Motorola Signature first impressions: A sleek new flagship with big ambitions

Motorola has been in the insurance premium securities industry with its Razr devices, but the accompany is at present jumping into the flagship candybar take shape factor and its first attempt at that is the Motorola Signature, which I have been using for a few days now. The phone is yet to be launched in India, so I will reserve my full opinions for the full review, which will go live shortly after the official launch event. For now, here is my attempt at giving a hands-on experience with the Motorola flagship.

Unboxing:

The Motorola Signature comes in a black-coloured box which, like other Motorola devices, bestows a sweet fragrance. Opening the box, you are greeted with the device itself wrapped inside a black cover, followed by some paperwork, FIFA branding, a SIM ejector tool, a 90W adapter and a USB-C to C type cable. Sadly, there is no case inside the box and the phone does not come with any pre-applied screen protector.

The Signature comes in two colour variants: Pantone Martini Olive and Pantone Carbon. I received the latter version for review in the 16GB RAM/1TB storage variant.

The back is made out of a linen-inspired fabric finish which means there is no risk of either smudges or scratches. The top-left half of the device holds the camera module which is slightly protruded and holds four different rings, three for the cameras and one for the flash.

The quality of the camera rings wasn't what I would have expected though. I had the Motorola Signature in my bag for a few days and the rings seem to have gained some scratches on the edges, which is slightly odd since the display has no visible scratches at all.

The Motorola logo remains present in the middle while the frame is made out of aluminium, giving a solid in-hand feel to the device. The USP of the design, however, has to be its sleekness, measuring in at just 6.99mm with a weight of 186g, making it among the most comfortable-to-hold phones in this category.

Display:

The Motorola Signature features a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate and 6,200 nits of peak brightness. There is support for HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 100% DCI-P3 and Pantone-validated colour accuracy.

Motorola has deployed a quad-curved panel here with minimal yet uniform bezels on all corners, providing an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 95.23%. The phone comes with both Dolby Audio and Sound by Bose branding for the audio department, where the phone absolutely shines. I can safely say that the loudness and sound quality are such that you won't feel the need for a speaker when listening to music or even just streaming content.

Processor:

The Motorola Signature is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, which is the same processor on the OnePlus 15R. In case you aren't aware, the 8 Gen 5 isn't the most powerful processor from Qualcomm at the moment and sits somewhere between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2023 flagship) and 8 Elite Gen 5.

There is support for 12/16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 256/512/1TB of UFS 4.1 storage, which are the top-end RAM and storage speeds you will find on any flagship at the moment.

As you'd expect, the phone had no problems handling day-to-day tasks and for the gaming and benchmark scores, you'll have to wait for the full review.

On the software side of things, the phone runs on Motorola's Hello UI based on Android 16 with support for 7 years of OS updates and security patches. The software is completely devoid of ads, but there are certain pre-installed apps and gaming suggestions which include Perplexity, Instagram, Facebook and Motorola's own apps.

Battery and charging:

The Motorola Signature comes with a 5,200mAh battery with support for 90W wired fast charging, 50W wireless charging, 10W reverse wireless charging and 5W reverse wired charging. The choice of a 5,200mAh battery is slightly odd from Motorola, especially for a flagship device in 2026 which now boasts over 7,000mAh batteries, but I guess that's the kind of trade-off that the brand is comfortable making to provide a more ergonomic look and feel.

I can't yet give an overview of the screen-on time, battery life or charging time of the phone, but my initial impression is that the standby time of the phone (without network) could be well over 2–3 days.

Camera:

On the optics front, the Motorola Signature comes with a triple camera setup with a 50MP Sony LYTIA 828 primary shooter with OIS, a 50MP ultra-wide angle lens with a 122° field of view (also doubles as a macro shooter) and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 100x super zoom.

The front of the device houses a 50MP Sony LYTIA 500 primary shooter with autofocus support. The main and telephoto lenses can record up to 8K 30fps video while the ultra-wide lens and selfie shooter are limited to 4K 60fps.

Motorola has also brought a new Signature filter with the phone which is a personal favourite of mine as far as camera filters go. Here are a few pictures I took with the phone so far.

Initial impressions:

If you keep aside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, the Motorola Signature has all the makings of a decent flagship device with a 165Hz LTPO AMOLED display, LPDDR5x RAM, UFS 4.1 storage, loud and punchy speakers and a premium build. Whether the Motorola Signature succeeds in making a mark will ultimately come down to its pricing.

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