Asus ROG Azoth X Review: A Space-Age Gaming Keyboard Leave a comment

Loads of mechanical keyboards wrestle with aesthetics. It’s arduous to get proper! If the styling is overdone, you may inhibit performance or simply have an excessive amount of happening visually. For those who persist with the fundamentals, you may find yourself with a bland keyboard. Whichever approach you go, there’s nonetheless an opportunity you’ll get it flawed and have one thing that doesn’t look good.

However there’s been an inflow of actually well-designed keyboards of late: Keychron’s K2 HE Particular Version is a superb instance, together with the Mchose GX87 Extremely, to not point out the numerous high-end customized keyboard kits obtainable immediately. With most of those keyboards, keycaps take a backseat—even when they give the impression of being good, they’re normally pretty customary and minimal.

Asus takes the other method with the ROG Azoth X: A easy white case, however colourful and stylized keycaps. It’s not probably the most standard design, however they give the impression of being actually good and handle to enliven a desk with out taking up your setup. This keyboard manages to look good with out sacrificing substance—the Azoth X has 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, 1,000-Hz polling, and an inner meeting that makes it each enjoyable to sort on and straightforward to change. It is obtainable in white with both click on or linear NX switches, and features a silicone wrist relaxation. All that prices a fairly penny, although, at $300.

Deep and Snappy Typing

This keyboard is most corresponding to Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% in typing expertise. Each use a steel prime case and a plastic backside case with a gasket mount system and a plastic plate. The stiffness is comparable, as are the sound profiles. The most important distinction is the change choices: Razer’s 75% keyboard is simply obtainable with tactile switches, whereas Asus provides linear and clicky switches.

The unit I obtained got here with Asus’s Snow linear switches. These are a reasonably gentle linear change with a deeper typing sound and a constant smoothness all through the complete keypress. They aren’t the smoothest switches I’ve examined, however the friction felt when typing is each minimal and constant, leading to a typing expertise that’s nonetheless gratifying. These switches even have minimal stem wobble, that means keypresses really feel secure and assured when typing. They require much less drive than a Cherry MX Crimson change, requiring 53 grams of drive to completely backside out in comparison with the MX Crimson’s 60 grams. This distinction is noticeable and makes the switches really feel extra responsive with out as a lot threat of mis-inputs in comparison with a very light-weight (sub-50g) spring.

The gasket-mounting system that holds the keyboard in place appears like a combination between a gasket mount and an o-ring mount, for the reason that rubber gaskets are pressed tightly into the within of the case. This implies the typing really feel is constant throughout the complete keyboard, and feels extra related to the case in comparison with an ordinary foam gasket. It nonetheless has a few of the bounce and softness anticipated from a gasket mount, however it’s lower than many comparable keyboards.

The stabilizers within the Azoth X are customary plate-mounted, lubed from the manufacturing facility. Whereas plate-mount stabilizers are usually going to really feel much less secure than PCB-mount, those used right here nonetheless really feel good and don’t have any rattle out of the field.

House-Age Aesthetics

{Photograph}: Henri Robbins

There are numerous issues I like in regards to the design. The keycaps are barely flatter than the typical keycap and have a two-piece meeting with a clear again for RGB diffusion. The case has a modern and angular design that appears fashionable and space-age with out taking on numerous room.