RM 1070 might just be a good buy after all.