Motorola, a subsidiary of Lenovo, gave a first glimpse of its new high-end model Signature 27 at the Qualcomm Tech Summit in Hawaii. It is the successor to the Signature, which only debuted at CES 2026 earlier this year. Motorola is thus quite early with the new Signature but is among the first smartphones to feature Qualcomm’s new top chip Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 on board. Xiaomi’s 18 series and Honor’s 9 series, for example, also rely on the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 generation.

However, apart from the new chips, the software is likely to be the most exciting aspect of Motorola’s Signature 27. It is expected to be the manufacturer’s first model to support the custom ROM GrapheneOS, which is Google-free by default. Motorola and GrapheneOS announced a partnership earlier this year.

High-end from Motorola

Not all details about the Signature 27 are known yet, but Motorola has revealed the design and some features in addition to the chip. The device has four camera sensors on the back, two of which the manufacturer has explained so far: the periscope telephoto camera has a 200-megapixel sensor, and the wide-angle camera comes with a 50-megapixel sensor. The latter uses Sony’s LOFIC-capable Lytia-910 sensor, which will also be used in Vivo’s X500 Pro Max, for example. LOFIC is intended to prevent the overexposure of bright image areas, among other things, and Sony also claims a reduction in image noise in poor lighting conditions and recordings with smooth gradations in high-contrast scenes.

In addition, the device features an audio system developed with sound experts from B&O. Motorola does not yet provide further details. The manufacturer also promises seven years of Android updates, which is still rare for Motorola. With this promise, the manufacturer also lives up to its software partner, GrapheneOS.

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GrapheneOS confirms device

Although Motorola has not said a word about the Signature 27 receiving GrapheneOS support, the custom ROM developers confirmed this on X. In early September, they wrote: “The initial supported device will be a successor to the Motorola Signature (2026), and we’ll expand from there. It will start with the high-end devices since those will be the first to meet all our requirements, but we definitely intend to expand beyond those over time.” It is not to be expected that Motorola will introduce an additional Signature model.

In older social media posts, GrapheneOS highlighted the advantages of Qualcomm’s top chips. They offer “significantly better CPU and GPU performance” than Google’s Tensor, which is used in Pixel smartphones. So far, GrapheneOS only supports Google devices, as they are currently the only ones that meet the custom ROM developers' high security requirements. Furthermore, it provides more of what is needed through isolated components on the SoC. “This includes improved cellular, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, and GNSS radios with solid security, including good isolation,” it says.

The developers further state that thanks to the partnership with Motorola, they will have direct access to the necessary Android resources for developing the custom ROM. In recent months, Google has made development more difficult for custom ROM developers. Since the release of Android 16, Google has not released the driver binaries for its Pixel devices, nor the complete kernel source code commit history. In addition, Google only releases new AOSP versions semi-annually.

The GrapheneOS team expects the first smartphones with the custom ROM to be priced even higher than Pixel smartphones. The current Pixel 11 series starts at 1000 euros for the base model Pixel 11. The price for the Pixel 11 Pro XL starts at a steep 1400 euros. Based on the high-quality equipment of the Signature 27 and current memory prices, they are likely to be correct.

According to Motorola, the Signature 27 is expected to be launched by the end of this year, but GrapheneOS will likely not be available for the device until next year.

(afl)