RED is a company known for its high-end camera equipment, and now it’s getting into the smartphone game.
The RED Hydrogen One is now official, complete with a 5.7-inch “Hydrogen holographic display”. RED touts that in addition to viewing traditional 2D content on the Hydrogen One’s display, you can use it to watch holographic RED Hydrogen 4-View content, 3D content, and 2D/3D virtual reality and augmented reality content.
RED is also touting the RED Hydrogen One’s audio. The company says that it’s built an H3O algorithm into the phone’s OS to convert stereo sound into multi-dimensional audio.
The RED Hydrogen One is a modular device, too, offering a high-speed data bus that’ll let you attach modular components. RED says that you’ll be able to use modules to do thinks like capture higher-quality motion, but doesn’t offer many other details on the device’s modular capabilities.
Owners of RED Scarlet, EPIC, and Weapon cameras will be able to use the Hydrogen One to view the user interface and as a monitor, as well.
RED isn’t really talking about any of the Hydrogen One’s raw specs like its processor, camera resolution, RAM, or battery size. We do know that it runs Android and that it’ll have a microSD slot, and we can see in RED’s sole teaser image that the phone will also have a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C port.
The RED Hydrogen One is currently slated to begin shipping in Q1 2018. If you’re already sold on the device, you can pre-order an aluminum model for $1195 or a titanium version of $1595. RED does say that these prices will be available for a limited time only.
RED new smartphone certainly looks like a crazy piece of mobile tech, and while we don’t really know much about its hardware features, the holographic screen is intriguing and RED’s history with cameras means that the Hydrogen One could have some solid camera performance. The phone’s pricing is sure to turn some folks off, but people that buy RED’s regular cameras that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, the Hydrogen One’s price might not be such a big deal.