On the edges of the phone, there’s a power button/fingerprint sensor, volume buttons, a USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a dedicated camera button. The 5.7-inch, 2,560-by-1,440 LTPS LCD is on the front, of course; it’s big and bright, but without the poppy colors we expect from some other phones’ OLED screens.
It’s flanked by two gigantic front-facing speakers. On the metal ridged back, you find a camera disk, a big RED logo, and magnetic pogo pins to attach future accessories.
RED HYDROGEN ONE set for rent in Thailand including adapter HDMI-USB Video capture with transform Phone to On-camera monitor with HDMI input.
RED created the first mainstream 4K digital video camera, the Red One, and has since moved to 8K with its Weapon line. Coming from nowhere 20 years ago, it’s a major Hollywood name today. It has now built a giant, heavy smartphone with a massive battery, scalloped grips, and a modular expansion connector for professional video camera attachments. So far, so good.
Software
The Hydrogen One ships with Android 8.1 “Oreo”, and is bundled with several applications intended to showcase 4V-compatible content, including RED Player, the LeiaLoft app store for apps and games, Hydrogen Network for movies and shorts (which also includes film rentals),and the photo sharing social network app Holopix. 4V content is currently proprietary to the Hydrogen One and can only be viewed through the supplied apps, but RED Player can also play back standard 3D formats which can also be uploaded to Holopix. Red stated that the device would receive ongoing updates to improve its functionality and software. The AT&T version is provided with 3D digital copies of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Ready Player One.
This isn’t the first time someone has tried to build 3D into a phone, but there are a couple things special here. For one, you don’t need glasses to see it. But the bigger improvement is that images have a bit more going on: where normal 3D is stereoscopic — there are two images, one for each eye — RED’s 3D has four images, so there’s a bit more movement as you look around. Because of this, RED refers to its 3D format as “4V,” or “4 View.”
There’s one final big feature on this phone, that’s a series of small gold pins along the back. This is the Hydrogen One’s accessory expansion interface, and you’re supposed to be able to attach all kinds of things to transform the phone, much like Motorola’s Moto Mods.
The most exciting of those is a full-on RED-made camera sensor, with a lens mount that allows you to attach real lenses. It effectively turns the phone into a monitor for a tiny cinema rig, and Jannard says you can shoot a RED-quality movie on it. “If you were shooting an 8K Helium on set as your A camera, this could certainly be your B camera,” he told me. “No question.”
Camera
The phone has dual 12-megapixel cameras on the back and dual 8-megapixel cameras on the front. It can capture 4K video at 30 frames per second, a limit of the 835 processor; other high-end phones can capture at 60fps. The phone’s 2D images are 4,056 by 3,040, while 3D images are 3,840 by 2,160.
You have a lot of video resolution and frame rate options now. Both the front and rear cameras go up to 4K, with 24, 25 and 30fps options (and 60, but not in 4K.) You can encode in H.264 or H.265 at data rates of 42Mbps or 100Mbps. And both the front and rear cameras capture 3D.
4K, H.264, 100Mbps files are really large, but that’s why you’re buying RED, right? Videos look terrific, solid and well stabilized, in good light. In low light, they’re still dim and noisy, and 3D videos need more light than 2D videos do.
