Holographic Smartphone Is Coming, but We're Not Sure You Should Get It

So it's 2017 and there are no flying cars and teleportation devices around, but there might be holographic smartphones sometime soon. As cool as that sounds, should we trust a holographic smartphone from a company that has never made smartphones before?

RED announced their first ever smartphone called the "Hydrogen One", complete with a prototype image of the phone. You can pre-order it right now on their website. The site boasts that the phone is:

The world's first holographic media machine. In your pocket. No glasses needed.

— RED

Which, for their first smartphone, is a pretty gigantic claim.

That's because RED is a cinema camera company. They're very well known for their excellent cameras, but we're not sure if that means they can be trusted for holographic smartphones or even smartphones in general.

Especially since we've never seen a holographic smartphone before, not one that doesn't require you to wear any additional gear anyway.

According to the information we have on the RED Hydrogen, the phone will have a 5.7-inch holographic display that will use nanotechnology to "seamlessly" switch between 2D and holographic content. They also claim to have other 3D content and interactive games that will go hand in hand with the display.

Which, of course, sounds far too good to be true. And at the very least RED founder Jim Jannard has recognized how wild and unbelievable it must sound in a forum post:

There is no good way to describe it until you see it. Our display is technology you haven't seen before. It is not lenticular, which is inferior tech in every way, has been tried many times before and failed for good reason (see Amazon 3D Fire, LG Optimus, etc).

— Jim Jannard

Jannard says he believes that RED has always been about announcing that they are going to attempt the impossible, and then successfully doing the impossible. If you ask me it's a little too convenient of a response. As BGR pointed out, it isn't as if this phone is coming from companies we trust to make good smartphones like Google and Apple. It's coming from a company that makes good cameras, obviously different than creating phones.

Others, like Cinematography Database, have said that that's exactly why they trust it. Because other attempts at programs at this level haven't been from those who aren't focused on changing the games camera-wise. Watch Matt Workman of Cinematography Database fully explain why he, as a developer, thinks that the RED Hydrogen One might be worth a shot.

However you decide to take this, it might be best to hold off on pre-ordering one until more specific information is available. Especially since the phones are, predictably, so expensive. If you really want to be brave, you can pre-order the Titanium Hydrogen One for $1,595 or the Aluminum Hydrogen One for $1,195.