Josh Hendrickson
The Oneplus 8 Pro is the company’s best and most expensive smartphone to date. The phone comes with a unique camera array that includes a “color filter” lens designed to give you special effects, like “negative image filter.” It’s somewhat like an infrared (IR) filter, and like IR, it can see through some plastic and clothing. So OnePlus is disabling the feature—in China.
The color filter camera comes off more like a gimmick than a game-changing feature, and we didn’t even use it much for our review. The Verge called its capabilities “silly, low-resolution, and not much better than applying a heavy-handed effect in post.”
But not long after the release of the phone, users began noticing an unintended feature. Much like an infrared camera, the filter lets you see through some plastics and some (very thin) clothing. A demonstration at Unbox Therapy showed how the camera could see through some controllers, cases, and a shirt.
For obvious reasons, some people don’t like the thought of an easy-to-use smartphone camera that can potentially render clothing and materials as see-through. Over on its Weibo account, OnePlus has announced it will disable the camera function entirely on its HydrogenOS used in China.
However, the feature won’t be disabled globally in OxygenOS. On its English-speaking forum, the company explained, “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.”
The plan, globally, is to leave the feature in place for now but release an update that will prevent the infrared-like “see-through” capabilities. OnePlus didn’t announce timing on that update, yet. But we’ll let you know when the company does release more information.
