OnePlus 8 Pro's Color Filter camera that can see through clothes will only be disabled in China for now

After announcing that the color filter lens of the OnePlus 8 Pro will be disabled in the future via a software update, OnePlus has clarified that the fix will only be coming to the Chinese version of the phones running HydrogenOS for now, and not the OxygenOS variants of the device found elsewhere -- including countries such as India and United States.

The information comes courtesy of a post by the company on its forums where it sought to give more clarity on the upcoming changes. It clarified that the color filter camera will be disabled in the Chinese market before the end of the week. It further added that the update planned for HydrogenOS users is a temporary fix, and the company plans to bring back the Color Filter lens to the OnePlus 8 Pro.

However, it did not stop there. In the post, OnePlus also added that it has no immediate plans to disable the color filter camera in the US or international markets. Although these markets will get the fix that company eventually decides on to solve the problem at hand.

OnePlus' move to disable the camera on HydrogenOS phones comes after news emerged of the OnePlus 8 Pro Color Filter lens being able to see through some objects and even clothes. This behaviour was observed when photos were clicked using Photochrom mode in certain situations. Since then, the issue has snowballed into a headache for OnePlus which since the launch of the OnePlus 8 Pro ha been talking up the Color Filter lens as a unique was of clicking photos with false-color filters on them.

But instead, the OnePlus 8 Pro's Color Filter lens being able to able to see through certain surfaces because it is sensitive to IR light and can catch light that's outside the visible spectrum has ended up creating a lot of privacy concerns for users.

Apart from the 5-megapixel Color Filter lens, the OnePlus 8 Pro also gets other powerful camera hardware. At the core of it is a 48-megapixel Sony IMX689 primary lens sat next to another 48-megapixel ultra-wide lens which boasts of a 120-degree field of view. The two have been paired with an 8-megapixel telephoto lens and a 5-megapixel colour filter lens. At the front, we have a Sony IMX471 lens with a sensor size of 16-megapixels.

The phone is currently on sale in India and is available in two memory and storage variants, with the entry-level 8GB+128GB variant available at a price of Rs 54,999. The higher-end variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage has been priced at Rs 59,999.