The market for smartphones in the U.S. seems to be consistently thinning. In recent years, brands like LG and Asus have shut down their smartphone businesses entirely. OnePlus just pulled out of the country, leaving Apple, Google, and Samsung phones for stateside buyers wanting a flagship device — and not much else.
It’s a completely different story for foldables, because Motorola is in the mix. You could make a strong case for the Motorola Razr Fold and Razr Ultra 2026 as the two best foldables sold in the U.S. in their respective categories.
After trying those two phones myself, and seeing the midrange Motorola Edge 2026 debut, I officially started longing for a flagship Motorola slab phone to reach North America. Turns out, I didn’t have to wait long. At Snapdragon Summit, Motorola unveiled the Signature 27, a premium Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 phone set to arrive before the end of this year. I laid eyes on it, and I’m already hooked.
About this article: Qualcomm provided travel and lodging for Snapdragon Summit. The company had no input in this article, and did not see it before publishing.
Motorola’s new flagship looks like a Galaxy S26 Ultra rival
I’m excited about the Motorola Signature 27, and the Elite Extreme chip is just the start
We don’t know everything about the Motorola Signature 27, but we know enough to predict it’ll be a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (and Galaxy S27 Ultra) competitor. Motorola didn’t just build the Signature 27 with flagship specs at the core, it also addressed key complaints Android users had about the prior Moto phones. For starters, the design. The Signature 27 still sports Pantone colorways and distinct back cover materials, but it now has an edge-to-edge camera bar at the top of the device.
I didn’t hate the squarish camera housing on the original Motorola Signature and other Moto phones, such as the Razr Fold. But a lot of people expressed disdain for it, critiquing how impossible it was to get these phones to sit flat on a table without rocking. The Motorola Signature 27 isn’t completely flat, but the subtle camera bar — containing four rear sensors and a flash — will help it remain stable on flat surfaces.
Let’s talk about those cameras. The 50MP Sony LYTIA 910 main camera is impressive enough, but the crown jewel of the Signature 27 is its 200MP periscope telephoto lens. There’s a lot we don’t know about this sensor, and I’m curious to see the size of the pixels Motorola is using for that zoom camera. Samsung, for instance, uses smaller pixels to hit a higher total pixel count. Motorola could be employing a similar trick, but a quad-camera rear system from a Moto flagship is still notable.
The Motorola Signature 27 spec that jumped off the page at me was the new six-antenna layout. It’s built on the same 6Rx technology used by the Razr Fold, and it offers two extra antennas over the standard four. This results in significantly faster speeds, which I experienced firsthand while testing the Razr Fold.
The Motorola Razr Fold was the first device in North America to use 6Rx.
That leads us right into the chip powering the entire thing: Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 mobile processor. I did a deep dive into the Elite Extreme chip and ran benchmarks on a reference device, so check that out if you want an idea of how the Signature 27 will perform. The highlights are that it’s a 2nm chip with an uptick in CPU performance and a major leap in NPU power compared to Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
But the bigger deal is the class of chip Motorola chose for the Signature 27. You might not be very familiar with the original Motorola Signature, as it isn’t available in the U.S. It’s powered by the base Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, not the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform. The same goes for the Razr Fold. It runs on the lesser Snapdragon 8 Gen 5.
By using the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 — not the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 — on the Signature 27, Motorola is moving up two chip classes in one generation. The Signature 27 will likely be the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 phone sold in North America, and that’s massive for Motorola.
Keeping theme with Motorola listening to fans and critics, the Signature 27 will get seven full years of Android OS support. It’s on Motorola to actually ship these updates in a reliable and timely manner, but the extended software support promise is a good start.
This is the GrapheneOS phone we’ve been waiting for
The Motorola Signature 27 will be the first non-Pixel to run GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS is a privacy- and security-focused Android operating system, and to date, it’s only been available for Google Pixel phones. The makers of GrapheneOS have strict hardware requirements, and select Pixels are the only phones that meet them. We knew that would change when Motorola and GrapheneOS announced a new partnership earlier this year. At the time, GrapheneOS was confirmed to launch on an upcoming Motorola flagship, but we didn’t know which one it would be.
Now, we know it’s the Motorola Signature 27. Aside from the impressive hardware, you’ll have the flexibility to choose between Motorola’s MyUX Android skin or the fortified GrapheneOS experience. GrapheneOS confirmed the Signature 27 would support its operating system, and said it’s still the plan to sell phones with GrapheneOS pre-installed — the details just aren’t finalized.
GrapheneOS fans were already excited about this partnership, and the fact that it’s coming to a phone as powerful as the Signature 27 has to be a welcome surprise.
Oh yes, it’s coming to the US
We needed an Android flagship to compete with Samsung and Google
Motorola makes great phones, but some of the best ones aren’t typically available in North America. If you didn’t want a foldable, you couldn’t get a flagship Moto phone in the U.S. The Motorola Signature 27 flips the script. It’s coming to the U.S. this year, and you can register on Motorola’s website to learn more.
Only a few months have passed since OnePlus announced its U.S. exit, and we already have the perfect successor: Motorola. By the end of the year, we’ll have another flagship Android option from a company other than Google or Samsung.