Motorola Signature review: A refined value flagship with standout cameras

Ultra-thin, surprisingly powerful, and packed with flagship hardware, the Motorola Signature promises a lot on paper, but real-world use reveals a few unexpected compromises

Motorola has expanded its portfolio in India with the launch of the Motorola Signature. Positioned as an ultra-thin and ultra-light smartphone that refuses to compromise, the Motorola Signature is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset and a 5200mAh battery. Motorola said that this brings signature class features and camera capabilities. But how well do these claims hold true in real life? Let’s find out in the review below.

Design

The Motorola Signature builds on the design language of the Motorola Edge series and strikes an uncanny resemblance to the Motorola Edge 70, which was launched in December last year. The Motorola Signature in PANTONE Martini Olive colour sports a fabric finish at the back that offers a good grip in the hands by reducing the slipperiness. It also makes it resistant to fingerprint marks and occasional smudges. I have used the device for around two weeks now without any back cover, and till now I haven’t seen any smudge marks on the body. 

 

 

The cameras on the rear sit on a raised square-shaped aluminium island with an olive fused with golden finish. The elevation of the camera module and the island makes it a little wobbly when placed on a table. At the centre of the back panel rests the Motorola’s “M” symbol in a dual-tone finish. The language of less is more that Motorola embodies seems on point with the Motorola Signature. The side frames sport a shiny look with volume and power buttons resting on the right frame, and the AI key resting on the left frame. The bottom frame is occupied by a SIM tray, a USB C-type port, and a speaker grille, while the top is occupied by another speaker grille and a Dolby Atmos branding. 

 

It feels light in the hands, weighing 186g. What adds to the comfort is its thickness of 6.99mm. The thickness, combined with the lightweight, makes it comfortable to use even for longer periods of time. However, despite its thinness, the phone doesn’t feel fragile. Overall, the design does exude a premium feel, but in its own way, due to the presence of the fabric finish. 

Multimedia experience

The Motorola Signature sports a 6.8-inch AMOLED display of a 165Hz refresh rate, 6,200 nits of peak brightness, and Dolby Vision support. The display has curved edges, flanked by thicker bezels on all sides that contradicts the purpose of each other. 

 

The colour reproduction on screen of the Motorola Signature was accurate. The colours looked natural, without any heavy colour boost. They were pleasing to the eyes. The greens were bright, and the reds were punchy. Blacks, however, were not deep and Motorola may have a few things to improve there.

 

The brightness is adequate for normal indoor and outdoor settings. When I used it for navigation outdoors, the screen was visible and readable. Motorola Signature boasts 6200 nits of peak brightness, but in real-life, high brightness mode matters more than peak brightness, which is why it should be paid more attention. When it comes to high brightness mode, I felt like it was decent. It was not super bright like the iQOO 15 that I reviewed recently, but it did its job. The refresh rate made the animations appear smooth.

 

Coming to audio, Motorola Signature has two speaker grilles, one on the bottom frame and one on the top. This combination hits the spot as the positioning of the speakers made it feel like I was listening to music from a speaker setup. I did not have any complaints about loudness. The key areas of audio boil down to clarity, bass, and loudness during gaming. The Motorola Signature delivers clear and crisp audio output. It can even handle bass nicely. When it came to gaming, I was impressed by the clarity and the loudness. I felt like the level of clarity that Motorola Signature offered while gaming was comparable to that of OPPO Find X9 Pro and Vivo X200 FE. It would be safe to say that Motorola has struck the right balance between Sound by Bose and Dolby Atmos with the Signature.

Performance and gaming

The Motorola Signature is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, paired with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM. When it comes to core performance, the Motorola Signature handled everything without any stutter. I did extensive gaming, multitasking between a range of apps, and used AI capabilities, and the smartphone was able to handle everything without any noticeable lag. There was one thing that surprised me, and not in a positive way but we will discuss it later.

 

The Motorola Signature did not heat up much in normal scenarios. When I used the phone to watch movies or play casual games then the thermal optimisation was well handled by the smartphone. However, there were some scenarios where the phone did heat up. One of the most obvious ones was when the phone was plugged in for charging. When I engaged in gaming for long periods of time, the phone did heat up a bit, but it was not that noticeable unless you pay attention to it actively.

 

As mentioned above, the Motorola Signature features up to 165Hz refresh rate. In normal scenarios, higher refresh rates mean higher frames per second while gaming. One would assume that the frames per second would go somewhere close to the refresh rate at least, even if they don’t match. I tried the Motorola Signature with the same expectation. However, despite cranking up all settings in the device, in gaming mode, and in the game itself, the frames per second that I got were barely one-fourth of the refresh rate. I played BGMI at all maxed settings, and I typically got 40 frames per second. It never even exceeded 45 frames per second.

 

Now, coming to the surprising part. I used the voice recorder to record clips ranging from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. The voice recorded has transcribing ability, thanks to Moto AI. But when I used the transcription feature, the phone took time to process a 12-minute audio clip, and after around 10-15 minutes, it showed me a notification that the transcription failed. I then retried three times to see if it was a temporary glitch, and the clip was never transcribed. When I tried to transcribe the 40-minute clip, the Motorola Signature was able to transcribe it, but it took more than an hour to do it. While the transcription was going on, the phone heated up more than I had ever noticed. When I checked the thermals by turning on the game mode briefly, the temperature stood at around 41-42 degrees Celsius. 

Camera

The Motorola Signature features a quad 50MP camera setup, including three sensors on the back, and one on the front. On the back, the phone sports a 50MP Sony LYTIA 828 camera that supports 8K video recording with Dolby Vision, a 50MP Sony LYTIA 600 Periscope Telephoto camera with 3x lossless zoom and 100x super zoom, and a 50MP ultra-wide camera with 122 degrees field of view. For selfies, it sports a 50MP Sony LYTIA 500 sensor with Auto Focus. 

 

The Motorola Signature largely clicks crisp and clear pictures in daylight settings however, in dim light conditions, the smartphone does struggle slightly to produce as clear pictures as in daylight. The colour reproduction is something that is handled by PANTONE, which is why I was expecting close to real colours. However, the Motorola Signature boosted the colours in even those pictures that were clicked indoors in apt lighting conditions. I clicked a picture of a CMF Headphone Pro placed on my office desk. It had orange earcups, but during the photo processing, Motorola Signature turned the orange into such a bright shade that it started looking red to me. When I clicked my colleagues with this, the image processing immediately boosted the yellow shade in their skin tone, even if their natural tone was not exactly taupe or olive.

 

The detail retention is good in daylight conditions. Photos don’t lose the detailing of something as small as even hair strands. However, during the nighttime, the story was a bit different. The smartphone was able to click pictures in a decent way, but it did not have as much detailing as other photos would in the daytime. 

 

The telephoto camera works well, as even when I zoom in to around 20x, the photos do retain some details. It does not match the output level of the OPPO Find X9 Pro, but it does a fair job in its place. 

 

The 50MP front camera also does the same thing as the main camera i.e., boosts colour, and especially the yellow skin tone. When I captured selfies during the daytime or in well-lit conditions, the output was crisp, clear, and sharp. However, during the nighttime, in poorly lit areas, the camera will capture your face clearly thanks to the screen flash, but it loses out on the detailing of the objects in the background that may not appear clearly.

 

Coming to videography, the Motorola Signature is capable of recording 8K videos at 30fps. It even supports Dolby Vision for the 8K videos. For the uninitiated, Dolby Vision essentially captures a much wider range of colours and brightness than other formats. It optimises each scene or frame for best suited contrast and colour depth. During my testing, this proved to be true as the 8K videos captured at 30 fps with Dolby Vision had better optimised brightness as compared to 8K videos at 30fps without Dolby Vision or FHD videos at 60 fps without Dolby Vision. 

Moto AI, and in-built Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini

The Motorola Signature is powered by Moto AI, which was expected, but it also features built-in access to Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. If you have some idea about the world of AI, then you might be aware of the fact that different AI models have different areas of specialisation. If I talk about Gemini, it excels at image generation and editing. Perplexity excels at conducting in-depth research. Offering these AI assistants natively can help a user have a more effortless interaction with AI. I found myself using Copilot for its Vision feature, Perplexity for its search capabilities, and Moto AI for performing basic tasks like creating images and other things. 

 

The smartphone also boasts AI Signature Style, which as per Motorola, is Moto AI learning your preferences based on the photos you choose and then adjusting your photos to ensure that they align with your personal aesthetic. For some reason, I was not able to access this feature manually. It is possible that it is running automatically in the background, understanding the user's pattern. Nonetheless, even if that was the case, I did not observe any noticeable differences in my pictures, which could have been the result of this feature.

Battery

The Motorola Signature is powered by a 5200mAh battery that supports 90W of fast wired charging and 50W of wireless charging. During light to moderate usage, the Motorola Signature offered a battery life of up to a day. When I used it extensively, like hardcore gaming and heavy multitasking, I got around seven to eight hours of battery life, which is decent. 

 

It is important to note that Motorola Signature positions itself as an ultra-slim and ultra-light smartphone, meaning it can only offer so much. Other flagships from the house of Samsung, Google, and Apple also offer similar battery capacity. Hence, it won’t exactly be right to expect Motorola to follow the current industry movement of equipping smartphones with more than 7,000mAh capacity battery. 

 

The charging part was really quick. The phone comes bundled with a 90W charger, with which a quick top-up of 10 minutes gives you around 30 per cent of battery life. A complete charge cycle can be completed in around half an hour.

Verdict

The Motorola Signature gets a lot right where it matters on a day-to-day basis. The design is impressive, with its ultra-thin, lightweight build and fabric finish making it comfortable to hold for long periods without feeling fragile. The display is large, smooth, and colour-accurate for the most part, while the stereo speakers deliver clear, loud, and well-balanced audio that works equally well for content consumption and gaming. Core performance is solid, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 handles everyday tasks and multitasking with ease, charging is fast, and the camera system performs well in daylight with good detail retention and capable telephoto output.

 

That said, the Motorola Signature is not without its shortcomings. Gaming performance does not scale with the high 165Hz refresh rate, AI features like transcription feel inconsistent and thermally demanding, and the camera’s colour processing can be overly aggressive, especially for skin tones and indoor shots. Low-light photography is serviceable but not class-leading. This phone makes the most sense for users who value design, comfort, multimedia experience, and clean performance over hardcore gaming or heavy AI workflows. Power gamers, content creators who prioritise colour accuracy, or users expecting top-tier AI performance may find better alternatives in the same segment.

Motorola Signature: Variant-wise pricing

• 12GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs 59,999
• 16GB RAM + 512GB storage: Rs 64,999
• 16GB RAM + 1TB storage: Rs 69,999

Motorola Signature unboxing

 

 

 

 

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