English
The Motorola Signature 27 camera performance is evaluated across photo, zoom, and video use cases using DXOMARK’s objective measurements and perceptual analyses to assess imaging performance across common shooting conditions. This article provides a structured summary of DXOMARK’s lab measurements and perceptual analyses to describe the device’s imaging performance.
Overview
Key camera specifications:
- Primary: 50 MP, 1/1.28″ sensor, 23 mm (wide), f/1.6, PDAF, optical image stabilization (OIS)
- Ultra-wide: 50 MP, f/2.0, 12 mm (ultrawide), 122° field of view, 1/2.76″ sensor, 0.64 µm pixels, PDAF
- Tele: 200 MP, periscope telephoto, 3x optical zoom, PDAF, optical image stabilization (OIS)
With a score of 173 points, the Motorola Signature 27 delivers balanced overall camera performance, with good results in both photo and video. Its performance remains relatively consistent across different lighting conditions, providing a well-rounded experience. The camera offers good exposure, pleasant color rendering, and reliable autofocus, while maintaining a good balance between texture and noise.
In photo, image quality benefits from accurate exposure and a wide dynamic range, alongside generally pleasant color rendering and well-controlled color casts. Portrait performance is a particular strength, with natural-looking skin tones, good exposure, and a convincing level of fine detail. The camera also manages to maintain a relatively extended depth of field when multiple subjects are present, using image processing to improve the sharpness of secondary subjects in most situations.
Zoom performance is particularly strong at medium and early long-range distances, where the dedicated 3x telephoto camera provides good detail rendering. At around 6x, the camera switches sensor modes to recover texture and maintain image quality. However, long-range zoom performance falls behind that of competing devices equipped with dedicated telephoto modules, with fine details becoming more difficult to preserve at greater distances.
Video recording is also a strong aspect of the overall experience, with stable exposure, consistent color rendering, and reliable autofocus, as well as smooth adaptation to changes in the environment. The camera provides an interesting texture-noise compromise, maintaining good noise control while preserving a reasonable level of detail. However, noise becomes more visible in low-light video when movement is present, while motion blur can also affect detail preservation in very challenging lighting conditions.
Scoring
Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.
Motorola Signature 27
184
185
175
173
189
152
Use cases & Conditions
Use case scores indicate the product performance in specific situations. They are not included in the overall score calculations.
Portrait
Portrait photos of either one person or a group of people
Outdoor
Photos & videos shot in bright light conditions (≥1000 lux)
Indoor
Photos & videos shot in good lighting conditions (≥100lux)
Lowlight
Photos & videos shot in low lighting conditions (<100 lux)
Zoom
Photos and videos captured using zoom (more than 1x)
Pros
- Target exposure is generally accurate in all light conditions
- The level of details is high when the subject is static
- The Autofocus is reliable and depth of field is wide
- White balance is generally natural and pleasant
- Stabilization is efficient on most movements
Cons
- Noise can be quite visible in lowlight and dark areas, or for ultra-wide captures near the corners
- Deep skintone rendering can be inaccurate, as well as color rendering in lowlight
- Some frameshift can be visible in panning movements
- Veiling glare can be visible in backlit high-contrast scenes, lowering contrast and leading to a flatter overall rendering
In low-light conditions, the Motorola Signature 27 delivers generally strong photo performance, with pleasant, well balanced brightness and a wide dynamic range that helps preserve scene information across different lighting conditions. Images are generally well exposed, maintaining a good balance between highlights and shadows, even in more challenging scenes. Color rendering is another strength, with generally pleasant and natural-looking colors, while controlled color casts help preserve the atmosphere of the ambient lighting. However, in more challenging situations involving mixed colored light sources, some inaccuracies in color rendering can become visible.
Texture rendering provides an acceptable texture-noise compromise, with very little visible noise across low-light scenes. This allows images to retain a clean appearance without excessive grain, although some fine details are sacrificed as a result of noise reduction. Textures can therefore appear slightly softer than on some competing devices, particularly in darker areas of the scene.
Performance becomes more challenging in very low-light conditions, where the camera has greater difficulty maintaining the same level of detail. Fine textures can be lost relatively quickly, especially when subjects are moving, as motion blur can further affect sharpness. Some competing devices rely more heavily on AI-based detail reconstruction to recover finer textures in these demanding conditions.
Overall, low-light photo performance remains well balanced, benefiting from accurate exposure, pleasant color rendering, and effective noise control. The main limitation is detail preservation in very dark scenes, where the combination of noise reduction and motion blur can result in softer images.
Portrait performance is a particular strength of the Motorola Signature 27, with accurate exposure, pleasant skin tones, and good detail rendering. Images generally retain a natural appearance, with well-controlled exposure and convincing skin texture. The camera also provides a relatively extended depth of field in scenes containing multiple subjects, allowing more than one person to remain sharp when they are positioned reasonably close to one another.
To compensate for the limitations of its hardware depth of field, image processing is used to sharpen secondary subjects. This approach works well in most situations, helping maintain a good level of detail across multiple faces without significantly compromising the overall rendering.
Motion blur remains a limitation, becoming noticeable in certain situations and more pronounced than on competing devices such as Vivo and Huawei. This can occasionally affect facial sharpness and impact overall portrait quality, particularly when capturing moving subjects in challenging lighting conditions.
At medium and early long-range distances, zoom performance is particularly strong, benefiting from the 3x telephoto camera. Image quality remains relatively good between approximately 3x and 6x, with good texture rendering and a reasonable level of fine detail. This allows the device to deliver convincing results across the most commonly used telephoto ranges.
At around 6x, a switch in sensor mode helps recover texture and maintain a satisfactory level of detail. This strategy compensates for some of the limitations of the single telephoto module and provides a more consistent rendering as the zoom level increases.
At longer distances, however, image quality no longer matches that of competing devices equipped with dedicated long-range telephoto modules. Fine details become more difficult to preserve, limiting the camera’s ability to deliver the same level of sharpness and texture when high-quality long-range zoom is required. Overall, performance is strongest at medium and early long-range distances, while the lack of additional dedicated telephoto hardware remains the main limitation.
Video
Video performance in low-light conditions is generally good, with accurate target exposure and a wide dynamic range helping preserve scene information. Color rendering is also generally pleasant, with controlled color casts while maintaining the atmosphere of the ambient lighting, and adaptation to scene changes are smooth.
Noise is particularly well controlled in static scenes, allowing footage to retain a clean appearance with very little visible noise. However, noise becomes more noticeable when recording moving subjects and elements, placing the device behind the best-performing competitors on the market, such as the iPhone. Very low-light conditions are also more challenging. Overall, video performance offers a good balance in static conditions, although noise management in dynamic low-light scenes remains an area for improvement.