The first commercial attempts to integrate holography or stereoscopy into mobile phones date back to 2014, with projects like Amazon's Fire Phone and the Chinese Takee. Both quickly disappeared from the market, and any variant of 3D technology seems dead and buried in the mobile space. But the folks at RED want to change that with their new smartphone, Hydrogen. The company describes it as "the first holographic machine", and it completely eliminates the need for glasses. Its specifications are almost non-existent, yet the hype is out of control…
Remember when companies rushed to slap a "3D" label on everything? Movies, movie theaters, televisions, tablets, smartphones… only washing machines and refrigerators were missing. As expected, consumers put things in their place, and manufacturers were forced to adjust their priorities, favoring more attractive technologies (like 4K). At the end of the day, nobody wants to wear glasses to watch TV or use a smartphone, and the solutions that tried to eliminate that factor never achieved satisfactory quality. The people at RED, known for their premium cameras, have decided to replace all variants of the 3D concept with a single product: Hydrogen.
All we know so far about Hydrogen is that it is an Android smartphone with a "professional holographic display" of 5.7 inches. The official text indicates that this display supports stereoscopy, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, in addition to "Hydrogen four-view holographic content" based on proprietary technology, with no transition issues between formats. To this is added an algorithm called H3O, which transforms stereo sound into "multidimensional audio." Apparently, users will be able to create their own holographic videos and share them through the RED Channel, either as a direct download or streaming, something that should enable the presence of movies, documentaries and games. Finally, RED says the Hydrogen is modular, and there will be a whole series of accessories intended to expand the smartphone's functionality.
The first deliveries of the RED Hydrogen will take place during the first quarter of 2018, and it will be available in two models: Aluminum and Titanium. Unfortunately there is no more data to differentiate the two smartphones, except for price. The RED Hydrogen Aluminum costs $1,195, and the RED Hydrogen Titanium jumps to $1,595.
