Motorola phones often play third (or fourth) fiddle to Samsung and Google, but the winds are changing. Motorola is among the fastest-growing mobile companies in the world, and the company’s Razr handsets are the most beloved folding smartphones in the US. Motorola has also been experimenting with colorful Android phones and fun textures, making its devices stand out from the sea of boring glass handsets.
If you’re an interested buyer, picking the best Motorola phone can be tough because the company rolls out several models each year. I’ve tested almost all of them, and in this guide, I break down the pros and cons and steer you toward my favorite Moto models—from the Razr Ultra to the Moto G Power 2026. Updated July 2026: We’ve added the Moto G Stylus 2026, the entire new Razr lineup, and the Motorola Edge 2026.
Motorola phones have a simple Android interface. This means the company hasn’t done much to gunk up the software. It’s simple and easy to use.
There’s increasingly a lot of bloatware, but you can easily uninstall almost all of it. They come with lots of storage. The company stuffs 256 GB as standard into many of its smartphones, even some of the cheaper models.
Most Android flagship devices still come with just 128 GB of storage. Motorola is also one of the only phone brands to still include a microSD card slot to expand storage on many of its devices, and the Moto G phones retain the headphone jack. There’s broad carrier support.
While some Android phone brands have inconsistent carrier support in the US, like Nothing, Motorola phones often work on most networks, if not all (the company lists carrier support details in the Specs section of all its phones). They all work on the major three—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. Make sure you buy them unlocked.
The prices dip quite often. Never buy a Motorola phone at its MSRP. They almost always go on sale a few months (or weeks) after launch, sometimes at steep discounts.
Motorola’s software updates are lackluster. The company is slowly improving here—it promises to deliver three Android OS updates and five years of bimonthly security updates for its high-end smartphones—the ultra-costly Razr Fold gets seven years—but overall, it still lags behind its peers. Most Moto G phones receive only two Android updates along with three years of security updates.
Fewer updates mean you miss out on new Android features quickly. Even if a phone is promised updates, they take a long time to arrive. The cameras are lackluster.
Among the things putting Motorola behind the likes of Samsung, Apple, and Google are the cameras. Moto phones can take fine photos, but the competition eclipses them. Motorola made some improvements with its high-end phones, but it’s still behind.
There’s no always-on display. Most Android phones have a setting you can toggle on if you want an always-on display that will show a clock on your screen even when the screen is“Off.” Motorola has Peek Display, which requires you to move the phone or tap the screen to see anything.
It’s not a major deal, but it’s a feature you might miss if you’re coming from another phone. Newer Razr devices finally broke the mold with always-on displays, but it’s still not present in the company’s other products. If you’re looking for a budget Moto G smartphone, the company drops them at the beginning of the year in January (often unveiling them in December the previous year).
However, that’s not necessarily the best time to buy those phones, as Moto G devices are often deeply discounted during major sale events. Wait for the next major sale event and check for slashed prices. As for its Razr folding phones, those landed in the spring.
The Razr Ultra is the best reason to get a Motorola phone over the likes of Samsung, Apple, and Google. It’s a statement piece, not just because it’s a compact folding flip phone, but because it’s stylish, whether you opt for the Alcantara finish or the elegant wood. The spacious 4-inch OLED screen is quite customizable—you can add widgets for glanceable information, so you don’t need to open the phone constantly.
Once you do, you’re treated to a large 7-inch AMOLED display that’s sharp, bright, and smooth thanks to the 165-Hz refresh rate. What you’re paying extra for over the other Razr models is things like the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 mixture for the cover screen, which makes it tougher to crack. Frankly, there isn’t much new from this model over last year’s Razr Ultra 2025.
You get the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 512 GB of storage, and 16 GB of RAM. (You can thank the memory crisis for that. ) Motorola states the chipset is better optimized on this phone, though, and I haven’t found any performance issues, with apps and games operating smoothly.
The biggest and best improvement is the 5,000-mAh silicon-carbon battery. It’s remarkable to have a fairly compact phone with such a large battery capacity, and this is easily the longest-lasting Razr—even better than some Motorola candybar phones. I had no trouble getting this phone to last two full days, and with average use, that sometimes went into the third day on a single charge.
I am quite delighted with the camera system here. I took dozens of photos over the course of several weeks, and the 50-MP delivered plenty of nice shots. You do still need to reduce movement and hand-shake as much as possible in low light; otherwise those photos can come out blurry.
The best part is that you can use the superior primary cameras—typically on the“Back”of the phone, but now at the front—to snap selfies and see previews on this external screen. They’re some of the sharpest selfies you’ll snap. Video capture is also much better on the Ultra than on any other Motorola phone.
Once you enable Dolby Vision (and you do have to tap it manually), you can get well-exposed footage that’s not too grainy or shaky. The camera results, whether in photo or video, still don’t quite match the competition at this price, but this is still Motorola’s best camera system to date. The software experience is great, except for all the artificial intelligence features Motorola is marketing.
Copilot! Perplexity! Gemini!
Moto AI! There’s a boatload of options, even a dedicated AI button, though I haven’t found Moto AI too helpful.