Motorola Edge+ Experiencing Serious Display Issues (Updated)

The Motorola Edge+ was supposed to be a return to flagship glory for a company who had taken a break from the ultra-competitive high-end smartphone market. The phone packed all of the specs necessary to compete with Samsung, came with a beautiful design, and a $1,000 price tag. We actually really liked it in our review. But now, as users have settled into the phone for a couple of weeks, a growing list are discovering serious display issues that appear to be related to the Edge+’s wildly curved waterfall or “edge” display.

At the end of May, an owner of the Edge+ posted to Motorola’s forums that they were seeing purple spots creep onto the phone’s display after using the phone for long periods of time. Those spots would go away once they let the phone rest or cool down, but with another period of usage, they would return. Others acknowledged similar issues while pointing out that their phones were experiencing a green tint in addition to the edge spotting. Since that first report, the thread is now 7 pages long and filled with shocking images upon images of this $1,000 phone’s display.

Here are a few of those images.

Motorola’s forum admin Matt has been in regular contact with folks in that thread who have had issues and suggested a week or so ago that an incoming software update might fix the weird display spots and green tint. That software update began rolling out on Verizon at the end of last week as build QPB30.188-48. Its changelog mentioned camera and roaming improvements, the June Android security patch, and “improved display contrast and clarity.”

That update has now been installed on several people’s phones and the verdict over whether or not it has fixed the issue is up in the air. Some who picked up the update right away claimed that all display spots were gone and the phone back to normal. Others, though, are not as fortunate. Edge+ owners are still getting green tints and others saw the spots come back after watching a video or using the phone for long periods of time. Replacement phones have experienced the same issues.

Motorola’s forum admin weighed back in this morning, suggesting that the “smudging” or dark spots could be too advanced in some cases for the software update to fix the phone’s display. His recommendation is to grab the update, see if it helps, give it a couple of days, and if the issue is still there then seek out a replacement phone.

Hi.

We’ve seen this software clear up the problem, but in some cases the “smudging” could be too advanced to be resolved in this way. We do think that the software will clear up many displays and prevent it from happening on those that haven’t had the issue.

We appreciate everyone who has been patient and waited for the software. If the problem persists after you have updated and given it a day or two, please exchange the phone with Verizon.

Regards and thanks.

-Matt

At this point, a lot of Edge+ owners are likely out of their return window, but this is a serious issue that should be covered by the device’s warranty. We’ve reached out to Motorola for further comment on the issue, what they might be doing for those out of return windows, and if Motorola has figured out what’s wrong.

For now, I’d suggest avoiding the Edge+ until Motorola can tell us what’s going. This sure looks like a serious display issue, and if replacement phones aren’t any better, staying clear is your best bet.

• UPDATE: Motorola got back to us and says they are “aware of these isolated edge+ reports.” They believe the software update they pushed out should fix the problems, but if it doesn’t, they want Edge+ owners to “receive individual actions from the Motorola Support Team.”

Cheers Brian!