Motorola phones often play third (or fourth) fiddle to Samsung and Google, but the winds are changing. Motorola is now one of the fastest-growing mobile companies in the world, and the company claims its Razr folding smartphones are the number one in the flip category in North America. The company 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 launches many 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 Stylus 2025.
Check out our mobile buying guides for more, including the Best Android Phones, Best Samsung Phones, Best Cheap Phones, Best Pixel Phones, and Best Phones With a Headphone Jack.
Updated June 2025: We've added the Motorola Edge 2025.
What’s WIRED About Motorola Phones? AccordionItemContainerButton LargeChevron Photograph: Julian Chokkattu 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 most of its smartphones, even some of the cheap models. Most Android flagship devices still come with just 128 GB. 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 if not all networks (the company lists carrier support details in the Specs section of all its phones). They all work on the big 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. What’s TIRED About Motorola Phones? AccordionItemContainerButton LargeChevron Motorola’s software updates are lackluster. The company is slowly improving here—it promises to deliver three Android OS updates and four years of bimonthly security updates to its high-end smartphones but still lags behind its peers. Most of the Moto G phones only receive one OS Android update—though this is changing in 2025 with new devices getting two upgrades—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 they’re eclipsed by their peers. 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 big 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.
The Best Motorola Phone
The Razr Ultra (8/10, WIRED Recommends) 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 Motorola offers it in several snazzy and stylish designs. There's the Mountain Trail, which employs sustainably sourced wood; Scarab, the first use of Alcantara on a smartphone; Rio Red, a leather-inspired finish; and Cabaret, which feels like satin. You'll be hard pressed to find a phone that looks this fashionable these days.
The spacious 4-inch OLED screen has more customization options than ever, with the ability to add more widgets for glanceable information, so you don't need to constantly open the phone. 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. Motorola has improved the Razr Ultra's durability with a new Gorilla Glass Ceramic mixture for the screens that makes it tougher to crack, and the titanium-reinforced hinge design is supposedly stronger, too. It now has an IP48 rating, offering some proper dust protection.
Motorola has stuffed flagship features through and through (which explains the high price), from 512 GB of internal storage to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset powering it all. Performance is not a problem at all, with apps and games operating smoothly. This Razr Ultra also has the biggest battery ever in a Razr at 4,700 mAh, and it reliably lasted me a full day with average use. That said, power users who rack up screen time may find themselves reaching for the charger before bedtime. At least it supports fast charging speeds, wired and wirelessly.
Razr Ultra (left) in the Mountain Trail wood design. Razr 2025 (right) in the Spring Bud leather-inspired look. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
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