The Asus ROG Azoth is the first serious enthusiast gaming keyboard from the Taiwanese tech giant. And, honestly, it's amazing. This translates, in technical terms, to a high-quality keyboard that ticks all the boxes and then adds a few more items at the bottom of the list, ticking them off too.

Asus is no stranger to mechanical keyboards. I've tested a number of previous ROG mechanical boards, and even the almost-smart hybrid Claymore board, which predated Mountain in the detachable numeric keypad game, but failed to stick. I mean, literally. The floppy mounting of the extra keypad was one of the reasons I disliked it so much.

But they haven't yet dipped their toe into the enthusiast keyboard market, and the ROG Azoth (opens in new tab) is something Asus has stuck both feet into, which is not surprising given the burgeoning market for high-end custom keyboards.

Oddly enough, despite being in the midst of a global economic recession of apocalyptic proportions, there has never been a better time to release a ridiculously priced gaming keyboard. When I say "ridiculously expensive," I am not kidding; this is the first sub $300 keyboard I have ever seen. But that didn't stop it from winning the Best Gaming Keyboard award at CES 2023 (opens in new tab), nor did it stop me from loving this keyboard.

This keyboard offers everything you would want in an enthusiast keyboard: the build quality of the Azoth is excellent and it is very light in weight. We like it for that as well. It also has everything you need for a premium typing experience: lubricants, gaskets, dampers, etc.

And it's premium, even more so since the Azoth is a pleasure to tap and replaced all the ROG NX switches that came with the board. The custom linear mechanical switches are Cherry MX Red analogs, but they feel great. I just have a bunch of Halo True switches that I bought to put in the Mountain Everest Max (opens in new tab) board. That board was retired for the Everest 60 and the Mountain Tactile switches have been kept.

This is one of those must-have, hot-swappable switches for keyboards with enthusiast pretensions. We keyboard geeks love to swap switches in vain for the slightest difference in feel that even the famous princess of peas would have trouble noticing. And Azoth happily meets that demand, and even includes a switch puller, my absolute favorite. Yes, I now have a favorite.

Maybe I should get out more.

But I have ripped the flesh off my fingers with other pullers, and the keycap puller that Asus includes in the box is ergonomically effective. But not only that, Asus is doing everything in its power to prove that it is an enthusiast. Lotion included.

Yes, lube is the new keeb mania badge. Of course, a good switch should be pre-lubricated. Of course. But Asoth offers a little trinket that makes it easy to split a standard MX-style switch, or the new ROG NX switch, to access the inner mechanisms. Then there's the little bottle of lubricant inside the box and a brush to apply it, which lubricates the necessary plastics and ensures super-smooth operation.

This is a surprisingly easy and not surprisingly tedious process.

Aside from being such a geek, this keyboard is also a very effective gaming keyboard. It is primarily wireless, with both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, and a USB Type-C wired connection for both power and data. It is also a small form factor board, although not the ultra-restrictive 60%.

Listed as a 75% keyboard, it has no numeric keypad, but has a row of function keys at the top, Ins, Del, PgUp/Dn, and most importantly, cursor keys. the board is necessarily larger than the Mountain Everest 60 (open in new tab) but the separation is better, and the shift key is not as small and frustrating. Personally, I dislike the position of the Delete key, but that's my only complaint about the layout itself.

Then there's the two-tone OLED display in the upper right corner, the weakest part of the entire kit, which can be customized with a 3-way switch.

As always, the ROG Azoth relies on Asus' dreaded Armoury Crate software, which takes a while to do anything. Just switching between app tabs or checking for firmware updates takes a long time. In particular, switching from USB to Wi-Fi and vice versa causes the app to get stuck in a perpetual loading animation, ruins all the profile settings I've saved, and somehow resets the device completely. Peripheral software is the worst.

Frustratingly, once you get in there, it offers some pretty handy knobs to tweak regarding controls and displays. Aside from the necessary LED backlight control, the control knobs can be adjusted to control the LEDs the way you want them. By default, there are five modes of control, which can be toggled with the buttons on the end, but a sixth mode can be added that can be customized with the app. The switch has three "buttons" (up, down, and click) that can open websites, applications, multimedia, keyboard and mouse functions, or preset input text, respectively.

Quite powerful.

I also like the ability to disable unwanted modes. I once had it display a host of system information, but now I have it set to multimedia control only, so it's just volume control and track play/pause/skip functions. That means I don't have to keep going back to get to the desired mode. I also have the OLED set to display track info and EQ, but the Armoury Crate sometimes goes haywire and repeatedly goes back to the Princess Leia image (not this one) that I loaded to update the firmware and test a custom image/gif chop. [The ROG Azoth is the best gaming keyboard Asus has ever released, and the best enthusiast keyboard we've ever seen from a properly established brand that isn't focused on this segment. The Everest 60's practicality and removable numeric keypad still gets my personal vote, but it's a close second in terms of everyday use, if only I could entrust Asus with my expensive Azoth. Because the real bottleneck is its price.

I wouldn't spend $300 on a gaming keyboard; I like the ROG Azoth for what it is, but in your world, unless it's just pocket change, the cost of the ROG Azoth is prohibitive.

Updated pre-tax U.S. prices.