The ROG Azoth Extreme is by far the Taiwanese company’s best gaming keyboard yet. It offers an adjustable gasket mount; excellent sound profile; very smooth switches; and most of all, solid build quality with fast wireless connectivity. Throughout the review period, I absolutely enjoy using the keyboard as my daily driver.
That is, until I learned that the Azoth Extreme is priced at a steep RM2,380 in Malaysia. For that kind of money, you can easily build a more refined custom keyboard; well, maybe without the speedy wireless performance of the Azoth Extreme. But my point still stands: at this price point, ROG’s latest gaming keyboard is a tad too costly, even if it is ROG’s most refined keyboard yet.
What It Is
Compared to its predecessor, the Azoth Extreme now offers a full aluminium chassis. On top of that, it even has the aforementioned adjustable gaskets that can change the typing stiffness of the keyboard with a toggle on the bottom of the keyboard. To top it off, it even has a full colour OLED touch-enabled display now on the top right corner instead of a monochrome one.
That’s not all; further completing the feature set of the Azoth Extreme are a carbon fibre plate, a hotswap PCB, smooth linear ROG NX Snow or clicky ROG NX Storm switch – we received the former for this review – doubleshot PBT keycaps, and even a sweet (and hefty) silicone wrist rest.
Of course, the wireless capability of the gaming keyboard is also retained via ROG’s very own 2.4GHz SpeedNova technology or Bluetooth.
It goes without saying the Azoth Extreme is a well-equipped gaming keyboard, and for RM2,380, that better be the case. However, there are some aspects of the keyboard (beyond its high asking price) that leave much to be desired – more on these further down the review.
The Good Stuff
What surprised me the most when I first started using the ROG Azoth Extreme is the very refined typing experience. The adjustable gasket mount system really does work as intended; the hard setting firms up the typing feel, and switching the toggle to the soft option noticeably changes the softness of the individual keystrokes. In fact, changing the firmness setting affects how the keyboard sounds too!
Speaking of which, the Azoth Extreme has an excellent sound profile. It does not sound plasticky at all – a common issue with most pre-built keyboards – and it just has this…”clean” quality to it, as you can hear for yourself in the sound test above. I would even go so far as to say that it sounds just like a proper custom keyboard, which is high praise for an off-the-shelf pre-built keyboard.
Beyond that, the build quality of the Azoth Extreme is worth a mention as well. While there is a piece of plastic on the back of the keyboard to ensure optimal wireless performance, the whole case of the keyboard is made of aluminium alloy. This lends to solid build quality that matches the premium appeal of the keyboard.
As for the wireless performance of the Azoth Extreme, it’s very competent from what I can tell. I am by no means a highly competitive gamer, but whether the keyboard is in wired or wireless mode, I don’t notice any latency issue. I also appreciate the fact that the wireless dongle can be neatly kept behind a metal card on the bottom of the keyboard.
And then we have the ROG NX Snow linear switch of the Azoth Extreme, which is fantastic. Not only is it very smooth – thanks to the factory lube – the 53g spring offers just the right amount of resistance without being too light or too heavy. Material wise, the switch’s stem is made of composite POM, while the top housing is polycarbonate with a POM bottom housing. All in all, it’s an excellent switch that can go toe-to-toe with aftermarket switches.
Last but not least is the OLED touch-enabled colour display of the Azoth Extreme, which is quite nice. While a display on a keyboard isn’t anything new, this is a sharp, high quality panel that can show a number of useful information like battery level, system parameters, and even custom animations.
There are plenty of things to like about the Azoth Extreme, but it also has its fair share of shortcomings, which I’ll get to in the next section.
The Bad Stuff
The biggest drawback of the ROG Azoth Extreme is certainly the high asking price. Its RM2,380 price tag approaches very closely to the territory of higher-end custom keyboards, and for a keyboard that is supposed to be gaming-centric, you don’t even get a hall effect switch. This type of switch is capable of variable input, which provides a slew of advantages including faster response time and adjustable actuation points; features that are important to a gaming keyboard.
I’m not particularly fond of the Azoth Extreme’s doubleshot PBT keycaps either; the texture of the keys are much too rough for a pleasant user experience. The north-facing LEDs for the keyboard’s lighting are not great either, as they may cause interference with lower profile keycaps.
Is It Worth It?
It’s a tough question to answer, because looking past the costly RM2,380 price tag of the ROG Azoth Extreme, it’s a solid pre-built keyboard; it truly is ROG’s most accomplished keyboard yet. If it was considerably more affordable, I’d have no hesitation recommending the keyboard to gamers and non-gamers alike.
Ultimately, as much as I enjoy using the Azoth Extreme as my daily driver, the RM2,380 price tag is hard to swallow. Hopefully, the next iteration of the keyboard won’t be quite as costly, as ROG is one of very few mainstream brands that are developing some exciting pre-built keyboards – it would be a shame to see the Taiwanese company stop releasing more products in this space.