ASUS ROG Azoth Extreme Wireless Mechanical Keyboard

[VSG]

The ASUS ROG Azoth Extreme is a great example of how to take an already good keyboard, with the ROG Azoth, and improving it further to the point of being one of the best pre-built units on the market. It has a ton of features including an OLED touchscreen display and a novel adjustable gasket mount, but is far from being affordable.

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[bonehead123]

Ah ha, the ROG'r strikes again, this time at your wallet, with a nice-looking but chopped off, mini-me gamr boi toi keeb, for only a measly $500....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....

And as a side note, I have some really clean & smooth, purely white-sand beachfront property I can sell you for cheap, so please contact me if interested

ps: it's located in central Utah, hehehe

 

[kapone32]

I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the price. This costs more than a 7800XT, 7800X3D, 12700 or even a 4TB NVME (Gen 4). What are they smoking? It is not like this is a one a kind or does anything different than a regular keyboard. Those blue, red and whatever switches mean nothing to me. The touchscreen is a nice feature but you can't tell me it is worth a $300 premium.

 

[dgianstefani]

It's about what a top end custom keyboard costs to build, so considering this is essentially the best prebuilt you can find, the price is reasonable. Halo product that's best in slot, halo price. To a lot of people the time saved from not ordering each part then assembling, lubing, modding etc. is worth much more than that, but they still want a top end part. Mine for example was around £550, although to be fair £120 of that is just on a fancy space bar from Jellykey.

Shame about Armoury Crate though.

 

[kapone32]

It's about what a top end custom keyboard costs to build, so considering this is essentially the best prebuilt you can find, the price is reasonable. Halo product that's best in slot, halo price. To a lot of people the time saved from not ordering each part then assembling, lubing, modding etc. is worth much more than that, but they still want a top end part. Mine for example was around £550, although to be fair £120 of that is just on a fancy space bar from Jellykey.

Shame about Armoury Crate though.

Wow $500 for a kb is reasonable. I guess you have a Bugatti in the parking lot.

 

[dgianstefani]

Wow $500 for a kb is reasonable. I guess you have a Bugatti in the parking lot.

It's reasonable if you want the best. It's called context.

 

[Onasi]

It’s a status symbol/financial flex in the same way their new ROG Harpe Ace Extreme is or Viper Mini Signature from Razer was. Or, hell, for those less knowledgeable about peripherals - the Asus 4090 Matrix which was what, twice the price of a regular 4090? It isn’t meant to make sense. Anyone with a brain realizes that you can get the same experience or 95% there at half the price or less. It exists for the sake of itself, that’s all. I don’t think we will see the Azoth on many recommendation lists for keyboards and any high-spending enthusiasts would definitely rather pour money like this into building their own. But it still will have a customer base.

 

[dgianstefani]

It’s a status symbol/financial flex in the same way their new ROG Harpe Ace Extreme is or Viper Mini Signature from Razer was. Or, hell, for those less knowledgeable about peripherals - the Asus 4090 Matrix which was what, twice the price of a regular 4090? It isn’t meant to make sense. Anyone with a brain realizes that you can get the same experience or 95% there at half the price or less. It exists for the sake of itself, that’s all. I don’t think we will see the Azoth on many recommendation lists for keyboards and any high-spending enthusiasts would definitely rather pour money like this into building their own. But it still will have a customer base.

Yup. That last 5% is where the cost goes up a lot.

 

[Onasi]

On this note, while slightly off-topic, @VSG did you ever consider actually making a recommendation list for people starting out in the hobby or at least a general editorial on what to look out for and consider? Options nowadays are plentiful to the point of being overwhelming and opinions from the community can be rather polarizing. Perhaps an overall top-down view from someone who gets to experience a lot of KBs might be helpful here. Might also attract more traffic and interest to the reviews themselves since more people would be actually invested rather than simply going “it’s a keyboard, why should I care” or “I just buy something branded from Logitech/Razer/Corsair/whatever and it works, I guess”.

 

[VSG]

Maybe once my backlog of reviews is more under control, I had a LOT of international travel in the last few months so things have been piling up.

 

[EatingDirt]

It's about what a top end custom keyboard costs to build, so considering this is essentially the best prebuilt you can find, the price is reasonable. Halo product that's best in slot, halo price. To a lot of people the time saved from not ordering each part then assembling, lubing, modding etc. is worth much more than that, but they still want a top end part. Mine for example was around £550, although to be fair £120 of that is just on a fancy space bar from Jellykey.

Shame about Armoury Crate though.

Not sure where you've been the past year, but you can get quality Full-Aluminum pre-built keyboards for under $200. Wobkey Rainy 75 Pro $170(with shipping) & Epomaker Tide 65/75 $120-140(with shipping) are the some of the more recent entries. Under $300 the list is practically endless these days. Keychron for example, has their entire Q Max series(13 keyboards) at under $250 with shipping, under $230 barebones, and those "barebones" come with gaskets and padding, all that's missing are they switches & keycaps.

This keyboard really isn't any more impressive than the keyboards mentioned above, other than it being $250 more expensive.

 

[Chrispy_]

I skipped straight to the conclusion to look up the price, thinking "I bet this is going to be a total rip-off at $250 or something, just because it has Asus' ROG logo on it.

Price is so high that nothing positive about it in the review could possibly make up for the ridiculous cost. It's a prebuilt, without the choice of a custom build, and with the economies of scale that a large manufacturer is supposed to bring to the party.

At $250 it would be expensive, but desirable. At $500 most of the already very niche market is going to laugh this away into irrelevance.

 

[TheDeeGee]

5 fucking hundred for half a keyboard...

 

[evernessince]

It's reasonable if you want the best. It's called context.

It’s a status symbol/financial flex in the same way their new ROG Harpe Ace Extreme is or Viper Mini Signature from Razer was. Or, hell, for those less knowledgeable about peripherals - the Asus 4090 Matrix which was what, twice the price of a regular 4090? It isn’t meant to make sense. Anyone with a brain realizes that you can get the same experience or 95% there at half the price or less. It exists for the sake of itself, that’s all. I don’t think we will see the Azoth on many recommendation lists for keyboards and any high-spending enthusiasts would definitely rather pour money like this into building their own. But it still will have a customer base.

IMO the lack of Hall Effect switches immediately disqualify it from being the best. Hall effect are just a massive upgrade for every use case thanks to their adjustable actuation point and the features they enable like Rapid trigger, rappy snappy, and analog input.

I don't think it's similar to the Viper Mini signature. The signature sold out because it had excellent fundamentals and simply reduced the weight (which is a big plus for mice). This keyboard improves on the typing feel and sound as compared to other mass produced keyboards but it has worse fundamentals as compared to $175 Hall Effect keyboards (or the slightly more expensive wireless versions). That's a big no-no, especially given how long HE switches have been out for and how popular they have been. Them making this keyboard 8,000 Hz is essentially pointless given the latency reduction for 8,000 Hz in minute compared to the latency reduction of something like Rapid trigger. I really don't see how this product is for, the typing experience is certainly nice but the gamer aesthetic belies the fact that gaming is this keyboard's weakest point compared to vastly cheaper competition. It would have made more sense to change this KB's aesthetic to appeal to keyboard enthusiasts than gamers if they don't have hall effect switches.

It's about what a top end custom keyboard costs to build, so considering this is essentially the best prebuilt you can find, the price is reasonable. Halo product that's best in slot, halo price. To a lot of people the time saved from not ordering each part then assembling, lubing, modding etc. is worth much more than that, but they still want a top end part. Mine for example was around £550, although to be fair £120 of that is just on a fancy space bar from Jellykey.

Shame about Armoury Crate though.

To many folks spending $500 on a keyboard, most the fun is picking all the parts and assembling them.

Not sure where you've been the past year, but you can get quality Full-Aluminum pre-built keyboards for under $200. Wobkey Rainy 75 Pro $170(with shipping) & Epomaker Tide 65/75 $120-140(with shipping) are the some of the more recent entries. Under $300 the list is practically endless these days. Keychron for example, has their entire Q Max series(13 keyboards) at under $250 with shipping, under $230 barebones, and those "barebones" come with gaskets and padding, all that's missing are they switches & keycaps.

This keyboard really isn't any more impressive than the keyboards mentioned above, other than it being $250 more expensive.

Yeah the prices of well tuned keyboards with full metal cases, dampening, gasket mounts, pre-lubed, and tape modded out of the box have come way down in cost. That said I believe the setup used in this ASUS keyboard is a tad better than those. Not worth the $300 extra though IMO.

 

[Onasi]

IMO the lack of Hall Effect switches immediately disqualify it from being the best. Hall effect are just a massive upgrade for every use case thanks to their adjustable actuation point and the features they enable like Rapid trigger, rappy snappy, and analog input.

I never said it’s “the best”, personally. I said it’s a flex and that IS what it is. I agree that paying this amount of money in 2024 for a board without HE switches is overkill. And those are starting to get really affordable. But again - this is a flex. Pardon me the car analogy, but as a sports car, as something to throw around a track, something like a Bugatti or a Rimac or a Koenigsegg will absolutely not hold a candle to, say, a 911 GT3 RS. Yet they are many times the price. And people still buy them.

I don't think it's similar to the Viper Mini signature. The signature sold out because it had excellent fundamentals and simply reduced the weight (which is a big plus for mice).

Nah, the VMSE was a flex too and basically Razer taking the piss. What was asked of them is just to tale the Mini and make it wireless. Instead, they came out with a 300 dollar meme and then threw the fucking Cobra to everyone else. And that thing was absolutely not worth it considering that by that point we already had, say, the HTX that was similar shape, lighter and half the price. And then the ULX came out. And the Beast. So no, it sold out because of hype chasing influencers, not because it was something truly special. The Viper Mini shape is good, but not 300 bucks good so that you wouldn’t decide to spend significantly less and use something a tad different. And the shape was mostly popular with fingertip enthusiasts like myself and we are much more willing to adapt to different shapes.

 

[Timbaloo]

I would say Asus has lost the plot, but they are way past that point.

 

[evernessince]

I never said it’s “the best”, personally. I said it’s a flex and that IS what it is. I agree that paying this amount of money in 2024 for a board without HE switches is overkill. And those are starting to get really affordable. But again - this is a flex. Pardon me the car analogy, but as a sports car, as something to throw around a track, something like a Bugatti or a Rimac or a Koenigsegg will absolutely not hold a candle to, say, a 911 GT3 RS. Yet they are many times the price. And people still buy them.

The problem I have with this analogy is those cars either have extreme performance, luxury, or both. This keyboard has neither. This board's performance is worse than $175 keyboards, so for your analogy it'd be akin to a Bugatti getting beat by a Toyota GR Supra. Luxury wise aluminum cases are not exotic, you can find them on pretty affordable products nowadays. There's nothing material wise that's exotic here.

The implementation and attention to detail are good but it's hard to justify. This is such a classic ASUS problem too, they have some cool ideas like hot swap switches in their mice that ultimately never sell well because there are other aspects of their product that is lacking. They throw more engineering and aluminum at their problems when the issues seem to stem from bad management decisions in regards what kind of product ASUS wants to create.

 

[Garrus]

I see my post was hidden. Sorry I don't mean to attack anyone. I'll delete it. It's a $700 CAD overpriced keyboard that is the same as their $270 model imo. That's all I'll say.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

It's reasonable if you want the best. It's called context.

The best? Or made to seem like the best? No, you are full of it, there is zero justification for this idiotic price tag, even if it was "the best." This is clearly a gauge to see what they can get away with.

 

[S73fan]

Another stupidity of ASUS, instead of just making the ordinary Azoth below with aluminum, they make something that can be used for self-defense, and put a price on it like 2 or 3 keyboards.

 

[[crs]]

Looks cheap/childish, requires Asus bloatware to use. Why couldn't it be QMK/VIA compatible?

 

[FoulOnWhite]

$500, what a laff. Who in their right mind will pay $500 for a keyboard.

 

[kapone32]

$500, what a laff. Who in their right mind will pay $500 for a keyboard.

There are 3 classes of people that would probably buy this.

1. Too rich to care
2. A Ultra brand loyalist
3. Someone stupid enough to think that with all technology the more you pay the more you get.

Most of us though are not into snake oil like this. It is a Keyboard.

 

[Chrispy_]

IMO the lack of Hall Effect switches immediately disqualify it from being the best.

This.

Wooting 80HE may not have the overkill all-metal build quality of this, nor does the Keychron Q1 - but both of those are full Hall-effect keyboards for $€£300 less.

In the world of custom keyboards, $500 is enough budget to get you something far nicer than this. We're talking carbon fibre baseplate and sintered metal 3D printed chassis, not that those are sensible choices unless you have money to literally throw away for no good reason.

 

[anton2014lev]

Hi all! I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Satisfied. Everything is made at a premium level, like all ROG product lines. I am attaching a photo

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