Motorola

Sales dropped 64% year-on-year in Q2, according to research from Counterpoint, as manufacturers raised prices or simply stopped shipping cheaper models. Samsung and Motorola have been the only brands to benefit, as smaller companies became unable to undercut them on price. That helped both grow their market share in prepaid phones.

Motorola started supporting a number of endangered languages on its phones in 2021, and now it’s launching a full-blown app to dive into indigenous languages and their communities. Motorola says its new “Indigenous Collections” app is the result of a year-long collaboration with the Rainy Lake Ojibwe community, and contains “key vocabulary and cultural context” from the Anishinaabemowin language.

Launch details were lacking when the Moto Tag 2 was announced at CES in January, but it’s now available in the US and temporarily discounted to $19.99 for one, and $69.99 for a four-pack. Motorola claims up to 500 days of use from a single CR2032 coin battery, while UWB support allows for more precise locating.

Ever since Google added magnetic Qi2 charging to the Pixel 10 line, we’ve been waiting for another Android manufacturer to follow suit. Motorola may be first, with the Edge 70 Max spotted on the Wireless Power Consortium certification database with MPP25 support — which should mean 25W charging with built-in magnets.

According to 9to5Google, launching Amazon from the app drawer on certain Motorola phones briefly opens a browser redirect to insert an affiliate link, similar to Honey’s affiliate link hijacking. We’ve got a random Redditor sniffing out packets, a fashion influencer’s name used for some reason, and no comment from Motorola yet. 9to5Google has advice on disabling the app in the meantime:

The Moto Buds 2 Plus will cost $149 — $20 more than the Moto Buds Plus released in 2024. The new buds will have Sound by Bose, two 11mm dynamic drivers with a Knowles balanced armature, support the LHDC5 low-latency audio codec, as well as Moto AI with compatible Motorola phones.

Android Headlines shared leaked images of what appear to be the upcoming Razr 2026, the mid-range Razr Plus 2026, and the Razr Ultra 2026. We won’t have to wait much longer for an official look at these slick flip phones, as Razr teased a reveal on April 29th.

Evan Blass has shared leaked images of the upcoming flip phone in four colors, each with a distinct texture. This is the regular Razr 2026 — a.k.a. the Razr 70 — though Motorola should also launch Pro and Ultra versions of the phone, and maybe soon — last year’s Razrs launched in April.

The privacy and security-focused Android fork currently only has official support for Pixel devices, but that could be changing. Motorola announced on Monday at MWC that it has struck a long-term partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation to “strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility.”

”In the United States, the new moto watch in PANTONE Volcanic Ash will be available for pre-order at motorola.com on January 22 (MSRP: $149.99),” Motorola spokesperson Brendan Hall tells The Verge. “The device will officially go on-sale on January 28.”

The Verge’s Allison Johnson got to try out the 6.6-inch outside / 8.1-inch inside Razr Fold, which looks a bit thinner than Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold in her quick side-by-side of the two foldables.

This one’s a concept from Motorola called Maxwell. It includes a microphone and camera for multimodal input, and an integrated magnet means it can be worn as a pendant around your neck or as a pin on your shirt. The idea is that it’ll take meeting notes and hands-free photos, answer questions in natural language — all the usual stuff. Having picked it up, I can at least confirm that it’s much lighter than that other, ill-fated AI pin.

Soccer’s governing body isn’t at its most popular right now, from price gouging complaints to allegedly breaking its own rules giving a “peace prize” to Donald Trump. But hey, it’s a World Cup year, so you can’t blame it for trying its luck with this branded version of last year’s regular Motorola Razr.

Motorola is making sure of it with the latest edition of its Moto G Power. It goes on sale in the US on January 8th for $299 and comes with a 5,200mAh battery to justify its name. That, plus 8GB of RAM? In this economy?

Taking a page out of the automakers’ playbook, the 2026 editions of the Moto G Play and Moto G will arrive before the start of the new year. The $169 G Play comes with 5G for the first time but a measly 64GB of storage; the $199 Moto G has a 50-megapixel camera and 128GB of storage.

A partnership with Swarovski has produced a crystal-studded take on the Motorola Razr, sold in a bundle alongside a matching set of Swarovskied Moto Buds Loop earbuds. The flip phone features 34 crystals embedded in the faux leather finish, with a larger 35th attached to the hinge. You can register now to buy the $1,000 bundle, but let’s be honest — it’s not as good as the Paris Hilton pink.

Motorola is bringing the Edge 60 phone it launched in the UK last month to the US, but we’ll have to make do with a less exciting color treatment. Sold as the Motorla Edge 2025 in the US, it’ll cost $549.99 and comes with full water resistance, three 50-megapixel cameras, and a 3x optical zoom, and a 6.7-inch display. The reserved, dark green “forest” color option isn’t as eye-catching as some of Motorola’s other recent finishes, but at least there’s a faux-leather back.

Following the launch of the Edge 60 Fusion earlier this month, Motorola is expanding its midrange Edge 60 series with two new smartphones launching in the UK and other countries — but probably not the US.