Currently, the premium smartphone segment has a lot in common. Apart from the elevated price tags, the segment is seeing smartphones with bigger and bulkier frames, larger batteries and heftier cameras. Of course, the idea is to provide value for your money and let you have what you pay for. The Motorola Signature positions itself as a premium smartphone but stays away from an account-denting price tag (more on that later), and also manages to capture the user’s interest with its premium design, sleek form factor, hardware and overall performance. How? We talk about it in this review.
Design-wise, the Motorola Signature looks different from the rest of the competition. The smartphone comes in a very thin profile, which measures just 6.99mm. The frame is crafted out of aircraft-grade aluminium, while the display slightly curves at the sides. The Signature weighs 186 grams, making it one of the lightest phones in the segment. Available in two colours – Martini Olive and Carbon, the olive option gets a twill-like weave on the back while the Carbon gets a textile-inspired texture, making it quite unique, both in looks and feel. The rear panel also houses the camera island, which houses all the sensors and the LED flash. On the front, you get Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the smartphone is IP69 and IP69 rated with water resistance of up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1.2 metres. Additionally, it also comes with MIL-STD-810H military-grade certification (for harsh outdoor conditions).
Signature aces the display game with the 6.8-inch 1.5K LTPO Extreme AMOLED display, which offers up to 165Hz of refresh rate, Dolby Vision and 6,200 nits of peak brightness. The colours are punchy, and the blacks are deep, which enhances the viewing experience. With Dolby Vision and HDR10+, you can view HDR content on streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube. However, the 165Hz screen refresh rate is active only while gaming and not during regular usage. Using the phone outdoors is also not a problem, as the 6,200 nits of peak brightness make it easy to see even under direct sunlight. Moving on, the audio quality is quite impressive from the stereo speaker setup on the Motorola Signature. The sound is from Bose and Dolby Atmos. There are speaker grill cutouts both on the top and bottom of the device, and the loudness can fill a small room.
The Motorola Signature runs on Hello UI, which is based on Android 16. Motorola says that it will provide up to seven years of OS and security updates. However, the talking point is the clean and bloatware-free UI experience. You also get Moto Secure 5.0 with ThinkShield and Moto Unplugged, which brings digital well-being tools. Additionally, the Signature Club application is a digital concierge service that offers several privileges, including travel booking assistance, airport meet-and-greet services, golf course reservations, and access to exclusive events. However, there is a payment involved for utilising these services, and Motorola is providing a ₹6,000 welcome benefit for the same.
Coming to the heart of the device, which is the processor. Powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB UFS 4.1 storage, which in real-world usage keeps the device from lagging or stuttering in day-to-day usage. The phone feels smooth and responsive to use, while launching apps takes no time, even with multiple applications open in the background. The phone can also handle graphics-intensive gaming like Call of Duty Mobile, BGMI, and Asphalt. However, with extended periods of gaming, the smartphone tends to get quite hot.
Coming to the cameras, the Motorola Signature comes with a triple-camera setup at the rear and a single front camera peeking through the punched hole on the display. The rear setup includes a 50MP f/1.6 primary sensor, 50MP periscope telephoto sensor and 50MP ultrawide sensor. The front camera, too, is a 50MP unit. The images from the primary camera looked sharp, detailed and had punchy colours in daylight conditions. Lowlight performance is also decent and well-balanced between highlight and shadow details. The telephoto sensor also delivers satisfactory results. You can shoot up to 100x, but that would be too far of a throw for a small sensor. Images shot with up to 6x zoom carry enough details with less noise. The wide-angle camera captures detailed images with less distortion. The front camera does a good job of taking selfies. Video performance is not held back either. The Motorola Signature can record footage up to 8K Dolby Vision at 30fps. Video stabilisation is also good, and all the sensors can shoot 4K 60fps.
The battery performance of the Motorola Signature did not fail to impress. The 5,200mAh battery supports 90W fast-charging with the supplied charger in the box and 50W wireless charging. The phone lasts a full day of normal usage that includes music, content and social media scrolling. The phone can charge from 0 to 100 percent in about an hour.
The Motorola Signature stands out among premium smartphones with its performance, as the company has packed flagship-level tech and features into it. The handset comes in a premium-looking and sleek package and excels in day-to-day tasks. Camera and battery performance also deserve a mention. If you are looking for a flagship phone with good cameras and decent battery life, the Motorola Signature is a good choice, especially for a price of ₹69,999 for the 16GB RAM/1TB storage variant, while the base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage costs ₹10,000 less.
