By Liyo Kikon
The RED Hydrogen One could potentially be a game changer in the mobile industry and there has been a lot of buzz in the tech world about this phone but so far, everything was top secret up to this point until Marques Brownlee on his YouTube channel MKBHD got to be the first one in the world to reveal the device hands on. So, what is the RED Hydrogen One? It’s a phone which you can use to make calls and texts obviously, and it has a screen but this screen is no ordinary screen like all the other phones in the market, the display on this phone is said to have a “holographic display” which will display its contents in 3D without the help of any glasses or external devices. No one, aside from the folks working at RED and Marques know what the holographic display actually looks like but reports have shown that it is something entirely new and I’m guessing that it will not be like the 3D display on the Nintendo DS, but it will most likely be more like the display seen on BMW’s upcoming car which they are calling “BMW HoloActive Touch”. But whatever the case may be, the holographic display on the Hydrogen One will definitely be something straight out of a science fiction movie. And for users who don’t want to use the holographic display, you will easily be able to switch to normal 2D vision like a regular mobile phone since it already has a super high resolution 5.5 inch display.
But wait, there’s more! The RED Hydrogen One will have one of the most powerful mobile camera in the world and I’m not just making a wild guess since they have not released any sample pictures and as most people know that all companies like to claim that their cell phones have the most powerful camera but this is RED we are talking about and if you are unfamiliar with the company, let’s just say that majority of the films - be it Hollywood or Bollywood movies are shot on RED cameras. They are one of the big boys when it comes to films and since RED is known to produce some of the best digital film cameras in the world, I’d close my eyes and bet all my money on the rumor that the Hydrogen One will have one of the best mobile cameras. Now, imagine a pro photographer using just his/her mobile phone to take pictures! That sounds like a gimmick and anyone who knows how a camera work will tell you that it is impossible to take high grade pictures on your cell phone since the sensor on mobile devices are too darn small and not enough light can enter the lens to get the details we want but the big truth is that technology is evolving at an exponential rate and if there is anyone who knows about cameras, it’s the engineers working at RED and they told MKBHD that the Hydrogen One will have a camera which can only be surpassed by their big RED film cameras.
The phone is pretty big and it will most definitely stand out with its unique industrial design, and the first thing you will notice is that the edges have grips and it houses the power button with fingerprint reader on the right and volume rockers on the left and the back is made of Kevlar and metal with the big RED logo made of some kind of jewel which looks dominating and not to mention, extremely manly. And just below the logo are modular connectors which looks a lot like the ones on the Moto Z but unlike the Moto Z, the Hydrogen One modules will have professional grade hardware specially made by RED themselves which makes me wonder if we can turn the phone to look like a full fledged DSLR camera, I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. The speakers on the device are placed just below the front display and the USB-C power connector is placed on the bottom, along with the headphone jack and this headphone jack has another trick up its sleeve. RED is calling it their proprietary H3O algorithm which will essentially convert stereo sound into an expansive multi-dimentional audio which will make you feel like you’re listening to 5.1 surround sound on your headphones. And on the side, below the power button is a dedicated video recording button. It also supports Micro SD card slot for expansion.
One observation about this mobile device is that RED are not calling it a phone, they constantly call it a Media Machine and I have to say that I agree with them even though the device is running Android OS, the phone function is more like an extra feature at this point since this beast is capable of so much more. And being the world’s first Holographic Media Machine which fits in your pocket, the Hydrogen One may soon topple the big players in the mobile industry. The Hydrogen One is currently available for pre-order at a price of $1195 (Approx Rs.76,000) for the Aluminum and $1598 (Approx Rs. 1,02,000). Yes, it’s definitely not cheap, but new technology rarely is. So, if you got deep pockets and you want the latest and greatest, then the RED Hydrogen One is the way to go.
