The RED Hydrogen One smartphone

Functionality over form

So RED last month announced that they were launching a brand new smartphone. I think the correct term is their first ever smartphone. So they reached out to MKBHD, a big fan of the RED range of cameras, to check out what they’ve been working on. RED releasing their own phone is a big deal and let me tell you why.

Smartphones for the longest time now ace been about getting more beautiful at the expense of the essentials. Stuff that people actually need. But RED is here to solve some of that with a good old fashioned camera phone or is it better placed as a cinematography phone? Sounds weird right?

Before I go on, you might not know what RED is all about. RED is a cinematography camera manufacturing company. They’ve made some of the most advanced cameras using some of the most advanced sensors in the market shooting RAW 8K video. All you should know is that their cameras are awesome.

Now all RED is doing is bringing all that expertise in color science and camera design to the smartphone industry. It is said that the best camera is the one that you have with you and often 95% of the time its your smartphone.

Smartphone cameras have come a long way from 3.2 megapixel shooters on the bulky Nokia N93 to 12MP f1.7 4K sensors on slim light iPhone 7. However, they still aren’t top notch. RED is looking to bring all their tech into a smartphone using their Helio sensor (which is miles ahead of the competition at this point) as well as a rugged design paying ode to RED’s rugged modular experience. Oh yeah, this will be modular too. Using a similar system to whats found in the Moto Z series of smartphones.

So basically high end video and photo recording. Will RED radically change the smartphone landscape? No. But for those looking to have a crazy good camera on their phone, this will be the first phone you should be looking at.

Specs are not confirmed yet but a holographic display is part of the package.