On February 7, Motorola announced the Moto G Stylus alongside the Moto G Power. These are the latest addition to the brand’s affordable phone lineup. The Motorola G lineup also includes the Moto G Fast, Moto G8 Power, Moto G8 Plus, Moto G7, etc.

At a price of Rs 21,490, the Moto G Stylus is more expensive compared with other devices in the same Moto G line up. For example, the Moto G8 Power costs Rs 17,890, the Moto G Fast is priced at Rs 15,190, the Moto G8 Plus comes at a price of Rs 13,999, and the Moto G7 costs Rs 16,999. If you want to have an experience of using a stylus with a smartphone but cannot afford premium devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note series, the G Stylus would be a reasonable choice.

Display

This smartphone sports an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen that measures 6.4 inches, which is a common and reasonable screen size for a smartphone. It’s big enough for enhanced viewing experience yet not too big to use on one hand. The Moto G Stylus’ screen features the punch-hole design with the front-facing camera placed in the top left corner, giving it a modern, premium look.

This punch-hole design is the same as the Moto G Power and Moto G Fast, while older models like the Moto G7 and G7 Power feature the top-notch design.

The LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen technology, as of now, is getting outdated and being replaced by more advanced technologies like OLED and AMOLED. Rather than emitting light directly, it uses a reflector or a backlight to produce images in color or monochrome.

The Moto G Stylus features a screen resolution of 1080x2300 pixels along with a pixel density of 399 ppi. I have to say considering the screen size, this resolution and pixel density is a bit low compared with competitors from the same segment, especially the pixel density, which decides how sharp the images on the screen will be. For example, the Samsung Galaxy A31 (Rs 21,990) also features a 6.4-inch screen but its resolution is 1080x2400 pixels and its pixel density is 411 ppi, that’s 12 more pixels per inch.

Therefore, it seems that the viewing experience on this Moto G Stylus won’t be as good, the sharpness of images may affect your gaming experience a little bit. And there’s a dark shade around the edge of the screen.

Regarding the overall design, the handset features a glass front, a plastic back, and an aluminum frame, and it’s splash-resistant, so if you accidentally spill water right next to the phone, you should be worry-free.

Chip

If the screen quality is making you worry, its processor may lessen your concerns. The Moto G Stylus is powered by the Snapdragon 665 from Qualcomm, an octa-core chip with four 2GHz cores and four 1.8GHz cores.

Qualcomm launched this processor in summer 2019 for mid-range devices, offering CPU speeds from 14.47 to 16.25 GHz. This kind of power is comparable with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20, or Mate 30 Pro from a higher segment. However, at the same price point, this is not the best chip for a smartphone. For instance, the Xiaomi Poco X2 packs the Snapdragon 730.

When it comes to gaming, tests show that the Snapdragon 665 has slightly more power than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 660. For PUBG Mobile, there were a few frame drops at first when loading maps, but during the gameplay, the frame rate remains stable at around 30-32 fps. The refresh rate could even go up to 60 fps for some other games. Overall, the Snapdragon 665 handles gaming well enough.

Storage

The Moto G Stylus features 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, and this is the only variant available. The RAM capacity of 4 GB is normally not ideal or even good for gaming, but the processor appears to have made up for the gaming performance by better optimizing the power of the phone. That’s why you will still have a decent gaming experience on this device.

Battery

In terms of the battery, the handset packs a 4,000mAh battery, which is commonly seen in smartphones these days. Initial reviews indicated that the battery can last up to 2 days for moderate tasks on the phone. This battery life is really good, and if you play games, you won’t have to worry much about battery drain. It comes with 10W charging support and no wireless charging.

There are several cases where the battery of the Moto G Stylus overheat, but that doesn’t seem to relate to its gaming performance. So, we expect that you there isn’t an overheating issue on this phone, it can get warm when you play games, but every smartphone does.

Camera

Last but not least, let’s talk about the camera setup. Instead of a camera array or module on the back, the Moto G Stylus sports a dual-camera array with an LED flash, then there’s the biggest lens separated above the array. In short, there is a 48MP lens with an f/1.7 aperture, a 16MP wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture, as well as a 2MP lens with an f/2.2 aperture. The rear cameras support face detection, auto flash, digital zoom, and touch to focus features. They also allow for video recording at 1920x1080p resolution and 60fps frame rate or 3840x2160p resolution and 30fps frame rate.

Meanwhile, on the front, there is a single 16MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture that also lets you record videos at 1920x1080p resolution and 30fps frame rate.

Except for these basic specifications and features, the smartphone doesn’t really offer any outstanding or special photography features.

Overall, the phone does produce nice video at both quality options. Its photos come with good quality too in the daylight, the panorama mode works very well and generates photos that even look like the 360-degree effect. However, like other mid-range smartphones, its low-light pictures still have a lot of room for improvement. And the micro mode doesn’t allow you to bring the camera very close to the subject either.