The Red Hydrogen One is probably one of the most expensive phones I've ever tested here
on my channel, coming in at a whopping $1,300.
I originally purchased the $1,600 titanium version, but that's been delayed for a few
more months.
Red was nice enough to send out the aluminum version, along with this massive, sticky paperweight
thing to help tide us over until the titanium version comes out.
One of the reasons these phones are probably so expensive might be because we're paying
for the fancy metal and plastic emblems inlayed into the plastic box.
Do people normally display the box their phone comes in?
Announced over a year ago, with many delays, it's finally time to assess the build quality
of the Red Hydrogen One.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
The first impression right out of the box is that this thing is massive and hefty.
Metal is everywhere.
With deep, unique, rugged corrugated grips along both sides and the back panel, it's
definitely one of the most unique looking phones of this year.
The biggest high point of this phone has been the display.
Red claims that their 4 view light filled display creates an experience beyond 3D that
the world never saw coming.
The Hydrogen One has 2 cameras on the back so it can take these 3D, holographic picture
things.
You can get a pretty good idea of what it's supposed to look like as I wiggle the phone
back and forth.
Just in real life you don't need to wiggle the phone to get this effect because it's
built right into the screen.
It's really kind of like an automatic digital magic eye.
It's interesting for sure.
And with a $1,300 price tag, we hold the advertising promises to a whole new level.
I'm not the biggest fan of meaningless advertising buzz words.
So when Red says “the world never saw this coming,” I've got to step back and point
out that HTC did basically this exact same thing 7 years ago.
Seven.
Back in the year 2011, a year before my YouTube channel was even born, the HTC released the
Evo 3D with dual 3D cameras on the back.
I just picked up this little guy for $60 on eBay.
We'll do a little camera comparison between the Evo 3D and it's Red Hydrogen counterpart.
Holding both phones side by side shows the exact same 3D depth effect going on with each
screen.
We get the same shifting pop with both images.
This is probably one of those situations where Red would have been better off not hyping
the display.
The technology has definitely improved in the last 7 years, of course, but it's still
been around for a long time.
And it's not the $1,300 display I feel we were promised.
Let's jump into the durability with the scratch test.
Like always, we check to see what the holographic screen is made from.
Plastic will scratch at a level 3, glass scratches at a 6, and real sapphire crystal scratches
at a level 8 or 9.
Red is using Gorilla Glass to cover their holographic tech, and indeed we see scratches
at a level 6, deeper grooves at a level 7.
Similar to the Razer phone, we have some massive speaker grilles at the top and bottom of this
phone.
The top grille houses dual 8.3 megapixel front facing cameras that can also produce the same
autostereogramic 3D effect as the rear camera.
Both image sensors are protected with glass, along with the other sensors on the right
side.
The speaker grille itself is made from black plastic, similar to the Razer phone.
The bottom speaker grille is the same black plastic, which can be removed.
Interestingly enough, even though the exterior plastic grille looks like it has 2 speaker
locations, there's only one small interior slit where the sound comes out.
It'll look super glamorous and pretty on the outside, but rather underwhelming in reality.
So far, the Red Hydrogen One is not quite turning out like it's hypothetical snap chat
filter implied it would.
These sides, though, are impressive.
Made with thick, textured aluminum ridges.
There is no phone quite like it.
The volume buttons are both made from metal.
The rugged aluminum finger grips are mirrored on the opposite, and this includes a dedicated
camera button with a small red plastic inlay.
It seems to be Red's theme.
No complaints.
The fingerprint scanner and power button is also over here and can be scratched.
Although, with the height of the ridges on either side protecting it from rubbing against
anything, I highly doubt scratching will be an issue.
Even then, if it does get heavily scratched, it still recognizes my fingerprint and functions
every single time.
The top of the phone is made from aluminum, along with the SIM and SD card tray.
And strangely enough, this flagship still has a headphone jack.
Probably because this phone was announced a year ago when headphone jacks were still
cool.
Either way, I'm glad it's here.
The bottom has a USB-C port and a lot more metal.
Now for the back of the phone.
Red has put a lot of emphasis on their industrial aluminum design with durable Kevlar panels...which
I'm not really sure what they mean by “durable.”
It scratches at about the same level as plastic, and peels up like a giant sticker.
At least the copper accessory attachment pad doesn't peel off...that would be awkward.
That part might still be real, although no accessories exist yet, so it's hard to say
for sure.
The thick ribbed aluminum back plate is all metal.
You can see the silver shine through under the black coating.
I wonder if these ribs will help guide the hypothetical accessories into place when they
become available.
The Red Media Machine logo is made from metal with an unscratchable red inlay in the center.
Kind of neat.
The massive camera lens is covering dual 12.3 megapixel cameras, both of which are used
for that 3D effect, and have no wide angle or telephoto options.
The dual tone flash is made from plastic, and we have another scratchable Kevlar sticker
panel up here at the top.
I'm pretty sure I saw a dbrand version of this for like $10 bucks.
The design of the Hydrogen One is a lot like getting catfished on Tinder.
The pixel orientation of the Hydrogen One might be a tad different than your standard
LCD, so it gets that holographic depth effect, but it is still an LCD.
We should see the pixels on the Red Hydrogen's 5.7 inch 1440p IPS LCD start to go black from
the heat from my red lighter.
But when the heat is removed, the pixels start to recover.
This proves that taking a lighter to the screen has been useful at least one time in the last
hundred smartphone durability tests.
I knew it would be useful someday.
Thumbs up to the hardworking lighter doing his job.
And now for the bend test.
With how much metal is oozing out the sides of this phone, it's pretty reasonable to assume
it's built like a tank.
And the only way to know for sure is to apply unreasonable pressure to an unreasonably priced
device.
But when doing so, we get zero flex.
Not even a creak or a pop.
The Red Hydrogen One might be 7 years late with screen technology, using misleading plastic
speaker grilles with built-in Kevlar stickers, but they sure did make a very rigid and structural
smartphone.
Is it worth $1,300?
I'm not a big fan of the over-promising, under-delivering premium costing buzz words, so I'm going to
have to go with a “no” on this one...for now.
I definitely see potential down the road though when the price drops by probably half.
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