Moto Z2 Force screen won't shatter, might scratch

Considering most of the time we spend on our smartphones is spent on their screens, it's no surprise this where most of the attention is lavished upon. From curved edges to bezel-less displays, our smartphone screens have become more exquisite and seemingly more fragile as well. Scratch tests abound to reassure consumers that it isn't so, but Motorola might be taking a slightly different spin with the newly announced Moto Z2 Force. The smartphone boasts of a screen that won't easily shatter when dropped, but Motorola might have sacrificed some else in return.

"Shatterproof does not mean scratchproof." That is basically the summary of Motorola's response to recent criticisms from early reviews of the Moto Z2 Force. It seems almost ironic that a screen that claims to, and does, withstand painfully destructive drops would be so easily scratched by a fingernail. To some extent, Motorola does concede that to be the case, but the truth is a bit more complex than that.

It all boils down to Motorola's ShatterShield technology, which it has been using for its "Force" and "Droid" models to offer that shatterproof promise. While the exact details of ShatterShield is naturally shrouded by NDAs and patents, it mostly boils down to using plastic material instead of glass. Most smartphones these days use glass on top of the display panels, mostly Gorilla Glass. Glass is less prone to scratches but, since it's still glass, is susceptible to shattering. Plastic, however, offers more malleability and can diffuse the force of impact better than glass. The trade off, however, is that plastic scratches more easily than glass.

That said, Motorola isn't leaving the matter at that. It admits that it is continually evolving its ShatterShield material and that the Moto Z2 Force is the first of its kind to use a 3D design. This has the implication that it might have some rough edges, one that Motorola is continually and, according to it, quickly addressing.

And finally, good ol' Moto says that the review units sent out to reviewers were, well, review units. They were the first batch off the production line and that Motorola claims that it has improved on subsequent batches. Bottom line is that if you were planning on getting a Moto Z2 Force, you might want to wait for those new batches.

VIA: Pocketnow