What’s the best place to buy the RED Hydrogen One?

Best answer: You can buy the Hydrogen One from AT&T, Verizon, or unlocked directly from RED, but only AT&T offers a bundle with two free movies optimized for 4V playback.

AT&T: RED Hydrogen One ($1295)

Carrier support

If you're a cinema aficionado who just can't resist the temptation of the RED brand name, the Hydrogen One is finally available to purchase starting this Friday, November 2nd. At a whopping $1295, it's certainly not cheap, but it's the most affordable RED product yet, save for a few camera accessories like cables and batteries.

Both Verizon and AT&T will be carrying the Hydrogen One, offering different payment plans to make the phone easier to walk out with. Of course, you'll still end up paying the full $1295 over time regardless, but Verizon has 24-month financing for $53.95 per month. AT&T, on the other hand, will let you get away with $43.17 a month, but the financing period is stretched out to 30 months.

To help ease the blow, AT&T is offering free downloads of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Ready Player One to the first 10,000 people who buy a Hydrogen One on its network. Available in the Hydrogen Network, these movies are optimized for RED's Holographic 4-View display technology. Unfortunately, Verizon isn't offering any kind of bundled bonus content with the Hydrogen One at the moment.

Buying unlocked

If you don't mind handing over the full $1295 up front — or if you'd rather wait it out and snag the elusive titanium model for an even higher price of $1595 — you can buy the Hydrogen One directly from RED's site. While you won't get Fantastic Beasts or Ready Player One, you do get an unlocked model that's free of any carrier bloatware … and of course, you avoid piling more costs onto your monthly phone bill.

Our pick

RED Hydrogen One

$1295 at AT&T $1295 at Verizon

Squeeze every bit of value you can out of this high-dollar phone.

If you're going to buy the Hydrogen One, you'll get the most value out of AT&T's H4V movie bundle, but if that's not important to you or you're on a different carrier, you can buy it from Verizon or unlocked directly from RED.