A funds Moto telephone for energy customers

Motorola’s funds lineup has been by means of some tough evolutions over time. It’s added and eliminated choices on each ends, from one-off experiments with the ultra-cheap Moto G Pure, to the Moto G Stylus and Moto G Energy frequently buying and selling locations as the highest choice. Generally, it means there’s an affordable Motorola gadget for everybody, but it surely typically leaves me confused about which one to advocate. Not anymore.

The $400 Moto G Stylus (2025) is the best low cost Motorola telephone to advocate, and right here’s why.

Together with Motorola’s uncertainty over easy methods to area its funds Android telephones, it’s undergone a number of design swings over time. After I began reviewing telephones, Motorola was all about vibrant colours with centrally positioned digital camera bumps. I liked nearly all of them as a result of they made in any other case low cost telephones feel and appear extra thrilling. Then, it appeared like Motorola was content material to roll out grey rectangle after grey rectangle, full with corner-mounted cameras that regarded like most different budget-minded Android telephones. That mentality seeped out into the mid-range and flagship Edge launches, too, which had me anxious about what the way forward for my favourite Moto designs would appear to be.

Lately, although, Motorola has rediscovered its enjoyable roots. It’s jumped headfirst again into vibrant Pantone colours throughout all value factors, from the top-end Razr Extremely right down to essentially the most inexpensive, and outright dangerous Moto G (2025). For the 2025 iteration of the Moto G Stylus (there’s just one mannequin this yr, so no LTE-only confusion), which means a duo of lovely blue shades, Gibraltar Sea and Surf The Net, each with vegan leather-based again panels. I’m glad Motorola despatched me Surf The Net, because it’s a bit extra of a royal blue than the Gibraltar Sea’s navy blue, however I’d take both one over the muted grays and pale purples that Samsung likes to roll out at this value level.

It’s not simply the change in colour preferences that’s swept Motorola’s current lineups, although — I feel its Moto G designs look higher than ever, too. Sure, they’re all no less than considerably impressed by the brand new Motorola Edge blueprints in the identical means that Samsung’s Galaxy A sequence pulls proper from the Galaxy S25 trio, however I feel it really works out a bit higher in Motorola’s favor. The place Samsung’s low cost telephones are likely to look fairly generic with their easy digital camera cutouts, the Moto G Stylus may fall wherever in Motorola’s vary, from being a budget telephone it’s to tricking you into pondering it’s a flagship Edge gadget.

Exterior of the overall plastic-ness of the Moto G Stylus, the gradual, regular enchancment in construct high quality would nearly make you suppose it’s an Edge gadget, too. Previously, a few of Motorola’s funds choices have had points with some flex to the again panels, however I haven’t seen any of that right here. The plastic body can also be inflexible sufficient for me to proceed utilizing the telephone with out a case, although I may think that combining a MIL-STD 810H ranking towards drops and IP68 certification for water and mud provides to a few of my funds peace of thoughts.

In fact, I can’t faux that Motorola’s construct high quality matches that of its Galaxy A sequence rivals, because the precise alternative of supplies actually doesn’t. Though Motorola upgraded its sturdiness rankings this time, the Moto G Stylus (2025) continues to be largely plastic with only a Gorilla Glass 3 show, whereas the Galaxy A36 5G places Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on each the back and front. Whereas I feel I may in all probability let this one slip out of my fingers a couple of times, I’d really feel higher about barely harder glass on most surfaces.

After which, there’s the Moto G Stylus’s signature characteristic — its stylus. Nowadays, it’s just about your solely choice in order for you a telephone with a built-in stylus however can’t stump up the money for Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Extremely. Truthfully, the extent of performance between the 2 isn’t a lot completely different. Now that Samsung has eradicated Air Actions and the flexibility to make use of the S Pen as a distant digital camera shutter, it’s not rather more than a tapping and drawing choice, regardless of costing thrice as a lot.

On high of that, Motorola’s stylus controls are, properly, simpler. Once you slip the stylus from its housing on the backside proper nook, it routinely opens a menu with Moto Observe, Screenshot, Free-form Crop, and Sketch to Picture buttons. The Moto G Stylus additionally helps a Handwriting Calculator, which is a intelligent concept that I’ve tried a couple of times, however I don’t do sufficient math to justify its presence, neither is my handwriting adequate for the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset to distinguish my 7s from my 2s each time.

Additionally, whereas evaluating a $400 Android telephone to a $1,300 one in most respects is unfair, I’ve to offer Motorola credit score for creating the rather more comfy design right here. Samsung’s huge, flat-topped (and bottomed) body has by no means been very comfy to me, whether or not it had barely rounded sides or not, but the Moto G Stylus places simply the appropriate stage of roundness round all 4 sides. It by no means feels prefer it’s digging into the palm of my hand, which makes utilizing its 6.7-inch AMOLED rather more satisfying.

The show itself is simply plain good, too. Motorola caught with just-okay LCDs for some time not that way back, so to see it improve yr after yr to the purpose the place it peaks at practically 1,000 nits brighter than the Galaxy A36 5G and has a barely larger decision (444 pixels per inch as an alternative of 385) makes it really feel like Motorola has just a bit bit extra to offer to the funds section proper now. Motorola has additionally greater than rectified the terrible viewing angles that plagued the Moto G Energy a number of years in the past, making it in order that I can comfortably regulate the Moto G Stylus whether or not I’m working across the kitchen or making an attempt to maintain up with NWSL and MLS matches concurrently.

I’m, sadly for the Moto G Stylus, reviewing a few tablets on the similar time proper now, so it’s been robust to select a 6.7-inch show as my main streaming companion, however I’ve been happy with it as a option to verify highlights whereas working benchmarks on different units or waste time in Pokémon Go and Stardew Valley, each of which I’ve picked again up after a protracted, very long time away. I additionally recognize that this telephone nonetheless has a headphone jack reverse its stylus on the underside edge, displaying that sure, Samsung, you’ll be able to have each with out shedding a 5,000mAh battery.

The final be aware I’ve on the Moto G Stylus (2025) design issues its packaging. In the previous couple of years, Motorola has adopted naturally coloured, plastic-free packaging for its Moto G units and a few of its Edge units, and I anticipated that to proceed this time round. As a substitute, my evaluation unit arrived in a white field with some barely shiny textual content on it, which appears like Motorola going again on a number of of its eco-minded objectives. I assume packaging doesn’t matter an excessive amount of within the grand scheme of issues, however I preferred giving Motorola a inexperienced thumbs up for its efforts prior to now, and now I can’t inform if I can nonetheless accomplish that.

In fact, constructing a handsome funds telephone is simply half the battle — I’ve praised loads of low cost designs over time solely to show round and report that they’re little greater than fairly faces. Nonetheless, what earns the Moto G Stylus factors in my ebook is that it reaches just a little bit larger. It combines stable internals with its eye-catching design and finally has extra of a declare to the Moto G Energy identify than the Energy itself.

Particularly, the Moto G Stylus packs a extra environment friendly Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset (constructed with a 4nm course of) as an alternative of the Moto G Energy’s Dimensity 6300 chipset (constructed with a 6nm course of). The Stylus additionally doubles the Energy’s base storage with 256GB as an alternative of 128, although each telephones enable for enlargement through microSD playing cards and provide matching 8GB of RAM. As all the time, the spec sheet solely tells a part of the story, so it’s time to run the Moto G Stylus by means of our traditional set of benchmarks and select a number of alternative rivals.

So, I stacked up just a little little bit of all the things. I picked out the Moto G Energy (2025) to determine which Motorola telephone had the very best declare to energy, in addition to Samsung’s Galaxy A26 5G and A36 5G, the latter of which additionally makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset. Then, for good measure, I added Nothing’s Telephone 3a Professional, which is a bit more costly however steps as much as the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset for just a little extra punch.

Throughout the board, the outcomes have been… unsurprising, nearly to the purpose of being boring. The Telephone 3a Professional set the tone in each single-core and multi-core CPU efficiency, whereas the Moto G Stylus and Galaxy A36 5G have been neck and neck in second place. The Stylus and each Galaxy units then jumped previous Nothing’s first Professional-grade funds telephone (a contradiction if ever I’ve written one) within the extra complete PCMark Work take a look at, as did the weaker Moto G Energy.

Switching over to the graphics facet, the 20-run Wild Life stress take a look at put the Telephone 3a Professional proper again on high of the pile, with the remainder of the opponents shaking out in descending order by value. The Moto G Stylus (2025) got here up simply wanting the Galaxy A36 5G however stayed simply above the Galaxy A26 5G, all of which simply breezed previous the Moto G Energy (2025).

I’d say the Moto G Stylus’s day-to-day efficiency mirrors its benchmarking outcomes, too — good and dependable, even when not on the high of the pile. It’s spent most of its time with me as a backup gadget, popping out largely once I’d put down the Razr Extremely or Galaxy S25 Edge for an hour or two whereas reviewing them. By that, although, it’s responded to nearly all the things I’ve requested, tackling social media scrolling and mindlessly listening to YouTube playlists by means of my wired Marshall headphones, just because I had to make use of the headphone jack ultimately.

It has, after all, additionally include me as my default Pokémon Go machine, giving me an opportunity to discover a recreation I haven’t performed because the finish of faculty. Even with the heavy mixture of GPS monitoring and near-constant graphics utilization between the frequent gyms and Pokestops right here within the metropolis, the Stylus has taken to my adventures fairly properly, solely slowing down a couple of times on an 80-degree day that will have put a hurting on nearly any telephone.

One factor you might need anticipated just a bit little bit of in a productivity-minded gadget, although, is an AI characteristic or two. In spite of everything, Motorola simply rolled out a brand new suite of Moto AI enhancements to its current Razr launch, a lot of which is headed for the Edge lineup, too. Sadly, that appears to be the place it’s staying for now, because the Moto G Stylus solely will get Sketch to Picture with its stylus and Circle to Search, which has grow to be as widespread as Google Lens.

Oh, and should you’re after an affordable telephone you could preserve for some time, you may not be thrilled to listen to that the Moto G Stylus is simply in line for 2 Android updates and a 3rd yr of safety patches. Samsung’s Galaxy A36 5G will get six years of assist on the similar value level, and the marginally costlier Pixel 9a provides a seventh yr to the combo. On the brilliant facet, Motorola has cleaned up the bloatware in Hi there UX, paring down the Moto G Stylus to a gaming folder and Look widget by default. You’ll should uninstall 1Weather, which is annoyingly nonetheless right here, but it surely’s straightforward sufficient to do.

After which, there’s the battery life — the opposite piece of Motorola’s inexpensive productiveness puzzle. Like most inexpensive Motorola telephones, the Moto G Stylus packs a hearty 5,000mAh cell, and I’ve had no issues placing it by means of greater than a day’s value of labor. Curiously, our managed battery drain take a look at would make you suppose it falls far behind Nothing’s Telephone 3a and 3a Professional, however I feel the precise efficiency is about even. I’ve known as on it for a barely completely different mixture of obligations in typically hotter climate, however I haven’t confronted a lot battery anxiousness.

Even when I had, the Moto G Stylus (2025) claims a number of the finest charging at this value level. In truth, it prices sooner than any Galaxy gadget or Pixel, regardless of how a lot you spend. Motorola packed its high funds providing with blistering 68W wired TurboPower charging and 15W wi-fi charging for good measure.

In my expertise, the wired capabilities (with a appropriate charger) can get you again in your ft in only a shade beneath an hour — the identical time it takes to fill Nothing’s Telephone 3a with a USB PD PPS charger. I did have just a little bother reaching peak speeds earlier than I noticed Motorola’s TurboPower block solely appears to belief the telephone’s included USB-C cable, which has identifiable pink suggestions, for the total 68W charge. I’m undecided why that’s, but it surely’s one thing to bear in mind.

With Motorola’s funds telephones pulling more and more from its flagship Edge lineup, it solely is smart that the Moto G Stylus’s digital camera bump seems to be acquainted. To my eye, it’s about the identical measurement because the one on the Edge (2025), and it has the same orientation of three sensors. There’s only one downside, although: The Moto G Stylus (2025) solely has two rear cameras. So, that third sensor that sits beneath the flash is simply form of, properly, there for appearances.

The excellent news, no less than, is that Motorola selected two fairly stable sensors for its stylus-toting funds telephone. The 50MP main sensor is identical stacked LYTIA 700C that Motorola used on its Edge (2025), and it has popped up on different nice digital camera telephones. It delivers some fairly stable ends in good lighting. I recognize that Motorola didn’t merely slap an affordable 50MP sensor on there and name it a day, because the shared sensor means the funds and flagship units ought to course of pictures fairly equally.

Motorola’s second shooter is a reasonably customary 13MP ultrawide sensor with a 120-degree area of view. This one doesn’t match the sensor on the Edge, although, as you’ll see in a second, it appears to course of its pictures higher than the Razr Extremely did at launch. There’s no bizarre darkening impact within the sky, nor do I really feel like the colours are fairly as overblown — they’re punchy, simply inside extra affordable limits.

Anyway, let’s get to some samples.

The primary row of photographs provides you a fairly good concept of how the Moto G Stylus handles a sunny day. There are punchy colours from left to proper, whether or not the topic is up shut, just like the set of rainbow balloons, or just a little additional away, just like the dry-docked boat on the appropriate facet. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear to be Motorola is counting on vivid colours to cowl over worse particulars, both. It’s straightforward to select particular person droplets of rain on the balloons, and you may simply select completely different individuals strolling across the background of Baltimore’s Little Italy Pageant.

I’m additionally happy with the portrait mode detection on the colourful signal I noticed in Washington, DC. Sure, it has fairly well-defined edges, however the Moto G Stylus additionally blurred the tiny gap in the midst of the signal, a pleasant contact that different funds telephones typically miss.

This second row provides the same have a look at the Moto G Stylus’s colour recreation. It makes my brunch forward of the Grand Slam Observe occasion in Philadelphia look nearly pretty much as good because it tasted — and it tasted fairly good. Spring is one thing like road honest season right here in Baltimore, so when I discovered myself with a closed road and a terrific view of one of many metropolis’s older church buildings, I needed to seize a snap or two. Regardless of not having a devoted telephoto sensor, I’m happy with the central crop from the 50MP main sensor, and I don’t discover any shift in colour profile from 1x zoom.

Shifting to the ultrawide sensor — and the software-based macro mode — it looks like Motorola has higher management over a constant colour science than in years previous. I’ve examined my fair proportion of Moto G units that include vital shifts from the first sensor to the ultrawide, however I don’t really feel like that’s the case right here. The 13MP sensor nonetheless holds onto first rate particulars from its bigger pixels, and the punchier colours deliver just a little extra life to my photographs, particularly within the flags in entrance of the Washington Monument.

This time, the brilliant pinks of the hydrangea I captured in macro mode appear to bleed collectively only a bit. I do know there aren’t sharp edges inside the flowers themselves, so the Moto G Stylus is including some sharpening after the actual fact, and whereas it really works for the water droplets, it emphasizes a number of of the wrinkles within the flowers just a bit bit an excessive amount of.

I’ve already talked about the dearth of a telephoto sensor, which could trace at how the Moto G Stylus handles longer focal lengths, which is to say that it doesn’t, actually. I feel the telephone is simply wonderful as much as about 4x zoom, because the US Capitol nonetheless seems to be sharp sufficient with okay particulars within the bushes lining the Nationwide Mall. I’d really feel wonderful posting that one to my Instagram story with out zooming in, although I wouldn’t say the identical for the shot at 10x zoom. Sure, it’s nonetheless identifiable because the US Capitol, but it surely appears like a lower-resolution rendering, and I can solely select the yellow Penske truck within the foreground as a result of I’ve seen the identical one a thousand occasions across the metropolis.

Wrapping us up, the Moto G Stylus (2025) has a 32MP punch-hole selfie digital camera on the high of its 6.7-inch show. It’s completely wonderful in your primary selfie wants — I’ve no points with the small print in portrait or customary modes, although I’m undecided I really like the shift in picture processing. I feel the usual selfie seems to be just a little extra color-accurate, placing a barely darker shadow onto my shirt, whereas the portrait shot makes all the things appear just a little bit brighter. It’s a slight shift, however one which I discover after having taken selfies on so many Android units. On the very least, Motorola’s portrait detection is spot-on.

In case you’re eyeing the Moto G Stylus as an affordable video shooter, know that it tops out with 4K recording at 30fps from each the entrance and rear cameras, although it might additionally document 1080p footage at 60fps. I largely caught to 4K video whereas strolling across the festivals in Baltimore, and I got here away fairly impressed with the stabilization in my clips, although I’d have preferred to see 4K at 60fps assist for $400.

You’ll be able to try full-resolution variations of all of my digital camera samples (and a number of other dozen extra) at this Google Drive hyperlink.

If there’s one low cost Motorola telephone value recommending, it’s this one — easy as that. Sure, the Moto G Energy would possibly provide a barely extra sturdy Gorilla Glass 5 show, however the Moto G Stylus (2025) checks all the opposite bins on its means down. It’s extra highly effective, prices sooner, provides higher colour choices (largely as a result of Surf The Net beats Leaf Inexperienced in my ebook), and comes with the identical dependable IP68 certification, even when it skips the IP69 add-on. Oh, and it comes with a built-in stylus for added flexibility, which you’ll solely get from the Galaxy S25 Extremely in any other case.

That stated, the Moto G Stylus (2025) nonetheless suffers from a few basic Motorola stumbles. There’s nonetheless a little bit of bloatware within the type of a gaming folder you could flip off and 1Weather, which you need to instantly uninstall — however no less than it’s much less bloat than in earlier generations. Proper now, the larger downside with recommending a budget-friendly Motorola gadget is that its software program assist is second to, properly, everybody else. Two Android updates and a 3rd yr of safety patches aren’t sufficient when rivals like Samsung provide greater than double that, and Google goes to seven years should you decide up a Pixel.

And once you put a reasonably quick expiration date on a $400 Android telephone, it turns into a lot simpler to look elsewhere in your subsequent gadget. Certain, you may have a look at Motorola’s in-house Moto G Energy (2025) ($299.99 at Amazon), which has the identical digital camera strengths, comparable light-weight software program, and practically similar vegan leather-based finishes, but it surely has the identical weaknesses, too. It’s saddled with the identical bloatware, the identical quick replace dedication, and drops right down to 30W wired charging as an alternative of 68W. That’s nonetheless fairly good in comparison with most choices from Samsung and Google, however much less thrilling once you’ve tried true TurboPower.

Exterior of the Motorola umbrella, Samsung’s budget-minded Galaxy A sequence in all probability makes essentially the most sense. Its Galaxy A36 5G ($399.99 at Amazon) is sort of an ideal match for the Moto G Stylus, as long as you’ll be able to stay with out the eponymous characteristic. The 2 telephones share similar chipsets, matching batteries, and 6.7-inch AMOLED panels, whereas Samsung’s choice provides a 3rd digital camera to the combo — a devoted 5MP macro sensor. The Galaxy A36 5G does come out comfortably forward of the Moto G Stylus by way of sturdiness, although, sandwiching Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on either side of its plastic body.

In case you stay outdoors the US, you may additionally wish to try the Nothing Telephone 3a ($379.99 at Amazon) or the Telephone 3a Professional ($459.99 at Amazon). They’re nearly similar outdoors their digital camera bumps, which means each have Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipsets, 6.77-inch shows, and the intelligent Glyph Interface on the again for notifications and timers. Nothing OS has additionally been certainly one of our favourite Android skins because the begin, bringing a dot-based matrix to most of its widgets whereas retaining a comparatively mild, Pixel-like interface. In case you want barely higher zoom functionality, although, you’ll wish to seize the Telephone 3a Professional with its bigger 50MP telephoto sensor.

One final choice value contemplating is Google’s Pixel 9a ($499 at Amazon), however you’ll should spend extra. In case you’re prepared to attempt it, you’ll get the most important battery obtainable on a Pixel, Google’s newest Tensor G4 chipset (the identical one discovered on the entire flagship Pixels), and 7 years of updates that embody characteristic drops. You’ll additionally get the widest number of AI-powered options from Google’s mid-ranger, which isn’t one thing you’ll discover on many cheaper Android choices.