Hydrogen One, RED's foray into the mobile market, features a 'holographic display'
RED, the high-end camera maker, has just announced its foray into the mobile market with a device that will apparently feature a ‘holographic display’. Coming from a company with a stellar reputation in the film-making industry, this announcement is unexpected but certainly interesting.
The Hydrogen One, as the device has been named, will be positioned as a premium smartphone with a starting price of $1200 for an aluminum body and going up to $1600 for a titanium-based build.
The press release, which anyone can read right here, is filled with more buzzwords that you can shake a stick at. However, it does have some interesting information, including that the display will apparently be able to switch between all kinds of different content including 2D, 3D, interactive games, and “holographic multi-view content”.
Jim Jannard, RED’s founder, seems so confident about the product that he even took to the forum to explain some things further. This is the most interesting part about the display:
“It is incredible. 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.
Our display is technology you haven’t seen before. It is not lenticular, which is inferior tech in every way, has been tried many times before and failed for good reason. (see Amazon 3D Fire, LG Optimus, etc). Lenticular display dramatically lowers resolution, cannot be turned off for standard 2D content, only works in one direction (usually landscape), has color crosstalk… to name just a few issues. My bet is that other “big” companies will try to re-package lenticular 3D displays with eye-tracking in response to our program. Don’t fall for it.”
Those are definitely some big promises and claims, especially for a technology that no one in the consumer market has actually seen. Once again, however, it is worth noting that RED is a reputable company which has delivered cameras to big-name projects. For instance, its 8K cameras were used to film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Of course, that is not to say that the final product will definitely be fantastic. It merely suggests that it will not be vaporware, unlike many a Kickstarter, for example, in which people have unfortunately wasted their money on bad investments.
The concept of a holographic display within a modular phone is definitely interesting, even though the Hydrogen One will be out of reach for most consumers due to its price. For the enthusiast with some cash to spare, it will most likely be a decent purchase if it can deliver on most of its promised features.
