Takee 1: The first Holographic Smartphone gets a new Update after 6 Years!

Takee 1 was the first Holographic 3D smartphone ever made.

Released in 2015, it was produced by the chinese company EStar and it featured the Holographic 3D Technology developed by the German SeeReal Technologies. This means that the phone was equipped with software that allowed to take full advantage of the phone’s 3D screen and eye tracking sensor and go beyond other 3D screens by offering new perspectives in real time as you move, just like the new Sony Spatial Reality Display.

The 3D effect provided by Takee 1 is really impressive and in comparison with 30 other 3D smartphones of the time, (like HTC EVO 3D, LG Optimus 3D, and others) or even despite the next 50 3D phones, it’s still clearly a step ahead. Only the Fire phone tried something similar, but in flat 2d. Not only that, the device featured gesture recognition to interact with holographic images outside the screen.

It was a silenced revolution, media hardly published any news about the device (like almost all news about 3D, in which they publish a single headline while they literally publish – they bombard us with – dozens of insignificant news about the new model of X brand). The price of Takee 1 was really cheap but this wasn’t enough and the Estar brand vanished within a year. Just because of that revolutions and exciting advancement of 3D displays, each one always silenced by the media, we decided to create our website. So 3D displays can have success in the future because people have knowledge of their existence and can be mainstream.

Just because of that revolutions and exciting advancement of 3D displays, each one always silenced by the media, we decided to create our website.

Throughout these years users have continued to enjoy the outstanding 3D features of this phone, despite the phone being stuck to the latest official firmware of 2015, based on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.

In 2016 the development for a new Custom Rom (unofficial update) for Takee 1 started. Everything happened on the XDA Developers forum. Users like st7ler, stas30, Maxmydishe, PogoDancer and YuriRM started to make tweaked custom roms, but they were still based on stock firmwares.

Soon after, a developer called Lukas_fb worked on an updated custom rom with full Holographic 3D support based on Android 4.4 KitKat, that at the end of development presented only a camera bug. This was great news for all Takee 1 owners,  but not so revolutionary, considering that Android 4.4 was very similar to 4.2.

Even before the final release of this Rom, other developers like vladjocker tried to port new Android versions on Takee 1. But battery usage was really high and due to bugs the phone was almost unusable.

But now, nearly 6 years after the launch of this remarkable 3D Smartphone, a new major update with Android 7 has been released by the Italian developer Mik-el. The new update is based on Android 7.1.2.

The rom was just released on XDA, it’s not in its final stage yet, but it already looks very promising, since the developer declared to be working on some patches to fix some bugs (such as bluetooth) and full Holographic 3D support.

The Rom was initially based on RidonOS and CyanogenMod but it seems that the OS is gradually shifting to a new custom firmware called Mik-el Android, made by the namesake developer. 

The italian dev has also developed an updated version of the default Holographic 3D Video Player with Eye Tracking. On a video showcasing his Holographic projects he said: “the code was really hidden and forgotten so I decided to fork the code and add features to the player”.

If you want to know more about the Takee 1 Update, the updated 3D Video player and some new 3D apps he’s developing you can watch the next video the developer posted on his Youtube account, if you like his hard work don’t forget to support him.

Do you have a Takee 1 forgotten in a drawer? Now you can resurrect it and enjoy it again!

Make the Takee 1 great again.