AT&T and Verizon will release the unique RED Hydrogen One on Friday, holographic gifts in tow
The "first holographic phone" - RED's Hydrogen One - will be released by AT&T and Verizon this Friday, November 2nd, and a surprise move by AT&T entitles buyers to free movies that can take advantage of the stereoscopic display. The unique camera-centric device is priced at $43.17 a month over 30 months with eligible AT&T Next plan. At Verizon, the RED Hydrogen ONE will go for $53.95 a month but for a more orthodox 24-months period, and both installment plans amount to a steep $1295 retail price.
The renowned professional camera maker had some run-ins with regulatory approval complications and the dearth of titanium-molding companies, so it postponed the launch. Andy Rubin of Android and Essential Phone fame knows all too well how hard it is to make a quality titanium body. The Essential team sought long and hard for someone who can cast a single-piece casing out of the tough metal, and found only one niche German (what else) company that was able to make the Essential Phone housings.
We'd wager to guess that the same thing happened with the RED team and their titanium phone, so they promised compensation for those who ordered the more expensive Hydrogen One version in the form of... a free aluminum one, not bad of a deal.
To top it all, the first 10,000 customers that buy the phone from AT&T and register an account with RED's newly-minted Hydrogen Network. are getting two of the so-called "4-View" movies - "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them" and "Ready Player One" - for free to try out the unique holographic display.
With a 4500 mAh battery, Kevlar body and generous memory amounts, the Hydrogen One is an intriguing proposition if you can live with the somewhat aging chipset which, however, has probably been heavily tailored for image-processing prowess. RED is also prepping snap-on camera module extras that could make the phone a photography power house, but we will know more about its Hydrogen One plans come this Friday when it is released at Verizon and AT&T.
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