Asus ROG Azoth Extreme review

The ROG Azoth Extreme is a $500 gaming keyboard. You're probably now staring at the screen mouth agape wondering what it is about the Azoth Extreme that makes it worth $500. In many ways, that's how I've approached this review. Because I didn't get it at first, and to be honest, I still don't.

First impressions of the Azoth Extreme were very good. I lifted the lid of the box it arrived in and it unwrapped itself like a cake in a Wes Anderson movie. A great start in trying to convince me it's worth a large sum. Inside the second branded box—truly no expense spared here—sits the Azoth Extreme. I reach in and lift it out, which takes a little more effort than I was expecting as it weighs 1.508 kg.

The first thing to notice about the Azoth Extreme is it's a 75% size—the same as its predecessor, the ROG Azoth. That means no numpad and only a handful of the traditional shortcut keys: Delete, Insert, Page Up, Page Down. It does at least retain the full function row, which means it's not overly reliant on the included Function key, next to which sits the Windows Copilot switch. 

Asus thought to include a spare keycap for the Copilot key, cleverly anticipating my need to promptly remove it, which I do thusly using the included keycap puller-cum-knuckle duster.

Size: 75%
Base: Hot-swappable
Switches: ROG NX Snow/Storm
Backlighting: Per key
Display: Full-colour touchscreen OLED
Anti-ghosting: N-key rollover
Polling rate: 1,000/8,000 Hz (with Polling Rate Booster)
Dimensions: 332 x 139 x 40 mm
Weight: 1.508 kg (w/out cable/wrist rest)
Connections: 2.4 GHz | USB Type-C | Bluetooth
Battery life: 130-hours (w/out lighting)
Price: $500 | UK TBC | Aus TBC

The Azoth Extreme's case is hewn out of a block of aluminium and stained to a deep black. The underside has been preened by a CNC machine down to a futuristic military look, with the outer edges milled away into a stepped pattern. For a slab of milled anodized aluminium, it's one of the loveliest I've laid my eyes on. I set about attaching