The Signature 27 is Motorola’s biggest bet in a while. The flagship phone is likely set for sale in the US market, a place where it’s only found true success for some time with foldable phones.

Aside from being a slab phone, it’s competing against other premium Android phones like the just released Pixel 11. Motorola is well-aware of the stakes and has made what looks like a carefully crafted phone that seems up to the task, but Pixel fans don’t seem to be won over.

A post on the Pixel subreddit put it directly by asking if anyone would exchange their Pixel phone for a Signature 27. The answers were almost a resounding no.

Turning the lens on the cameras

There were a lot of unkind words about how the Signature 27 looks, with many just calling the entire phone ugly and a few reserving their harshest criticism for the camera setup. “Everything looks fire until u get to that abomination of a camera setup,” as one put it.

With two cluttered rows for the camera array, it doesn’t look dissimilar to an insect’s compound eyes, save for one big gap in the middle of the bottom row.

“Why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't they go the extra mile and put a lens or sensor in that empty space?” one commenter said.

It’s hard to find fault with the camera itself though, with a 50MP Sony LYTIA 910 main sensor and a 200MP periscope telephoto lens that utilize Motorola’s Video Enhancement Engine to adjust color tones by analyzing the scene before and during recording.

The GrapheneOS availability is a bit of a wash

The Signature 27 is making headlines for having GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused operating system that generates a good amount of excitement for admittedly a fairly small audience.

While this is big news for fans, it’s old news to those with Pixels, which are the only other phones that support it. You can put GrapheneOS on the Pixel 8 to Pixel 10 generations.

While pricing for the Signature 27 hasn’t been announced yet, it’s a safe bet that it will cost more than any of those phones. However, for anyone wanting a brand-new premium flagship and GrapheneOS, the Signature 27 is a good choice.

The biggest hurdle

Motorola has a reputation, and not a good one, when it comes to Android updates. Just last month it was big news that Motorola released a list of models that are getting Android 17, though no dates were given.

So it’s not a surprise that commenters in the Pixel subreddit scoffed at getting a Motorola. “Lol, Motorola has never had timely Android updates in their entire history,” as one put it.

Motorola has guaranteed seven OS upgrades and seven years of security updates for the Signature 27, but skepticism about timeliness remains.

Pixels do reliably get updates, buggy as they can be.

An interesting Android alternative

Of course, there is obvious bias built in since the comments come from those who are already interested enough in Pixels to be commenting on a subreddit dedicated to them. But Pixel owners are among the top group that the Signature 27 has to win over to make a dent in the flagship slab market for Motorola.

Pixel owners had a lot of positive things to say about Motorolas they loved in the past and even those who wouldn’t buy it welcome another Android in the family.

“I wouldn't, but it's cool that Motorola is trying to sit themselves in the space OnePlus left,” one said. “Especially if they're going to push hardware too. Can't be anything other than beneficial for Android.”