OnePlus investigating OnePlus 5 "Jelly Scrolling" issue

OnePlus has responded to the discussions around the “jelly scrolling” issue currently found on some OnePlus 5 handsets. OnePlus 5 owners have been taking to the OnePlus forums and Reddit to discuss the problem, and OnePlus has now told XDA Developers that it’s aware of the issue and is currently looking into it.

Jelly scrolling is the name that users have given to the undesired OnePlus 5 effect that appears when moving up or down a page. When scrolling on afflicted devices, the screen will appear to stretch and squash portions of the content as it moves, which makes it look as if it’s wobbling, like jelly. You can see this in action here.

Several theories about why this is occurring have appeared online and after the first OnePlus 5 update rolled out earlier this week, the problem is still occurring.

OnePlus has been at the center of a fair amount of controversy recently, but in this instance, I don’t think the problem is a huge concern (yet). It might look ugly, but the issue isn’t harming critical functionality and bugs always make their way into software. Even a huge company like Samsung — the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world — has to deal with this. As long as OnePlus fixes it quickly, it’s no big deal.

I do understand the frustrations, though, especially when people have paid hundreds of dollars for the phone. And I know some will argue that products shouldn’t be released in an “unfinished state,” but it can be difficult to identify such issues until they’re in the hands of thousands of people. Further, it isn’t easy to just “delay” a product launch, and there are so many factors involved in releasing a smartphone that there will always be some issues.

Those unsatisfied with the OnePlus 5 should have every right to return the product (and they have, within 15 days). If you’re generally satisfied, you might want to give it a few days (weeks?) to see if a patch to comes through.

Of course, I only stand by these thoughts if this is just a bug and not an unsolvable issue. If this becomes an Android Wear 2.0 notification situation — i.e. if there’s no word on a fix in a couple of months’ time — then it could be time to visit the pitchfork emporium.

If you’re yet to check out our full OnePlus 5 review, hit the link.