Asus ROG Azoth Extreme

Let's get this out of the way right away: the recommended retail price of this TKL keyboard is almost £480. Many places list it for less, while a few places charge even more for it. Regardless, this is way too much to pay for a keyboard. If you have the money and want to spend it on something close to the ultimate offering in the category, fine, this is for you. But I can't in good conscience recommend it when there are so many good alternatives for a third of the price. Even the closest, almost identical competitor costs around £150 less...

But what do you get if you decide to sell a kidney to buy a keyboard?

First and foremost, you get a build quality that is unrivalled. It's also exaggerated, with the aluminium frame that has an extra layer of protection on the front with bladed patterns. Many hours have been spent in the CNC machine, and everything seems to have been sandblasted and anodised, giving a very smooth and obviously extremely stunning surface. Even the underside is covered in a carbon fibre-like finish. It even has magnetic feet in different sizes that are milled from aluminium but have small rubber tips on the end for optimal stability. It's extremely over the top and I find it hard to see where to go if you want a new keyboard of the same level one day. It's a bit like getting a custom Ferrari made that you use to drive to the supermarket to buy milk. It's opulent and so extravagant that you can never top it.

While we're on the subject of expensive solutions, in addition to a silicone layer that acts as cushioning, there are also two different layers of Poron, a high-end industrial foam insulation. The dongle is magnetically mounted in a cavity at the bottom. Yep, magnetically... It costs a fortune compared to just making the hole minimally larger than the dongle for it to comfortably slot it. It's the kind of feature that adds that little bit extra, both in style and price.

In addition, there's an adjuster running through the keyboard that allows you to set it to either hard response for gaming or soft response for typing. I think it's perhaps a little too black and white of a split, and unless you're hammering away, both settings can be used for either - I might even say I prefer it the opposite way round to what is expected. But it's a lot of fun to be able to change the feel of the keyboard without having to take it apart and change switches or anything like that.

The switches are ROG's own mechanical NX Snow switches in acetal plastic, which most would guess are custom-made by the manufacturer Kailh. It's a refined linear switch that is fully oiled throughout the entire stem, which is protected behind an extra wall, and where the upper part of the key that is in contact with the stem is polished extra smooth to optimise the feeling of a very smooth and extremely fluid typing experience. It's a premium experience in every way, and even though my normal keyboard costs around £180, it is a plastic, boring, and cheap experience in comparison, and a disappointment to go back to.

Here, you get a keyboard with an 8,000 MHz polling rate in wireless mode, which taps into 2.4 GHz radio waves. You get an upgraded OLED display feature with touch elements. In addition, there's a very nice trackpad to navigate the screen, a carbon fibre top plate, adjustable middle plate to switch between hard and soft keys, and three layers of vibration damping.

The battery life is good, if not extreme. We haven't fully tested it, as it claims to last 1,600 hours, or about three months, of continuous use. For me personally, this means that at worst I have to recharge it every other month, but more realistically twice a year. It's crazy, whichever way you look at it.

The wrist rest is perhaps the most consistent I've ever experienced - heavy, solid, unmovable, and made of metal and silicone with a nice comfortable surface. I was initially surprised that there was no magnetic attachment or RGB, but honestly it doesn't matter once you start using it. I hope others don't follow Asus' lead though, because I would seriously guess that this palm rest costs the same in production as some of the cheaper keyboards on the market - and maybe even more.

It's all connected with the Asus Omni dongle, which can have a keyboard and mouse connected simultaneously. It's quite impressive that you can get 8,000 MHz wirelessly, but I don't quite understand why it's necessary in equipment that's not for hardcore competitive use.
Overall, I don't agree with every design and feature choice, but the quality of what has been designed is superb. It oozes quality, top shelf design, and something that ordinary people can't afford. But I would never recommend buying a keyboard this expensive, it's just too insane. If you can afford it though, well then it's nice, and if a full-size version with a volume wheel mounted horizontally instead of vertically was available in the same quality, I could be talked into buying it. Granted, at the risk of my friends and family thinking I was out of my mind.