Xiaomi released smartphones with “x-ray vision” long before OnePlus, only few knew about it

Recently, the OnePlus 8’s ability to “see” through fabric and some types of plastic has become a popular topic of discussion. Nevertheless, Xiaomi’s flagship devices two years ago, or rather Mi 8 and POCO F1, also have such an opportunity.

We are talking about the front camera Mi 8, which was equipped with an infrared sensor to unlock the smartphone in the face in low light. POCO F1, released later in the same 2018, received a similar front camera module, and with it the ability to “see” through some materials. Some users of these smartphones drew attention to an interesting opportunity only a few months after their release. However, in order to take pseudo-x-ray photographs, it was necessary to download a third-party camera application available on Google Play called “IR Camera – Poco F1 / Mi8”.

Just due to the fact that only front-facing cameras of smartphones had “super vision” and shooting “X-ray” photos without using third-party software was not possible, there was no such noise around the unique feature of POCO F1 and Xiaomi Mi 8 as in the case of OnePlus 8 Pro.

OnePlus issued a statement saying that the Photochrom filter, which allows you to take “X-ray” images, will be turned off within a week, but later an OTA update will be released with support for this filter, but it will be “deprived of functionality that may cause concern”.