This camera filter on the OnePlus 8 Pro can see through plastic and clothes

If you could have any superpower, would it be flight? Invisibility? Maybe X-ray vision? If your choice is the latter, you’re in luck. All you have to do is buy a OnePlus 8 Pro and use a new camera filter to see through things. It’s the wackiest accidental smartphone feature ever invented, but luckily it’s not particularly powerful

The OnePlus 8 Pro’s main camera’s got a few filters to choose from, and a newly added Photochrom filter can reportedly see through thin plastics and clothing to a certain degree.   can see through certain kinds of plastic. If you’ve got one (we know they’re particularly hard to find in SA, but if you do), all you gotta do is activate the Photochrom filter in the camera app, aim it at something black (or preferably black according to reports) that is plastic or cotton and see through the plastic to reveal the insides.

Peek-a-boo

Honestly, we thought it would be years before we would see x-ray tech in smartphones. Firstly, it sounds hella dangerous (you want the 5G-conspiracy nuts to lose their minds?) and secondly, we’re not convinced that it’s a good idea. However, it doesn’t seem like OnePlus intended for the filter to have this strange ability. 

But it looks like the special feature won’t work on any devices that have IR shielding, because it uses infrared light to ‘see’ more than the human eye can see. It won’t work on thicker plastics or materials, but the thinner (and blacker) the plastic, the better. 

The Verge reported on the strange feature, linking to an Unbox Therapy video (above) that details some of the things the filter works on — like a thin black cotton t-shirt, a remote control, an Apple TV and a Nintendo Switch controller. It’s creepy as hell but it works. 

Apparently The Verge reached out to OnePLus to query the weird x-ray filter and find out how it works. Right now we’ll attribute it to black magic, and we’re comfortable with that designation.