In a surprise move, camera manufacturer Red has just unveiled a $1200 smart phone called Hydrogen that has a ‘holographic display.’
The product, that has been teased throughout the past week, will reportedly allow users to view 2d, 3d, AR, VR and MR all without glasses on its 5.7 inch display.
Speaking on Red’s user forum, founder Jim Jannard explained his reasons for taking his company into the phone market: “So why do we feel we can make a difference in the cell phone market? Because we are doing everything different and (we feel) better. That is the only way to enter a market. That was the thinking behind Oakley. It was the thinking when we released the RED ONE. Same formula. Make something significantly better and you have a reason to be.”
The Hydrogen is certainly a fascinating prospect. Red says its “retina-riveting display advancement features nanotechnology that seamlessly switches between 2D content, holographic multi-view content, 3D content, and interactive games – both landscape and portrait modes supported.”
January described the display as “incredible. Our display is technology you haven’t seen before. It is multi-view (4-view) as compared to stereo 3D (2-view). Watching shocked faces light up when people see it is really motivating. There is no good way to describe it until you see it. Hopefully we will get some skeptics eyes on it soon… then they can tell you.”
Red is pushing the phone’s audio capabilities too saying that it has a “proprietary H3O algorithm that converts stereo sound into expansive multi-dimensional audio. Think 5.1 on your headphones. The perfect match for holographic H4V or just listening to your favourite tunes. The difference this makes would be enough to justify the entire system.”
Jannard added a few more details in a later post on the Reduser site saying the Hydrogen “also comes with internal storage and an external micro SD card slot. And a headphone jack. A selfie camera and a back camera. These cameras will not produce cinema quality images. No cell phone does. What we will have is a modular system that adds image quality well beyond any other camera short of our professional cameras. Remember that we have a lot of elbow room on this front. Our Weapon Helium sensor scored 108 on DXOMark.com That beat the Sony A7RII by 10 full points.”
The product won’t ship for a while yet but it’s already on sale for pre orders with the aluminium version going for $1.195 and a titanium version for $1.595
Jon Creamer
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