Another $1,000 Motorola phone has nasty screen defects

Motorola might need to crack down on quality control for its phones. After the foldable OLED display on our Razr broke back in February, sparking concerns about the device's reliability, Motorola's new $1,000 Edge+ Android phone is now suffering its own screen issues.

First reported by Droid-Life, it appears the Edge+'s aggressively curved "waterfall" display is plagued with abnormalities. Users on Motorola's forums have shared images of their phone screens with significant discoloration and spotting. Some users are seeing green or purple tinting along the curved edges and across the entire display.

Temperature damage? — There's no definitive reason for why so many Edge+ screens are breaking down. Some users are attributing the display issues to changes in temperature, suggesting they're connected to the phone's heating. One user claims the display problems worsen when their phone overheats and returns back to normal when it's cooled.

Temperature, eh? While we were unable to get an independent repair specialist like iFixit to examine our broken Razr because they have an on-going contract and partnership with Motorola for replacement parts, we presumed our screen cracked due to use in extreme cold and hot weather.

Hardware or software defect? — A Motorola forum admin named Matt has been responding to Edge+ user complaints by recommending they update their software. Some users have seen the screen defects disappear while others have not. At this time it's a toss on whether the display problems are software or hardware-related.

With nine pages of complaints on the forums, we reached out to Motorola to better understand what is causing Edge+ screens to display problems. A Motorola spokesperson provided the following statement:

"We are aware of these isolated edge+ reports and delivered a solution to affected consumers via a software update. Additionally, we are investigating reports that some active units are still experiencing the issue and ask that these edge+ owners receive individual actions from the Motorola Support Team."

Either way, it's unacceptable for a $1,000 phone to have major display problems within the first few weeks of launch. The forum admin has been fielding questions from users who live in the U.S. and Europe so it's possible the defects could be impacting Edge+ phones in multiple regions.

Between foldable displays and curved displays both having their own durability issues, we have one easy suggestion for phone makers: just make screens flat. People like them and they don't require any unnecessary manipulation of physics to produce. No, seriously, look at Samsung — they walked back on the curved edges with the S20 series. Apple's reportedly going back to fully flat displays for the iPhone 12, too.