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 every 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 Moto Razr 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 April 2025: We’ve added the Moto G Stylus 2025 and Motorola’s new Razr devices.
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What’s WIRED About Motorola Phones
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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
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 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. The 2024 Razr devices finally broke the mold with always-on displays, but it’s still not present in other devices.
The Best Motorola Phone
If you’re going to buy a Motorola and money isn’t much of a concern, it should be a statement phone like the Razr+ (2024). This third-gen folding flip smartphone (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is much more refined, adding features you’ve come to expect in a modern-day handset, like an IPX8 water resistance rating that keeps it safe from dips in the pool and a bright 165-Hz OLED screen that is easy to read in sunny conditions. And yes, you can flip open the phone to answer a call and flip it shut to end it.
When closed, the enlarged 4-inch OLED cover screen can show you notifications, apps, and handy widgets to check the weather, calendar events, and news. It even lets you play some fun mini-games. You can use the superior primary cameras—typically on the “back” of the phone but are now at the front—to snap selfies and see previews on this external screen. They’re some of the sharpest selfies you’ll snap.
Open it up and there’s a 6.9-inch screen that functions like a standard phone. There’s still a crease on the screen where the device folds, but I didn’t find it annoying. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, a slightly lesser-performing processor versus the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found on other high-end Android devices in 2024. That said, performance was smooth, thanks to the 12 GB of RAM, even when playing games. You get other standard-fare accouterments like NFC for tap-to-pay via Google Wallet, wireless charging, and 256 GB of internal storage.
This Razr+ exclusively uses Motorola’s new Photo Enhancement Engine, which the company says uses artificial intelligence to produce better images. Indeed, these photos are some of the best you’ll snap on any Motorola phone, but it’s still playing catch-up with much of the competition. Photos take some time to process, too, so you’ll have to get used to that. It’s not a perfect camera system, but I was generally happy with most of the results.
I wish Motorola had kept the ultrawide camera. In its predecessor, using the front screen as a preview made it simple to take selfies with others. Now, with the default 50-MP main camera, fitting more people into the frame is a challenge. The ultrawide has been replaced by a 2X telephoto lens. While I’m usually a fan of zooming in, the zoom level is underwhelming, and the quality is mediocre.
There’s a 4,000-mAh battery on the Razr+, and it’ll get you through a full day with average use, but heavy users most likely will need to top up before the day’s end. That’s just about the only main gripe I have with this phone. It’s super fun and satisfying to use, looks great in the new hot pink color, and runs well with a solid camera system. My pro tip? Wait for a sale.
This is the cheapest folding phone you can buy in the US, especially on sale. Compared to the Razr+, the Razr (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has a slightly smaller front screen. You can’t see as much information at a glance, but it’s still big enough to view some apps, notifications, and access widgets. Inside is a similar OLED 6.9-inch screen with up to a 120-Hz refresh rate. It retains the ultrawide instead of the telephoto, and the camera system is overall solid—not horrible, not amazing. The 4,200-mAh battery does last longer than the Razr+, though the device falls short in performance. Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 with 8 GB of RAM, I just encountered more sluggish behavior that sometimes made it annoying to use.
The Best Trad Moto Phone
This phone is frequently on sale for $330, and it’s a no-brainer for anyone on a budget. You get a large 6.6-inch AMOLED screen with a 144-Hz screen refresh rate and speedy performance thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. It’s not a flagship chipset, but enough to deliver snappy app launches and lag-free gameplay, and it’s leagues better than the performance you’ll find on the other Motorola phones featured below.
It has all the basics from NFC so you can pay with your phone via Google Wallet, plus an IP68 water resistance rating, ensuring it won’t succumb to a drop in the pool. It supports wireless charging, comes with 256 GB of storage, and packs some pretty loud Dolby Atmos stereo speakers. I used it as my daily phone for two weeks, and it performed remarkably well. The 5,000-mAh battery comfortably lasts a full day with average use and often can go well into the second day before a top-up. Use the Edge heavily, and it’s firmly in the charge-once-a-day territory.
I do have a few gripes, though. The Edge uses a so-called waterfall display, where the glass on the front curves into the edges for a more immersive look. It certainly looks fancy, but I’ve had several moments where my fingers holding the phone’s edges disrupted an action I was trying to complete with my other hand. This has long been an issue on phones with curved screens. It’s easy to get used to and adjust your grip quickly, but it’s annoying.
Second, the 50-MP main camera has a bit of shutter lag, which can be frustrating when you’re trying to capture moving subjects (like my dog, who won’t sit still). The pics you can get out of it are solid, perfectly acceptable images during the day. The contrast is a little too strong sometimes, and it doesn’t handle high-contrast scenes all that great, but there’s good detail. In low light, you’ll encounter a few more blurry photos due to that shutter lag and shaky hands, but if the conditions are right, you can get some sharp, in-focus shots. This is where a phone like the Google Pixel 9a handily beats the Edge 2024.
Unfortunately, Motorola promises only two Android OS upgrades (up to Android 16) and three years of security updates to the Edge 2024. The Pixel 9a will get seven years of software support. This is one of Motorola’s biggest weaknesses, but this may not be as much of an issue at its frequent $330 sale price. If you’re wondering about a successor, the Motorola Edge launched in June 2024, so you can expect a follow-up this summer.
Best Moto G Phone
The Moto G Stylus 2025 is the best Moto G phone right now, which might be a given considering it’s the priciest model in the family. Still, for $400, it’s one of the best smartphone values on the market. As the name suggests, it comes with a built-in stylus—the only other phone with that feat is Samsung’s $1,300 Galaxy S25 Ultra.
This is a slim and beautifully blue phone. My mom said it looked nice. Even a stranger stopped me to ask what phone I was using! The “Surf the Web” blue really pops with the vegan leather back, though you can get it in a more muted “Gibraltar Sea.” You’ll notice a headphone jack on the bottom, a rarity in today’s smartphone climate, and pop open the SIM tray to find a spot to add a microSD card, another rapidly disappearing feature. Motorola also includes 256 GB of storage, a nice bump compared to pricier smartphones that only offer 128 gigs.
You get a 120-Hz AMOLED 6.7-inch screen that’s plenty bright in sunny conditions, and satisfactory, stutter-free performance with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset. It might not feel the speediest, but this is the smoothest performing Moto G; I’ve rarely seen choppy animations in the interface. Speaking of, there’s a good deal of bloatware apps in the Android 15 operating system, but they’re easy to uninstall.
The 5,000-mAh battery in tow has frequently lasted a full day for me with roughly 35 percent left by bedtime, with average to high use. It’s not quite a two-day phone. You can top it back up fairly quickly with Motorola’s 68-watt TurboPower charging system, but I’ve largely juiced it with my Qi wireless charger with no problems.
