RED HYDROGEN ONE hands-on shows solid design, support for snap-on camera mods


RED HYDROGEN ONE prototype

RED announced the HYDROGEN ONE Android smartphone with holographic display last month. The company did not show how it would look like. Now popular Youtuber Marques Brownlee has teased prototype of the phone on his channel to show how the phone will look like. He said he saw three different prototypes – a non-working unit with the final design and dimensions, one that shows the holographic display in action, and a third is a separate camera module with its own lens and sensor.

RED HYDROGEN ONE proto

The first prototype that is shown in the video has dual rear cameras with dual-tone LED flash, tri-panel design with kevlar finish on the top and the bottom part and metal finish in the center with the big RED logo. There are also connector pins for modules. There are ridges on the sides for finger grips and a dedicated shutter button. The power button on the right also has a fingerprint sensor embedded into it.

There is a USB Type-C port on the bottom and the 3.5mm audio jack that is present on the bottom will likely be moved to the top says Marques. The phone will have dual front-facing speakers below the display.

RED HYDROGEN ONE modular camera

This is the third prototype that has a snap-on camera module that will make it thicker, but add “image quality well beyond any other camera short of the company’s professional cameras,” as it said earlier.  There there will be more mods soon.

He said that the final prototype will be ready in 30 to 45 days. As the company had announced earlier, the RED HYDROGEN ONE starts at $1,195 (Rs. 77,340 approx.) for the aluminium version and the titanium version costs $1,595 (Rs. 1,03,235 approx.) for a limited time. It is already available for pre-order and is expected to ship sometime in Q1 2018.


Author: Srivatsan Sridhar

Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. He uses the phones he reviews as his main phone. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram