Motorola wrapped up the launch of the Signature 27 on November 5. The phone was first shown in September, and now it has a US price: $1,599.99. It’s by far the most expensive and most complete Motorola in years, and it goes straight after the Galaxy Ultra and the iPhone Pro Max.
What the Signature 27 brings
- Display: 6.8-inch 120Hz tandem OLED with up to 12,000 nits of HDR peak brightness, under Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3.
- Chip: Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, Qualcomm’s most powerful chip right now.
- Battery and charging: 7,000mAh silicon-carbon cell, 90W wired and 50W wireless. There are no built-in Qi2-style magnets, so magnetic accessories need a case.
- Cameras: 50MP main with a Sony LYTIA 910 sensor, 50MP ultrawide and a 200MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom. 50MP on the front.
- Durability: IP68 and IP69, plus MIL-STD-810H testing.
- Audio: speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen.
- Software: Android 17 with Gemini, and a promise of seven OS upgrades and seven years of security patches.
One detail matters if you care about privacy: Motorola calls it its first phone with GrapheneOS support, the security-focused Android-based system that until now ran almost only on Pixels. There’s no date yet for the GrapheneOS build for this model, though.
Price and availability in the US
- Price: $1,599.99, in a single configuration with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Other markets also get 16GB and 256GB options, but not North America.
- Dates: preorders open November 19 at Motorola.com, Amazon and Best Buy, with sales starting November 26. Reports differed at launch, so check Motorola.com before you plan around a date.
- Carriers: none have announced plans to sell it; it’s an unlocked phone.
- Canada: Motorola says there’s no availability in Canada for now.
The jump is huge: the first Signature launched in January at around €1,000 in Europe. Part of the increase comes from the chip, camera and battery, and part from the memory crunch that is pushing up the price of every high-end phone, the same pressure that showed up in Apple’s latest earnings.
My take
On paper, the Signature 27 has no gaps: display, battery, zoom and seven years of support. The problem is the price. At $1,599 it is no longer “the Motorola that gives you almost the same for less,” which was the whole appeal of the first Signature. It’s going head to head with Samsung and Apple, and that’s where carrier deals, trade-in value and the ecosystem weigh in. If it tempts you, I’d wait a few weeks: Motorola’s launch prices tend to drop quickly, and some European retailers are already selling it well below list. If you want a phone for many years, though, seven OS upgrades and GrapheneOS are a serious argument.
Would you pay $1,600 for a Motorola? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Sources: Android Headlines (price and preorders), Android Headlines (specs and Canada), 9to5Google, Notebookcheck, Tech Insider. Data as of November 9, 2026.
