The Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) appears to improve upon the original Moto G Stylus 5G from 2022, but with a newer Snapdragon chipset, improved stylus latency and a 120Hz display refresh rate. A 6.8-inch FHD+ display, 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery make the Moto G Stylus 5G’s specifications solid.
It seems that Stylus smartphones are still alive and well, with the Moto G Stylus 5G looking for a edge among the best phones with stylus features in terms of price. At $399, it’s not quite a premium phone, but instead offers an accessible blend of stylus experience for users who also want to take advantage of 5G data speeds.
We got our hands on the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023). Here are our first impressions, plus everything you need to know about availability, battery life, cameras, and more.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) price and availability
The Moto G Stylus 5G costs $399.99 and is available from June 2, 2023 at Cricket. The device will later be available through many of the top phone carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Google Fi Wireless, UScellular, Consumer Cellular, Optimum Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, Boost Infinite, and Boost Mobile.
You’ll also be able to buy the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) unlocked globally at Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Motorola.com starting June 16th.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) design and display
The Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) comes in a beautiful Rose Champagne color that many will find attractive, but there’s also Cosmic Black if you’re looking for something more simple. The back housing now has a matte finish, which makes it less of a fingerprint magnet than last year’s model. We also like how this device has moved to flat edges — it just makes for a better hand feel.
When sharpened, this is a 6.6-inch Full HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate, up from the previous model’s 60Hz refresh rate. This means smoother scrolling, either with your finger or with the included stylus.
The stylus pops up from the bottom and launches a quick list of favorite apps, with the note-taking app clearly front and center. We had absolutely no problem jotting down a quick to-do list, finding the response time to be fast enough. Having said that, we’d like to pit the Moto G Stylus 5G against something like the S Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 to see the difference between a value phone and a premium phone.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) performance
The Moto G Stylus 5G is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, and comes with Android 13. It will update to Android 14, but that’s it in terms of OS upgrades, which is a bit disappointing for the phone’s price. Users will still get 3 years of security upgrades.
Other than that, the device comes with 256GB of storage which is expandable using a microSD card up to 2TB.
This extra storage can be useful for taking lots of photos and videos with the phone. In terms of camera performance, the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) offers a 50MP main camera with a built-in 8GB ultra-wide lens and Macro Vision lens. There is a front camera of 16 megapixels.
Looking at a variety of shots, the device seems to take decent photos and videos. It successfully reproduced clouds swirling around the skyscrapers of Chicago on a rainy day, for example. We’ll need to take a closer look at the photos compared to other phones of the same price.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) battery life
If we were to get this phone out and about, the 5,000mAh battery should give us up to two days of battery life. We’ll need to put the Edge Plus through a continuous web browsing battery test to see how true that is, but Motorola phones usually offer solid endurance.
The previous generation Moto G Stylus 5G clocked 10 hours and 50 minutes in our benchmarks. It wasn’t the best list for the phone’s battery life, but it’s better than the average smartphone. Unless we stress the phone with hours on end of gaming, video chatting, and video clips, the phone has kept us through the day.
Future look at the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023)
It is far from being a replacement for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. But the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) is shaping up to be a valuable option for those note-takers who enjoy the feedback from pressing pen to paper — or pen to screen.
