Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “RED Hydrogen Prototype Hands-On!”.
Hey what is up guys mkbhd here and i have seen the red hydrogen smartphone, slash, camera system, prototype and now, in this article, i’m going to share with you so up until now, visually we’ve only had one image. This one render to base all of our thoughts on the design off of, and that’s great and all but jim from red, wanted to show me what they’ve been working on and wanted to dispel any myths that they’re not working on anything. So that’s a win for me, a win for you guys to get this video and a win for red to actually show you something. So they had a couple prototypes to show me. One was a fit and finish prototype with all the final materials and dimensions and the exact look that they’re shooting for number two was a prototype just with the working holographic display and then one more prototype which i’ll show you guys.
At the end, i took a look at all of them, but i really focused in on the fit and finish materials prototype, because that’s exactly what they intend the final project, the thing that you buy to look like, and it looked like this so yeah right off The bat pretty intense, a lot of materials going on you have a really industrial, looking tri-panel design looks kind of, like a moto z, had a baby with a tractor like it’s. This part rugged part modern, look, and i really kind of like it. The middle part is metal, and this logo cut out with what feels like a jewel with the red logo in it is pretty crazy and the top and bottom parts are kevlar panels, which is good for antenna, pass-through and, of course, durability when you’re using it. As an actual phone and then on the sides, you have these grips these notches, like you saw on the render it doesn’t feel too weird to hold, but of course i obviously have pretty big hands.
So this natural fit for me might not be the case for everybody. I used the phones, i had with me for a little bit of a size comparison and, as you can see, it’s a big phone. This hydrogen is going to have a lot of room for some serious internals with a footprint this big, you know i still fit it in my pocket. There didn’t seem to be any real problems, but obviously this will turn into a two-handed phone for a lot of people and then the camera bump on the back definitely more of a placeholder than an indicator of what the module will actually look like on the inside. But it’s still pretty big. Definitely couldn’t tell that from the render photo and then the button placement is solid power button on the right hand, side, which will also be flat and double as a fingerprint reader kind of like sony phones and then the volume buttons are separated. On the left hand, side which they probably have to be because of all the notches and ridges for the grips, and then it also has a dedicated video record button, and you can probably, of course take photos with it as well.
Usb type c at the bottom, and we also see a headphone jack down there, but they’re actually planning to move that up to the top and then at the front, there’s front-facing speakers a pair of them likely a stereo pair flanking. What will be a 5.5 inch super high resolution display and yeah those pins at the bottom of the back, as you’ve probably already noticed, very reminiscent of the moto z, because they will end up being used for the same essential purpose: snap-on mods that add to the Functionality of the phone then, like i said this fit and finish prototype, has all these final materials and everything, but it doesn’t have a working display for that. They had a second prototype just with the holographic display, and let me tell you i wasn’t allowed to show this and it wouldn’t have really translated that well on video anyway, but what i can show you is my reaction to seeing it for the first time.
So they showed me some content that was shot like normal in 2d and then converted to four view for this crazy, deep sort of 3d look and there’s also content. That was shot for this view and i got ta say if my reaction isn’t strong enough trust me. I was just kind of at a loss for words just soaking it all in, but i was pretty impressed. It definitely wasn’t perfect and it had some quirks.
Like light bleeding around the outside of the display and some stuttering when i messed with some for view gaming stuff, but this was a prototype and this would just keep getting better with time and hopefully be buttery smooth and seamlessly integrated by the time it launches. Next year, and also if you end up not liking it, you could just never turn it on, because it has a regular 2d mode that looks fantastic as well, just like any other normal smartphone. So just as a pure smartphone, this hydrogen is looking really interesting. Obviously it has, these rugged looks and these unique features probably doesn’t have things like wireless charging probably doesn’t have waterproofing, but again it’s a unique feature set and a unique price for obviously a unique user and then, as a pocket cinema camera.
Hydrogen is actually even more interesting, so jim made it clear that he feels that this can and will be the future of small form factor cinema, and i mean you can see that being true with as good as red stuff already is, and this hydrogen system being Helium based it should also have incredible video quality and should outperform other mirrorless cameras and small dslrs in an even smaller package. In fact, that’s what jim said is: the quality should only really be surpassed by red’s, bigger cameras and the pins and magnets module system is pretty intense. I can’t really describe it too much because obviously number one they’re prototypes and number two a lot of it is still under development and confidential, but think of it as like. Moto mods on steroids, same idea with adding functionality to the device, but uh.
Remember that last prototype, i told you about in the beginning of the video. Well, that’s what that was, so this is what that could look like and, as you can see, attaching a module specifically for adding a sensor and a lens mount can already make this. Look. Pretty serious so that for now is all i can show, but apparently in the next 30 to 45 days, they said, they’ll have an actual prototype with both the fit and finish and the holographic display in the same body.
But what you just got from this video is a quick world exclusive. That’S something that red’s working on that they wanted to share with you guys. So there you have it. What do you think is that is that enough to justify pre-ordering, a thousand plus dollar smartphone or mini pocket camera, or whatever else these things might do.
Let me know, hopefully there’ll be more information to come, but until then that’s been it. Thank you for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace you .