The updated Moto G Stylus 5G smartphone from Motorola ($499.99) fits well in the mid-range sweet spot and, in contrast to other products in its class, comes with a built-in stylus. Additionally, it boasts a sizable, quick screen, excellent battery life, and competitive inner hardware. The phone falls short, though, in terms of camera quality and Motorola’s meagre update commitment.
Despite lacking a stylus, the less costly Editors’ Choice-winning Google Pixel 5a ($449) is a more futuristic midrange Android device with more excellent photos and an improved update commitment. But the Moto G Stylus might win over those who prefer styluses and others who don’t want to pay $1,199 or more for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with a pen.
In 2024, Motorola will likely include a stylus in its smartphone lineup. The business already offers a range of stylus-equipped Moto G smartphones, but the Lenovo-owned company just unveiled the Motorola Edge Plus, which supports a digital pen. Near the end of April, Motorola announced the Moto G Stylus 5G after updating the base classifier Moto G Stylus.
Moto G Stylus 5G Battery Review
The phone’s 5,000mAh battery performs better than expected. In our battery drain test, the Moto G Stylus 5G sustained 13 hours and 10 minutes. Last year’s Moto G Stylus 5G Battery Life survived the same test for 15 hours and thirty minutes despite having a 60Hz display, which uses less battery.
Quick Charge 3.0 is supported with the Moto G Stylus 5G, although only a 10W charger is provided in the box. With a 10W charger, the phone charged from 0% to 11% in 15 minutes and from 100% to 100% in 2 hours and 55 minutes. You’ll need to buy a Quick Charge 3.0 adapter individually for faster charging. The phone doesn’t enable wireless charging, which is to be expected given its pricing.
The Storage, Connectivity and efficiency
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 CPU, which supports mmWave and Sub6 5G connectivity, is inside the Moto G Stylus 5G. The device I’ve been testing has 512GB of storage in total; 256GB of it is internal storage, and the remaining 256GB is on a microSD card. Memory on the G Stylus 5G is 8GB. Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.1 are additional connectivity options. According to Motorola, the 5,000mAh battery that powers all of that can last for two full days of operation.
The performance has generally been satisfactory. The battery life is excellent. Although users haven’t been allowed to use the G Stylus 5G for two days, doing so is still possible without any problems. The two key selling points are the G Stylus 5G’s stylus and battery life.
But the G Stylus 5G shines regarding stylus support. Motorola has carefully curated the software experience to enhance the phone anytime the stylus is utilized. One of my favourite features, for instance, allows you to immediately start taking notes when the stylus is removed while the phone is locked.
How do you Conserve your Moto G Stylus 5G Smartphone battery?
When the pen is taken out of the silo, a little button that offers choices to capture a note, annotate a screenshot, make a GIF, or even launch an app hovers above the screen. This is highly reminiscent of Samsung but with Motorola’s undoubtedly more lighthearted style and symbols. The quick frame rate of the screen makes writing or sketching with the pen easy and responsive.
According to PC Magazine, The phone features a 5,000mAh battery, just like last year’s. I drained the battery by streaming a YouTube video on Wi-Fi with the screen brightness maxed out. In this test, the 2023 G Stylus 5G lasted 13 hours and 20 minutes.
The camera’s performance is merely adequate. It is either overexposed or undersaturated in the colours in the pictures I took with it. Although I’d be comfortable with it for a camera on a $500 phone (now on sale for $449), it’s not terrible. Don’t let the spec sheet mention 50 megapixels lead you astray.
If you’re searching for a phone that supports styluses, has a good—but not unique—camera configuration, and has a long battery life, the Moto G Stylus 5G is a beautiful option. one with mmWave with sub-6GHz 5G that is tied to Verizon. The other has sub-6GHz 5G exclusively that is sold unlocked. Few smartphones at this price point support mmWave, which allows for the quickest data speeds if you’re in a location with enough service.
