Moto G Stylus 5G brings a better stylus and quad cameras for $399

Motorola just took the wraps off the new Moto G Stylus 5G. Obviously, the big upgrade here versus the original Moto G Stylus is right there in the name — this new budget phone supports 5G. But the Moto Stylus 5G features some other improvements as well, such as a fully rounded stylus.

While we all like to talk about the big flagship phones like the iPhone 12 and Galaxy S21, there is a huge market for budget and midrange phones. Motorola is king in this space with the Moto G line, all of which provide solid Android experiences with varying degrees of good battery life.

The Moto G Stylus 5G’s humble specs are surprisingly robust, with the Snapdragon 480 5G processor leading the show. The retail model will come with 256GB of storage with support for up to a 1TB micro SD card. You’ll also get 6GB of RAM. 

The Moto G Stylus 5G features a quad camera setup, spearheaded by a 48MP main shooter. That’s joined by an 8MP ultrawide, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. The 16MP front camera sits in a hole punch cutout in the display.

Speaking of which, the Moto G Stylus 5G rocks a big 6.8-inch FHD+ display. That means that this definitely won’t win a spot on the best small phones list. Rather, it challenges the OnePlus 9 Pro and Galaxy S21 Ultra in terms of sheer size. 

Luckily, as the name suggests, you’ll get a stylus to help you be more productive and use the phone more effectively. The new stylus has improved on the 4G model’s, with a fully round body to make returning it to its slot in the phone’s framemuch easier.

A massive 5,000 mAh battery powers the whole thing. While we’ll have to wait for the full review to get the final battery numbers, we’re pretty sure that the Moto G Stylus 5G will have great battery life, perhaps enough to earn a spot on our best phone battery life list. Motorola has a track-record of making long-lasting value phones.

The Moto G Stylus 5G is more than the sum of its parts, though. Running Android 11, the phone has Motorola’s My UX, which offers several layers of customization (including Motorola’s popular gestures) to make the phone feel like it’s truly yours.

The company has placed a huge focus on the Notes app for your stylus needs. It’s proud of how the app has been received thus far and plans to continue to make it a useful and fun thing to use.

If you buy the Moto G Stylus 5G, you’ll get an upgrade to Android 12 and two years of security updates. We can’t say that we’re too thrilled with this update plan, but we’ll save that discussion for the full review.

You can buy a Moto G Stylus 5G for a mere $399, a lower price than most of the best 5G phones. (The OnePlus Nord N10 5G beats it by $100.) The Moto G Stylus goes on sale June 14 at Motorola.com, as well as in retailers including Best Buy, Amazon, B&H Photo and Walmart.