OnePlus 8 Pro: ‘X-ray’ colour filter to be disabled in China

The OnePlus 8 Pro, released in April, has been making headlines for its unique 5MP colour filter camera, which can see through certain types of plastic and—according to some—even some types of clothing.

While many YouTubers initially demonstrated the camera being able to see through the IR-permeable plastic used in the Apple TV and in many remote controls, fears mounted that the camera would be capable of ‘X-ray’ vision through clothing, with UnboxTherapy demonstrating how the camera could partially see through a thin black t-shirt.

On Tuesday, OnePlus announced in a blog post on Weibo that an OTA update would be released to temporarily disable the filter for its users in China. A staff member later clarified on a OnePlus forum post that the move would only affect HydrogenOS—the version shipped with phone sold in China—and not phones running OxygenOS, which is seen in the OnePlus lineup globally.

“Over the last few days, there has been a lot of discussion about the capabilities of the color filter camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro. Many users and media have talked about the unique photos you can take with it, but some have also raised questions about its capabilities to see through certain materials,” the post said.

“While we think this camera gives users the ability to get more creative with smartphone photography, we also understand the concerns that have been raised. Therefore, we are already working on an OTA that we’ll push out in the coming weeks to offer the Photochrom filter while limiting other functionality that may be of concern.”

“We decided to temporarily disable this filter on HydrogenOS out of an abundance of caution about some false and misleading information circulating on social media in China. However, we do not plan to disable this filter on OxygenOS, our global operating system, so we can focus on bringing the OTA to you as quickly as possible,” the staff member wrote.

The phenomena of being able to see through certain objects happens due to the photocrom mode that “processes light differently to generate a surreal image with a unique color tone”, the company told Android Authority. It is believed to be an infrared camera, but OnePlus have not confirmed this.

A similar situation was seen in 1998 when a Sony camcorder featuring an IR scope was found to be able to see through clothing by adding an inexpensive filter to it—prompting Sony to remove the functionality from later versions of the camcorder.