Gadgetory

okay so you know when you're at a friend's house and out of politeness you wolf down the butternut-squash giving your compliments to the chef and then to your utter dismay they plop another giant helping on your plate well today's subject is a little bit like that because we still can't quite figure out who asked for some of the features of the phone we're reviewing today the red hydrogen one but you know what you guys were asking for I'm sure this sponsor this video is brought to you by story blocks video they offer studio-quality stock video clips for our fraction of the cost check them out today at the link in the video description our titanium version of the hydrogen one arrived in a nondescript black box with a letter from Redd explaining why we didn't actually get the titanium version that we ordered looks like they're gonna send it later but as a way of saying sorry we actually get to keep the aluminum one that they shipped early well I mean I think early is probably less accurate than saying less horribly late but still two phones for the price of one overpriced one is pretty good as apologies go and I've got to give some kudos here for a company that doesn't always do a great job of included accessories throwing in a fast charger was a nice touch now after about a week of shared use between me and Brandon there are some things about the hydrogen one that stand out the build quality is exceptional with the phone being made of mostly metal with these scalloped ridges on the side that actually helped with grip more than I anticipated another unexpected benefit of the scallops is that they make it really easy to find the power button which doubles as the fingerprint reader this was a problem that I noticed with the razor phone too when I was using it recently that ruggedness does come with some trade-offs though this is one heavy phone like to give you guys some context compared to the samsung note 9 the note 9 is gigantic the hydrogen one is point one six pounds more and you can feel every gram of it to the point where daily use especially with small hands like mine did get tiring at times continuing with the physical tour we get to front selfie cameras to rear cameras much more about those in a moment stereo front-facing speakers a headphone jack a toolless SIM tray the holographic q HD display and the type-c connector at the bottom now before we get to the two big features of this phone the display in the cameras I want to take a minute to talk about the speakers on Red's website they say sound you didn't think to ask for and I think this was an unintentionally apt way to describe it because if I had ever overheard someone asking for this weird 3d audio technology and their smartphone I would have told them that frankly that's a pretty silly idea and Red's implementation has done nothing to change my mind with 3d audio enabled you are supposed to have this expansive spatial immersive experience but in my opinion it just sounds like a cheap eq preset and going around the office and having others try it both with and without headphones every single person preferred the unaltered version and a couple people actually shared my disappointment with the maximum volume of this thing considering how much of the phone is taken up by speaker grilles let's move on then to one of the weirdest features to hit a smartphone in a long time the qHD holographic display going back again to Red's literature we once again find bold claims and once again find ourselves disappointed I mean the 3d effect is cool like when the phone first boots up you're greeted with a stereoscopic 3d graphic that kind of pops off the screen and shows off what the display can do and red built what they're calling hydrogen Network which is supposed to be a hub for content that takes advantage of the display but the demos themselves are mostly unimpressive and gimmicky feeling due to the fact that it feels like there is a significant drop in resolution when you're playing back with the 4 V display on the bottom line is that for media consumption the holographic effect is cool but only for about five minutes and the story doesn't change for gaming on any of the whopping three games that are available in lay aloft none of this vote would be a huge problem if it wasn't for the glaring issues that exist while consuming normal content compared to other flagship smartphone displays the color accuracy and contrast of the hydrogen one is just well I don't know how else to say this it's not even close which is an even bigger problem when you consider Reds pedigree as a content creator company you basically can't do any meaningful photo editing on this phone which is becoming a more and more common use case bringing us perfectly then to the elephant or I wouldn't be a dragon or something more ferocious in the room the cameras red is of course first and foremost a digital cinema company so how has that translated to its smartphone the answer is it's complicated the $1,300 price tag on even the aluminum version of the hydrogen one means that we have no choice but to compare it to the best of the best and Red's lack of experience here really shows it's not bad across the board or anything like that but it's disappointing it leaves me wishing that red had pushed to be just a little bit better look at this shot now the pixel 3 came out with the closest shot to my eye with the note 9 going a little bit too far and over exposing the building and the iPhone 10's my opinion leveling out the entire exposure in each part of the image too much to the point where everything looks bright and at the same time making the whole image lack any realistic depth now the hydrogen actually did a good job with the dynamic range and if we look closer the detail captured is actually quite good maybe even better than the note 9 but the images from this phone they lack color and they feel flat honestly it feels kind of like the approach that cinema cameras take when recording video Flattr recording allows the editor more flexibility in post-production in terms of color and it allows cameras the ability to capture a much wider dynamic range versus if they just tried to grab something that's closer to real life and record it straight to the camera and this characteristic is where my conflicted feelings about the hydrogen one begin the hydrogen photos consistently came out duller and flatter than any of the other phones and you might think well I like editing my photos and a flatter image is a good starting point for a stylized edit but these are JPEGs not Raw's so there's less flexibility in post and if you look closely the hydrogen one's dynamic range is not as good as the iPhones or the pixel freeze which means that even with the theoretically helpful flat look approach red is still having trouble matching the performance of the other flagships so it's the camera not the screen or the speakers or the weight or the price where the hydrogen one finally really falls apart for me again it's not terrible this portrait mode shot is being lit by a neon sign which is a very challenging scenario and the hydrogen one managed fairly convincing and natural-looking bokeh compared to the pixel three with the iPhone and the note both face-planting with various levels of spectacularity but as we look through this bunch of photos what we find is that these golden scenarios are few and far between and overall the images captured by the hydrogen one tend to lack life which means more busy work in Lightroom for an end image that in many cases won't be better or even as good and the holographic images are not enough to save it selfies feel like you're taking a photo for like a rare version of a trading card and the rear camera is actually kind of nauseating to shoot with because the hydrogen attempts to convey the effect in the live preview which basically just makes it harder to tell if your photos in focus it's a gimmick and I suspect a second generation phone if they do one won't include it so in conclusion the red hydrogen one is an interesting idea paired with flagship hardware from two years ago and under developed software that needs a lot of maturing before red will be able to take on the true flagship competitors if the camera was amazing we might be singing a different tune especially in light of the upcoming accessories and the integration with other red products and we use them every day including this shoe this shoe right now shot on red but as it is it's just not enough and you shouldn't buy this film unless you're like a massive red fanboy and you basically just want it as like a collector's piece I mean I'll probably hold on to it for that speaking of holding on hold on to your hats kids because with story blocks video you can get studio-quality stopped video clips for a fraction of the cost you can download all the stock video your heart desires from their member library including HD and 4k 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