Asus ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition hands-on review

Asus is no stranger to special editions and game tie-ins for its products. The ROG Phone 6 is no different. If you"ve been keeping up with the space, you might remember the ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition, which already passed through the office, and you can read more about in our hands-on review. For its next limited edition, Asus decided to partner with Blizzard Entertainment on the legendary Diablo franchise and, more specifically, the Diablo Immortal game, which started its life on mobile and has since moved to PC as well.

Just like with the Dark Knight version, it"s all about presentation with the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition. Let"s start with the unboxing experience first. The ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition is treated as a proper collectible edition with all the bells and whistles typically associated with such editions in the gaming realm.

The first box you encounter is shaped like the Horadric Cube. Inside it, we find the phone box itself, which is modeled to look like the Worldstone - another legendary Diablo in-game item.

Before we get to the phone itself, there are some accessories in the box. Asus has thrown in one of its Aero Case protective bumpers, but this one features a geometric relief of a teleport. The Shield Blessing Aero Case, as it is called, also has a hidden "easter egg" on the inside - an image of Diablo, the Lord of Terror himself. It can only be revealed by shining on the case with the included Fahir"s Light torch onto the surface.

And speaking of cool little easter eggs, some markings are hidden in invisible ink on the included scroll, which depicts a map of Sanctuary - a Diablo in-game world.

Finally, Asus has a special SIM ejector tool styled like the Diablo emblem. Overall, a decent collector"s box, particularly for a phone instead of a game title. Unfortunately, you don"t get an AeroActive Cooler 6 as part of the exclusive bundle.

Let"s move on to the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition phone itself. Physically, this is just the ROG Phone 6, featuring a unique style but otherwise identical exterior and interior. That should be made clear straight off the bat.

The back of the phone houses some unique Diablo artwork, complete with a semi-matte finish. The decal is done in Hellfire red, and the colors actually vary in luminance of red depending on the viewing angle, and the way light hits the surface. It"s a really cool effect in person.

Just like the regular ROG Phone 6, the Diablo Immortal Edition has an Asus Aura RGB logo on the back. Only now, it is styled like the Diablo immortal logo. You can still control the color of the logo from the phone"s Armory Crate interface. The same goes for the small, secondary "DIABLO IMMORTAL" light-up text also on the back of the phone.

The only other physical changes to the phone design we noticed include a red accent on the power button and a red SIM tray. Both are in line with the color scheme of the rest of the phone.

Diablo fans will also appreciate the exclusive software customization applied to the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition. There is a special animated Diablo Immortal theme on the phone. It features a live animated wallpaper, redesigned app icon frames, charging sounds, and animations referencing the Diablo franchise.

We do, however, have to mention that contrary to our expectations, there is just one custom wallpaper available on the phone and Diablo Immortal is not preinstalled. We had to download it ourselves, and then the ultimate graphics mode was unavailable in-game on the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal edition.

As we already mentioned, design and accessories aside, the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition is actually identical to the ROG Phone 6, which, in turn, is the same as the ROG Phone 6 Pro, sans for the rear display. The Diablo Immortal Edition features the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset alongside 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It has all of the same bells and whistles, like the Ultrasonic triggers on the side frame and the side USB Type-C port for accessories.

If you want to learn more about the other aspects of the ROG Phone 6, like its performance and thermal behavior, you can do so in our in-depth ROG Phone 6 Pro review. You can also check out our dedicated review of the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate to see how that phone stacks up with its MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset and rear mechanized air cooling duct.

As for the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition, it will be available starting November 18 through the official Asus online store and select partners. Price is set at GBP 1,099.99. As the nature of the product clearly suggests, it is a limited edition, so if you really fancy picking one up, you shouldn"t delay.