After nearly a year of delay, high-end digital cinema camera maker RED confirms a November 2018 release for the Hydrogen One, a smartphone featuring much hyped "four view" (or 4V) holographic technology.
According to the company, 4V technology allows the phone to handle regular 2D video, stereo 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, all without need for glasses or headsets. Built by a company named leia, the 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 resolution LCD display carries "Diffractive Lightfield Backlighting" consisting of a "nanostructured light guide plate" beneath the display.
All the jargon sounds impressive, but early reports suggest the effect is more akin to the lenticular 3D found in the Nintendo 3DS as opposed to anything remotely "holographic." As for the rest of the phone, the device offers two sets of dual cameras-- a dual-8MP setup on the front and dual-12MP on the back. Both allow users to snap 3D photos and video, although such media can only be seen on another Hydrogen One handset.
On the specifications side of thing, the phone runs on a Snapdragon 835 processor, and includes a dual-SIM slot, headphone jack and 4500mAh battery within a body rightly described as "SOLID." It does have an interesting feature in the shape of an modular design based on a set of proprietary pins, allowing users to add accessories such as power packs, expandable storage or a camera module, but so far RED still has to detail when and how such add-ons will hit the market.
As mentioned earlier the Hydrogen One ships next month.
