Motorola Signature 27 Arrives as a True Flagship Slab With Record Brightness and Battery Life

Motorola has spent years selling capable phones that rarely challenged the highest prices, yet the Signature 27 arrives at $1,599.99 for the sole US configuration of 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Preorders open November 19 with general sales beginning November 26, placing it squarely against the top Galaxy and iPhone models without any folding hinge to justify the cost.

Buyers get a body measuring around 162 by 77 by 8 millimeters and weighing 227 grams. It is finished in a combination of ceramic and aluminum, with certain edges gently softened, and includes a camera lens. The phone comes in two colors: Capulet Olive, which has a beautiful textile look, and Coal Smoke, which has a look that reminds me of tactical gear. To top it all off, Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 protects the front, and the phone is totally dust, water, and drop proof, due to its IP68 and IP69 ratings and MIL-STD-810H certification.

The phone’s front is dominated by a 6.8-inch Extreme AMOLED Duo panel, which is impressive to say the least. This OLED screen now features a revolutionary twin layer technology and can run at up to 120Hz refresh rate, making scrolling extremely smooth. It also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which could result in some stunning image quality. Motorola even claims it has some of the brightest displays available, with a peak brightness of 12,000 nits, and that it is significantly more power efficient than the previous model.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 CPU powers this beast, putting it at the top of the league in terms of processor power. That is driven by an ArcticMesh cooling system, which employs a sophisticated liquid to regulate temperature and features a large vapor chamber to keep the phone cool even during extended gaming sessions. US consumers will start with 12GB of RAM, but the phone can also temporarily provide some extra power via a special boost feature, as well as some ultra fast UFS 4.1 storage.

On the back, there are three cameras as well as a unique sensor that allows the phone to capture better photos. The main camera is a 50-megapixel Sony sensor with an extremely wide f/1.6 aperture, and it can even record 8K video. A 50-megapixel ultra-wide snapper allows you to capture stunning group images, while the 200-megapixel periscope camera offers 3x optical zoom and can zoom up to 100 times. There is also a sensor on the back that monitors how the light in a scene changes and tells the phone to freeze the image when it detects a fast moving subject, which is useful for action photos. A separate 50-megapixel front camera captures stills and 4K video, and as you would expect from a high-end phone, the two speakers have been tuned by Bang & Olufsen and enable Dolby Atmos.

The battery is a sizable 7,000mAh, which should allow you to go a couple of days between charges while still having enough energy to charge entirely in around an hour with a power cord or 50 minutes wirelessly. Motorola claims that with moderate use, you should be able to get at least a multi-day battery life from this device. The phone comes with Android 17, and Motorola promises to update it with new versions and security patches for 7 years. There are also some new “Gemini Intelligence” functions built in, and you can even install GrapheneOS once the bootloader is opened.