When I first picked it up, Moto G Stylus 5G (2023), an all-plastic build, a loose-fitting stylus, and an undeniably cheap vibration motor make it clear what price point you’re dealing with for a phone. With this, Motorola is not aiming to launch his iPhone Pro or Samsung Galaxy S series.

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Instead, the company hopes to gain an edge in competitive downmarkets, where manufacturers strategically add or remove features just long enough to win the hearts of budget-minded shoppers. We have to play a balancing game to deliver a package that is of great value.

Despite the hardware reduction, this is a story we’ve seen before. Apple sells iPhone SE for $449 Nine-Year-Old Design — Motorola actually does a lot of things right with the new Moto G Stylus 5G. Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 has a new, better processor and a new camera system with larger pixels. And most importantly, prices are lower than last year. $399.

All in all, I think this is the $400 phone to beat in 2023. Discounted price $299budget shopping or not, it’s a no-brainer for most people.

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Moto G Stylus 5G (2023)

It’s one of the few phones on the market with a built-in stylus, and it also comes with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for a price of $299.

The Moto G Stylus 5G is one of the few phones on the market that still has a built-in pen for precision input. This is a key differentiator from other slabs in the midrange market, and should appeal to visual learners, journalists, and users who prefer writing things down instead of typing.

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The stylus is siled in the bottom-right corner of the phone, and I think this is a better position than Samsung’s more biased to the left side on its Ultra phones. I also like that I can take out the stylus while Moto is locked and Notepad automatically appears.

Please note that the stylus operation of the Moto G Stylus is not perfect. There’s no palm rejection when writing against the new, smaller 6.6-inch display, and pressure sensitivity is close to zero. But for stylus-enabled classics like Bejeweled and Fruit Ninja, you can’t beat it at this price point.

and, galaxy s23 ultra, you can make a case for buying a Moto phone even if you don’t plan on using the onboard accessories. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor powers the unit, which makes everyday apps and services run super smoothly. Admittedly, it takes about a second longer to load the YouTube feed compared to more expensive phones, but I’m generally impressed with the Moto G Stylus’s nimbleness and maintaining its 120Hz refresh rate. received.

Plus, you get great value with memory and storage. The $399 model comes with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, making it the closest competitor. Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (128GB), google pixel 7a (128GB), and iPhone SE (64GB). There is also an option to expand memory via microSD card.

Motorola took a gamble with this year’s camera setup, opting for a 50MP main sensor and a new 8MP ultrawide that also doubles as a macro lens instead of last year’s two lower resolution macro and depth sensors, but it is Meaningful reward.

Moto’s camera system still suffers from lack of color saturation, and the lack of optical image stabilization on the main lens makes it difficult to take still, low-light photos (the phone only takes 2-3 minutes of (to ask you to keep the phone stationary for a few seconds each time). But in the most common case, and this is what most people care about, we found the 50MP main sensor to be reliable enough for quick flicks of family photos, beautiful scenery, and socially rewarding experiences. I did.

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For the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023), the company is promising the usual one OS version upgrade (Android 13 to Android 14) and three years of security support. That’s a step below what Samsung and Google are offering for their midrangers, but you get access to the latest software features and a year or two less security patches makes little sense. If so, I digress.

In the end, you get a lot for a little bit of money on the latest Moto G Stylus. There’s a huge influx of more than enough well-rounded smartphones in this sub-$500 price range, and I can easily recommend 3-4 of them released within the past three months alone. And in that list, Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) — I promise this is the last time you’ll enter your full name — If you’re shopping for a phone under $400, this will appear at the top.