Motorola’s Rise to Fame

Motorola’s Quiet Rise to Fame

Slowly and quietly, Motorola might just be turning into my favourite phone maker, and a real problem for Samsung, Google and co. The Lenovo-owned company isn’t an unknown quantity by any means – quite the opposite, including its entire history- but it does seem to have been transitioning to a bolder, more assertive form of late.

Motorola was formerly known for its solidly built, cheap phones. It used to be an easy recommendation if you didn’t have much money to spend on your next phone: just buy the latest Moto G. For a period of time, each new model topped our best budget phone chart. The Motorola Moto G series has been a staple in the budget phone market, with models like the Moto G82 and Moto G62 offering great value for money.

For the past couple of years, however, Motorola seems to have shifted its focus. It still makes solid Moto G budget phones, but it now makes consistently good mid-range and flagship phones too. The Motorola Signature has been one of my favourite flagship phones of 2026 so far, offering an unusually slim and characteristically stylish profile without compromising on camera quality – all at a price that seriously undercuts the Apple iPhone Air and even the ageing Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.

Then there’s the Motorola Razr Fold, which builds on the Signature’s solid work with one of the most tactile and inviting book-style foldable phones yet. It might not be as slender as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, but I know which one I’d rather use on a day-to-day basis. Rather than adopt the me-too iPhone-adjacent designs of almost every other manufacturer, Motorola has pursued its own path. It’s one that utilises warm, natural (and nature-inspired) materials, curved edges and inviting Pantone-approved colours.

Motorola’s Unique Identity

In short, Motorola phones have a strong and distinct identity that most of its rivals regularly lack. It is also making some interesting accessories, wearables and audio products, even if we don’t approve of them all here at Tech Advisor. The Motorola Edge 70 Max has, as rumoured, arrived as another addition to the already large Edge 70 family.

What’s interesting is that the Motorola Edge 70 Max will feature Qi2 charging support – and the faster 25W Qi 2.2 standard at that. Magnetic wireless charging has been an appealing part of the iPhone package for years now (MagSafe is almost the ubiquitous name for it after all), but only the Google Pixel 10 series has adopted it among the mainstream Android bunch. The Samsung Galaxy S26 range, on the other hand, has eschewed Qi2 support in favour of a half-baked Qi2 case approach.

The Edge 70 Max has a huge 7100mAh battery, eclipsing almost every rival and even slightly outdoing the Oppo Find X9 Ultra. Motorola already has one of the most extensive and impressive smartphone line-ups on the market. It doesn’t always hit (cough, Moto G87, cough), but there’s every indication that the company is going to continue pushing things forward as we head towards 2027, which should be of concern to an otherwise stagnant field.