Motorola hasn’t had much success with mid-range devices lately, but it’s trying again with the Moto G Stylus 5G Edition – 2023. It will retail for $399 unlocked for a variant with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (carriers will sell variant with 128GB of storage and either 4 or 6GB of RAM) and comes with a 6.6-inch display, an updated rear camera, and Qualcomm’s new mid-range Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset for 20 percent faster performance than last year’s model. Oh, and the pen, of course.
The 2023 G Stylus 5G has a slightly smaller screen than last year’s version — 6.6 inches vs. 6.8 inches — though it’s still a 1080p LCD with a higher 120Hz refresh rate. The reduced screen size is actually a good thing: 1080p isn’t really enough for a huge screen, and the bezels on this year’s device are a bit smaller. I think it’s a net positive, even if you’re a huge screen fan.
There’s a new 50MP main camera sensor with larger pixels than the previous generation (good), though it loses optical image stabilization found on the 2022 version (not so good). But on the bright side, Motorola got rid of its useless, low-resolution macro and depth sensors and did the sensible thing here: combining them into one in its ultrawide camera. The 8MP ultrawide camera works as a macro camera and also does a depth-sensing job to aid in portrait mode shots. Bravo, Moto.
In other good news, the Moto G Stylus 5G is one of the last mid-range phones to offer a headphone jack, and it now comes with stereo speakers for when you’re listening without plugging in. Motorola says the pen actions are now “simpler and more natural,” but the actual pen features look the same as they did last year. There’s also a MicroSD slot, a massive 5,000mAh battery, 20W fast wired charging, and NFC. Motorola says the G Stylus 5G will get one OS version upgrade and three years of security support — the same as last year and apart from the five years of security updates you’ll get on the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G.
All in all, it’s a promising update — and we could use another good option in the mid-range to give Samsung and Google a run for their money. The 2023 Moto G Stylus 5G goes on sale June 2nd at Cricket Wireless first, with availability on AT&T and T-Mobile later. It will be sold unlocked from Motorola, Amazon, and Best Buy starting June 16th.
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