The most delightfully overkill enthusiast feature of the ROG Azoth comes in its box of accessories, which includes not only the increasingly standard switch and keycap puller (an accessory you also get with Razer’s BlackWidow) but also tools to tinker with the innards of the keyboard’s switches. There’s a switch opener to crack them open, a little brush, a pot of Krytox lube, and even a tray to put your switches in while you’re working on them. I will not claim to be a switch-lubing expert, and I have no doubt there are better tools out there for this job, but it’s a neat kit to find included in the box and really underscores Asus’ target market for this keyboard.
Though the keyboards have been built with modding in mind, I wouldn’t say I felt an immediate need to mod them. Out of the box, both keyboards feel great to type on. The Razer BlackWidow V4 comes equipped with the company’s own pre-lubed Orange Tactile switches, and while there are a couple of different switch options available for the ROG Azoth, I preferred the company’s own pre-lubed linear NX Snow switches. Here’s how they both sound:
The Asus (particularly with its NX Snow switches) is definitely the better feeling and sounding of the two, but it’s also more expensive, and the Razer BlackWidow V4 75% is still a huge step up compared to Razer’s previous keyboards.
Importantly for gamers, Razer and Asus have been able to draw from the keyboard community while also playing to their own gaming strengths. The Razer BlackWidow V4 75%, for example, supports up to an 8,000Hz polling rate, which theoretically reports keypresses to your computer around eight times faster than most other keyboards. (The ROG Azoth, meanwhile, offers a more typical 1,000Hz polling rate but makes up for it with wireless connectivity — that 1000Hz rate is available wired or using the included 2.4GHz dongle; it also has Bluetooth at the usual 125Hz polling rate.)
I also want to take a moment to mention the ROG Azoth’s neat little two-inch OLED display, which I ended up liking more than I expected to. Although it spends most of its time showing a looping animation of the Asus ROG logo by default, it’s helpful when you start using the three-way volume rocker to adjust other aspects of the board, like its lighting effects. I also appreciated its small status elements, like showing the keyboard’s battery level, connectivity status, or whether it’s set to PC or Mac mode. Both keyboards are readily available in UK-ISO keyboard layouts, which is often not an option with smaller manufacturers.