Motorola Signature 27: $1,599, Ships November 19 — Motorola's First True US Flagship Brings a 7,000mAh Battery and a 200MP Telephoto

Motorola's most expensive phone yet is unlocked, comes in one 12GB/512GB configuration in the US, and promises seven years of updates.

Motorola has put a price on its first true flagship in years: the Signature 27 costs $1,599 in the US, goes on sale November 19, and has been open for pre-order since November 5, according to 9to5Google's launch-day report. That puts it in the territory of Samsung's and Apple's top models, a price tier Motorola has not asked US buyers to pay before.

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Motorola Signature 27 specs →YouTube ↗

There is only one US configuration, 12GB of RAM with 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage, in two colors, Coal Smoke and Capulet Olive. The phone is sold unlocked, and 9to5Google noted there was no word of carrier launches yet and no availability in Canada. Pre-orders through Motorola.com include a free Moto Watch Ultra and a year of Motocare for a limited time, per the same report.

Display and performance: where the money goes

The chip is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, which Motorola's own product page markets as the headline feature. The screen is a 6.8-inch Tandem OLED that Motorola calls Extreme AMOLED Duo, 2772×1272 at 120Hz. Motorola says it reaches up to 12,000 nits of peak brightness, a figure it labels as Motorola lab data; no independent lab has measured it yet, so treat it as a claim until Notebookcheck, DXOMARK or similar publish numbers. In practice, brightness at that level only matters outdoors in direct sun, and peak figures usually apply to small highlight areas rather than a full white screen.

Motorola also lists a vapor-chamber cooling system, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 on the front, IP68/IP69 dust and water ratings, and speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen. The body is 162.01 × 77.04 × 7.99mm and weighs 227g, per 9to5Google's spec list, which is heavy for a phone with a 6.8-inch screen and is the likely cost of the large battery.

Battery and charging

The battery is a 7,000mAh silicon-carbon cell. Motorola's footnotes state the typical capacity is 7,000mAh and the rated (minimum guaranteed) capacity is 6,790mAh, and it claims up to 77 hours of battery life and a day's power in 12 minutes of 90W wired charging. Those are the company's own test-condition numbers, not real-world results. Wireless charging reaches 50W with Motorola's charger and, according to what Motorola told 9to5Google, about 15W with other chargers. The phone has no Qi2 support, a notable omission because Motorola supports the standard elsewhere in its lineup.

Cameras and software

The rear camera has a 50MP main sensor (a Sony Lytia L910 with LOFIC, per 9to5Google), a 50MP ultrawide with a 122° field of view, and a 200MP periscope telephoto at 3x optical zoom, with hybrid zoom up to 100x. Motorola's 50MP ultrawide combines four pixels into one for 12.5MP photos by default. A dedicated Action Sensor is meant to sharpen fast-moving subjects in an Action Shot mode. As of publication there are no independent camera scores for the Signature 27, so how the 3x telephoto compares with 5x lenses on rivals is untested.

The phone ships with Android 17, and Motorola promises seven OS updates and up to seven years of security updates counted from the global launch date; Motorola does not state how often updates will arrive. It is also the first non-Pixel phone to support Google's Gemini Intelligence features, and Motorola says it is compatible with GrapheneOS.

The caveat for buyers: nearly every performance, battery and brightness number above is a manufacturer claim made before any independent review. At $1,599 with a single configuration, the sensible move is to wait for lab results on battery life and the telephoto camera before the November 19 ship date, particularly because pre-order bonuses are described as limited-time.

Original coverage: Motorola Signature 27 US launch