Motorola changes Razr shipping to prevent phones from showing up with fingerprints

Admit it: You'd be a little grossed out if a new smartphone you ordered showed up with someone else's fingerprints smudged all over it. For some Motorola Razr customers, that's been the reality. But Motorola says it's making changes.

As The Verge noted Thursday, a note on Amazon's product listing for the new 5G foldable Razr said phones were being temporarily removed from their boxes, put into a folded position, and re-inserted into the boxes prior to shipment. The idea was supposedly to protect the display (which was open and exposed by default), but phones were showing up with visible signs of tampering that made the new devices look slightly used.

In a statement, Motorola said this was being done at its factories and not by Amazon workers. In addition to that, "strict requirements on handling" meant the process should theoretically be sanitary. However, phones were still showing up with fingerprints on them.

In a separate statement given to Ars Technica, the tech giant said it was aware of the problem and is "implementing steps to prevent this from happening moving forward."

This is a bad start PR-wise for a phone that could use some good vibes. The first Razr revival from earlier in 2020 was a bit of a disaster with build quality problems that led to disconcerting noises whenever we opened and closed our review unit.

Hopefully the new one works better once customers wipe the fingerprints off of it.