RED Hydrogen One Android Phone Heading To US Carriers Possibly This Summer

Back in July 2017, cinema camera maker RED announced the Hydrogen One, its very first Android smartphone. Now the company has confirmed that the RED Hydrogen One will be heading to U.S. carriers and will likely be released this summer.

“Carrier support for Hydrogen is unprecedented… we just can’t tell you yet. Safe to say it is as good as it gets. This is great news for many obvious reasons, but it is bad news for the time that it takes for each carrier to certify the Hydrogen before it can launch,” RED founder and CEO Jim Jannard said.

“We have no control over that process and are at the mercy of the carriers when they can get through that process. This means ‘official’ ship date for carrier phones is going to likely be sometime in the summer. ‘Unlocked’ Pre-orders will however ship before that.”

For the uninitiated, the RED Hydrogen One is an Android phone that features a 5.7-inch hydrogen holographic display. The phone is capable of showing traditional 2D content at full screen resolution and 3D content without the need of 3D glasses. The device can also display 4-View holographic content. RED partnered with the startup called Leia Inc. to make the technology possible on its upcoming smartphone.

The RED Hydrogen One is specifically designed for video professionals and filmmakers. The Android phone is modular, letting users add accessories to the camera to shoot higher quality videos and photos. The device can also function as a control center for RED’s cinema cameras.

Since the device is primarily aimed at professionals, the RED Hydrogen One is quite expensive for an Android phone. The device costs $1,195, while a titanium version of the handset costs $1,595. Having the device available through carriers will certainly soften the blow of the expensive price.

The company’s CEO has also given consumers an update on the device’s specs. The RED Hydrogen One will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor, which is also the same chip that’s powering most Android flagships of 2017, like the Galaxy Note 8, Google Pixel 2 and the OnePlus 5/5T.

The RED CEO also confirmed that the device will have a massive 4,500mAh battery. Other specs that were confirmed by the CEO include a headphone jack, a hybrid dual SIM card slot (two SIMs or one SIM and one microSD) and a USB Type-C port.