Red cancels Hydrogen project, say goodbye to Hydrogen Two

The Red Hydrogen One was one of the most ambitious yet disappointing smartphone releases of 2018. That didn’t stop the company from announcing the Red Hydrogen Two earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Red founder Jim Jannard has now announced that the Hydrogen project is being killed off. Jannard made the announcement on the company forum, citing his retirement due to health issues.

“I will be shutting down the Hydrogen project, ending a career that has included Oakley, Red Digital Cinema and Hydrogen,” the Red founder explained in the post.

Jannard said the Hydrogen One smartphone will still be supported, but a support timeline wasn’t disclosed by the founder. The founder added that the upcoming Komodo camera, which touted Hydrogen One compatibility, is still set for release.

This turn of events means that the Red Hydrogen Two smartphone will no longer see the light of day. Regardless of the Hydrogen One’s critical reception, we were looking forward to seeing just how Red could improve things with the new smartphone.

And there were plenty of areas in need of improvement, as our own Edgar Cervantes noted in his Hydrogen One review. Edgar criticized the pixelated display, disappointing battery life, and the pedestrian camera. But he also praised the phone’s design, build quality, glasses-free 3D, and clean take on Android.

What do you think of the Hydrogen project’s closure? Give us your thoughts in the comments!