Motorola Moto G Stylus review (2022): Good deal

The 2022 Moto G Stylus has a shelf for clearance, as it’s probably one of the latest new phones sold in the US without 5G. But if Motorola is clearing space for a new season of 5G hardware, it makes the 2022 G Stylus a good deal.

The G Stylus costs, in theory, $299, but it’s apparently a permanent reduction to $279. This is perfectly in line with last year’s version of the G Stylus, but Motorola did a few upgrades to this year’s version, including a larger 5,000mAh battery, 4GB to 6GB RAM, and a 90Hz screen for faster refresh.

It still offers a huge 6.8-inch 1080p screen, and of course, a built-in stylus of the same name. There’s a different processor – the MediaTek Helio G88 – which replaced last year’s Snapdragon 678 chipset. A headphone jack and microSD card slot are all included to increase 128GB of storage and an in-box charger, handy features that are slowly being phased out by companies. Manufactured starting with the flagship and flowing into the mid-range. Get em while you can.

In general, not including 5G is a bit of a drawback. 5G networks in the US are starting to improve a lot, and that will continue to be the case over the next few years. But depending on your carrier, where you live, and how you use your phone, having a 4G-only phone might not be a big deal at all. This is the clearance rack value display; It’s not the latest and best, but if it works for you, it could be a winner.

Photo by Alison Johnson/The Verge

For the sake of its namesake feature, the 2022 Moto G Stylus offers a massive panel: a 6.8-inch 1080p panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s the LCD panel, and it’s on the opaque side. I used the phone more indoors than outside, but I still needed 80 or 90 percent brightness at all times. Visibility isn’t great in direct sunlight, but it’s good enough to see what you’re doing. The faster-than-usual refresh rate is nice, and you’ll notice a bit of extra smoothness as you scroll.

As you may have guessed, this huge screen makes the whole phone big. Really great. There’s no chance of this thing being used comfortably with one hand, and it looks ridiculous sticking out of my pants pocket. I got used to it over the course of a few days, and the big screen definitely fits a lot of content, but it definitely has a lot of phones.

The pen’s feature set covers all the basics. There’s a live note-taking app, which is the first thing you’ll see when you take the pen out of its silo at the bottom of the phone. There is also a coloring book and a shortcut to take a screenshot so you can’t notice or draw the image. Nothing is so wonderful or advanced as so much, Much More expensive Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra It can do but it’s a great tool to have when you want to jot something down without unlocking your phone, even if you don’t end up using it often. In fact, my mother, a Motorola fan and owner of the 2021 G Stylus, sealed her box with a holster that covers the entire pen silo. She is absolutely happy with her stylus-free phone. for each one of them.

Motorola claims that the 5,000mAh G Stylus battery will last up to two days on a single charge, so I considered that a challenge. After the first day I spent testing the phone, the battery was down 50 percent, but I didn’t recharge overnight and trust it to last through the next day. It worked, and all in all, I got about 6.5 hours of screen time and it had dropped to 18 percent by the end of the second day. I spent a lot of that time on Wi-Fi, which may have helped, but I raised the screen refresh rate to the highest setting to push it up a bit. Either way, that’s great endurance, and even heavy users can probably go an entire day without draining the battery.

The overall performance is also good. There are slight bumps and hesitations here and there when I open apps and scroll through heavy video and photo screens but nothing affects my daily use. The 6GB of RAM keeps loads of apps running in the background, and I’m impressed with how easy it is to go back to an app I’ve been using for hours and pick up where I left off. you Could you Running a graphics-intensive game like Jinshin effectJust expect to see some falling tires and noticeable stuttering. But that’s not really what this phone is for anyway.

Most new phones in 2022 will ship with Android 12 at this point in the year, but the G Stylus is still preloaded with Android 11. Motorola says the phone will get an upgrade to Android 12 — and that will be the only upgrade to the OS version — but it doesn’t offer No details on timing. The company is also promising three years of security updates on a bimonthly schedule, which is one year longer than it promised for last year’s model. That’s an improvement but still less than Samsung’s four-year commitment (and Up to five years for some of its A-series budget phones).

This usually happens when I cover the 5G bands this phone can use, but in this case, it’s an easy answer: none of them. Unlike in the past year or two, 5G connectivity is something to consider when buying a new phone. T-Mobile’s 5G network is already fairly robust; Likewise, Verizon and AT&T networks will improve over the next two years. For the most part, that will mean significantly faster speeds compared to 4G, so that’s something the Moto G Stylus won’t be able to take advantage of.

It’s a blow against the Moto G Stylus but not a deal breaker. 5G expansion in the US will focus on major cities initially, so if you live in a more rural location, owning a 5G device may not be a priority now or in the near future. And if you’re satisfied with 4G speeds or spend most of your time on Wi-Fi anyway, you’ll be fine with a 4G device in the next few years. The Moto G Stylus wasn’t really built to last much longer than that anyway.

There appear to be three cameras on the G Stylus’ back panel, but one of them is a 2-megapixel depth sensor that you can ignore. There’s a 50MP f/1.9 wide camera and an 8MP ultrawide, as well as a 16MP selfie camera. Last year’s model had a dedicated macro camera; This time around, the ultra-wide band does double duty as the macro sensor.

reticle display

Overall, G Stylus cameras produce well-balanced images without exaggerating color saturation or HDR effects in high-contrast scenes. Both rear cameras do a good job in good lighting, but there is some noticeable noise in photos from the 8MP ultrawide captured in moderately low light. There’s also some noticeable lag between clicking the shutter and actually taking a picture, which is fairly common for a budget phone. Night vision is useful in very low light if your subject is not moving. It doesn’t work miracles, but at least this budget phone has a night mode – Unlike another I reviewed recently.

Video recording is only available in 1080p, which is unusual. (Most phones these days can shoot 4K video.) There’s a fairly solid crop too, even if you turn electronic stabilization off. I don’t imagine the lack of 4K video will bother a lot of people buying this phone, but 4K is the fairly new standard for HD video, so this is something to note if video is important to you. Other than that, 1080p clips are fine, and smaller file sizes are easy to share anyway.

You won’t find a Moto G Stylus on the shelves at a Verizon or T-Mobile store. Big carriers are too interested in putting 5G phones in their customers’ hands to waste any of their valuable retail space on a 4G device. And it’s not all about marketing anymore; Real 5G is really coming, and it will really be faster than 4G. But just because carriers think it’s a good time to put a 5G device in your hand doesn’t mean you have to buy one. If you’re okay with 4G and will be over the next few years, the Moto G Stylus is a great deal.

For less than $300, it offers good performance, a huge screen, sufficiently efficient cameras, and excellent battery life. This does not take into account the main title feature: the pen. It’s easy to use, and even if it isn’t used much, the phone is still a good price even without it.

If you want something more future proof, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is a good choice While still in stock. At the same price as the Moto G Stylus, it offers similar performance and an equally good battery capacity. On the downside, its screen is smaller and has a lower resolution, it only comes with 64GB of storage, and of course there’s no stylus.

If you’re not interested in futuristic scrutiny of the next generation of wireless technology and a big phone with a big screen is just your size, the Moto G Stylus is the shelving bargain for you.

Photo by Alison Johnson/The Verge