Hydrogen One Is Camera Maker Red's First Smartphone

Camera maker Red is making its foray into the smartphone space. On Wednesday, the company announced a phone called the Hydrogen One, which, the company claims, will be "the world’s first holographic media machine."

In a jargon-laden blog post, the company boasts of the Red Hydrogen’s display, camera capabilities, sound system, and support for modularity, a familiar feature that several companies including Motorola and LG have explored in recent years. At least one module will focus on higher quality motion.

The Red Hydrogen One smartphone features a "retina-riveting" display, which supposedly springs between "3D" and 2D modes depending on the content. One would be able to enjoy such content with wearing glasses, the company claims. About that, Red has also announced a channel where it will offer "4-view holographic" content.

The Red Hydrogen One will work with Red’s professional camera program (it's unclear if one would actually be able to plug their Red DSLR cameras), and offer familiar user interface and monitor. Much like several recent flagship phones, the Red Hydrogen One will also comes equipped with a USB-C port, but interestingly also has a microSD card should you need more storage. A 3.5mm headphone jack will also be present.

The Red Hydrogen runs Android with several proprietary features such as "H3O algorithm that converts stereo sound into multi-dimensional audio." We will have to wait to find out what exactly that means but the company says that the sound experience would be as good as plugging 5.1 audio out headphones.

Which brings us to the least exciting parts about the Red Hydrogen One. The phone comes in two variants: Aluminium, which will retail at $1,195 (roughly Rs. 77,350); and Titanium, which will retail at $1,595 (roughly Rs. 103,250). No word on the phone’s India availability, though readers in the US can expect it to arrive in Q1 2018. Pre-orders for the phone begin today.