Motorola delays RAZR in Australia after folding phone suffers screen bubbling and peeling problems

Australians will have to wait weeks to get their hands on Motorola’s folding smartphone after screen issues but company blames China slowdown. The much-anticipated return of the Motorola RAZR will instead be delayed by weeks, with one Australian retail chain estimating pre-orders would not be filled for another month. But Motorola Australia this afternoon blamed the outbreak of novel coronavirus for the latest delay, saying the “situation in China” was “inevitably impacting” its production. Motorola appeared to have overcome initial problems with the design of its next-generation RAZR late last month when it launched in the US and named February 24 for its Australian arrival. Motorola APAC sales general manager Danny Adamopoulos said Australia was chosen as one of just seven countries to get access to the rebooted smartphone in February after “several thousand people” registered on its local website for news about the device. The new RAZR features a striking 6.2-inch touchscreen that bends and folds over on itself to become a tiny, pocket-sized device. Both Motorola Australia and JB Hi-Fi had offered pre-orders of the $2699 smartphone but have since changed its February 24 launch date to “mid March”. “Due to production delays, the Motorola RAZR is now expected to be available from 17 March 2020,” according to the electronics retailer. But, in a statement, Motorola Australia said the smartphone’s launch could be delayed until the end of March, blaming factory shutdowns and slowdowns in China following the coronavirus outbreak. “This situation in China is inevitably impacting the launch and highly anticipated availability of the Motorola RAZR,” the company said. “By far most of our factories in China have reopened and are operational, albeit on a limited basis due to health quarantine restrictions, and public transportation and travel limitations. “The remaining ones, located in the Hubei region, will open in line with the policies of the respective regional government where they are located.” The new delay also followed reports of problems with the device’s screen overseas, with tech reviewers reporting that its plastic screen had bubbled and peeled away at the hinge after as little as one week of use. Motorola responded to Raymond Wong’s report in Input, stating that it did not “expect consumers to experience display peeling as a result of normal use,” but it could react badly to temperature extremes. “As with any mobile phone, Motorola recommends not storing (eg in a car) your phone in temperatures below -20C and above 60C,” the company said. “If consumers experience device failure related to weather during normal use, and not as a result of abuse or misuse, it will be covered under our standard warranty.” CNET also tested Motorola’s folding phone with a robot and discovered it only survived 27,000 folds, compared to 120,000 for the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Motorola first delayed the release of its folding smartphone in December last year citing higher than expected demand. Samsung also suffered a setback with the release of its first folding smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, last year after US tech reviewers discovered peeling what looked like a plastic protective layer ruined its screen. The $2999 device was subsequently redesigned and re-released.