Motorola G Stylus (2024)

Motorola have consistently kept the Moto G Stylus devices away from the world outside of America and Canada. Which is a shame, because I think others would enjoy it. The last chance I had to use a stylus-driven Moto device here in the UK was with the Moto G Pro (Moto G Stylus in America) in 2020. So much to like and I reviewed it here in my Blog. So perhaps I was the only enthused non-American/Canadian!

It's pretty-much the only (mainstream) phone with a stylus outside of Samsung now, as far as I know. But it's no S-Pen, so let's get that straight from the start. This stylus is effectively a 'dumb' one which is little more than a screen-pointer and apart from the thinness of the end of it, it won't do anything (in terms of making marks on the screen or navigation) than you can do with a finger. No Samsung-level smarts, Bluetooth support and air-gestures etc. So put that from your mind! But for many, there's still enough here to be enthused about.

The stylus sits in a silo on the bottom of the phone and to the right (so for right-handed people, that's one over on Samsung who seems to now put them on the left). It clicks in/out with a push/push and the phone is, at least, able to communicate the whereabouts of the stylus - whether it's in or out and when it was last removed. The stylus has an accent of the colour of the phone on it's clicky-tip and goes in and out nice and easily using the end of a finger or nail. You can, like Samsung's, get a warning if you leave it behind somewhere (but it’s a simple timer, not like Sammy’s location stuff/Bluetooth) though it does give GPS-driven co-ordinates for the last known location, which is neat.

It also makes a sound like pen on paper if you want it. Like Sammy you can also have it set to give a screen-off notepad (Moto Note) or Google Keep if it's removed. Take it out when the screen is on and you get the Shortcuts Menu. There's a bunch of Moto-created software for it and, like Samsung, a near-identical icon pops up on the right of the screen (though it can be moved) to open up this set of six shortcuts which you can assign to what you like. Not just the Moto apps, but anything. If you like using a pen in Google Keep, for example, you can place that one amongst the six.

The Moto-created supporting software then gives us Moto Note, and you can save the Notes you make to pretty much where you like via the Android Share menu, but if you try to save the file to, say Google Drive, it’s in an unrecognisable format. Sharing a picture is possible and there’s actually an auto-sync function as an option with Google Drive - so Moto have worked that one out with Google. Free Form Crop - is pretty much the same as most screenshot savers with pen options to write over the top and save. GIF Maker - like Samsung’s, for tech support or muckin’ about! You can make a GIF, for example, from a YouTube video then save it to place where you like or share with friends. Handwriting Calculator is probably the coolest feature and very clever. You can write all sorts of mathematical equations, sums, in (really bad) writing and it seems to know exactly what you are after and serves up the results, tidied up and into formatted text. Live Message is like that Samsung thing where it essentially saves a GIF of a written picture/message to send to someone and can add sparkly effects - a toy for fun sharing.

You can use it to write in text boxes pretty much anywhere on the phone which presents you with one. Taking the stylus out kills the on-screen keyboard and lets you write in the input field, Moto figuring out by OCR what you're writing - and it ain't half bad! Again, much like Samsung's feature. You also get up a floating menu button which you can tap to get the keyboard back if needed (or fed up with writing)! You can tell the phone to warn you if the stylus has been missing "for a long period of time without use". It will also, as I say, use GPS to tell you when it last knew it was inside the phone and last setting lets you get a short vibration when the stylus is put into the silo. Other than that, you can use it to navigate the screen, swipes, touches - just like you would a finger. And that's about it, really.

The question for users is clearly going to be about whether or not they are likely to use it enough for those functions, or their apps, to justify its existence. I guess you could argue 'well why not?' as it's tucked away and can be ignored when not in use, is always with you (unlike the Samsung Galaxy Fold series) and can be whipped out for quick use and put away. My guess is that most people will forget it's there and only get it out when they fancy the novelty of having a bit of fun - with one exception maybe - that screen-off notepad function.

It's a nice little stylus, made of some kind of metal, I think, with a kind of 'mesh' tip which compared to Samsung's S-Pens firstly looks not fine enough, but actually, in use, it's just perfect. There also seems to be some pressure sensitivity, so press harder for thicker lines, that kind of thing.

So that's the USP (well, apart from Samsung) out of the way and we can take a closer look at the phone, laying that aside, to see if, apart from that, it's worthy of note against any other Android/Moto phone out there in this mid-tier range. It's $399 in America/Canada to buy (though I gather that since release in May 2024 it's now down to $349) and I guess many would get it on contract. As we shall see, has a good feature-set that goes some way to making it a compelling argument for purchase - if you can get one!

People who have had the benefit of this line of devices are reporting that there are significant improvements over their 2023 model including an pOLED screen over LCD, bigger screen (for those who value that), more RAM, better camera setup, under-display fingerprint scanner (for those who value that over side-mounted, capacitive), faster wired and Qi (wireless) charging. We'll see how that all measures up as we head on through.

The phone that I have here is in a retina-piercing Scarlet Wave colour! It's as bright a red as you can get without it being pink, I reckon! There's also the delightfully named Caramel Latte colour available, which you can imaging is a kind of, well, caramel/latte kind of colour! Think cream. The Scarlet Wave is great though. Really lovely, bright and fun colour. If I'd been choosing, this would have been the one! This is a loan unit and thanks go to Gaz Morris from our Phones Show Chat MeWe Group for sending it over.

The box that the phone comes in is eco-friendly in terms of material and there's pretty much, Sony style, nothing in it! Well, better than Sony these days, there is at least a USB-C to USB-C cable. A few papers and SIM-Eject pokey. That's it. No case either. I wonder if this is something to do with American legislation as Moto are, in the rest of the world, still really good at supplying a case and power brick - and it's usually a Turbo one. There's also no evidence of the deal with Pantone which with most global phones there is, giving a range of colours and even a perfumed box/phone back. This is clearly different in many ways from a normal global Moto release.

Off to Amazon then and a simple TPU case for the price of a coffee to protect this large phone which reminds me very much of the 2018 Nokia 7 Plus (my review). It's boxy, large, thin, well-balanced in the hand and has almost flat edges. Not horribly flat like an iPhone or Nothing phone (all becoming very popular now as they copy Apple) but more stylish, with chamfered edges - again, much like the Nokia 7 Plus. The eco-leather (silicone polymer, actually!) back is lovely to the touch and affords certainly more grip than glass or plastic. The camera island, top-let in portrait, slopes subtly up from the flat of the back and yes, it's a very nice looking finish. There's a Moto 'M' logo in the middle of the back.

Around the plastic edges, colour-matched to the device colour here, we have on the left a SIM/microSD Card tray. They tray has spaces for a single physical nanoSIM and microSD Card card, though the phone will also support an eSIM. The tray is one-sided, so fairly long. Up on the top face there's nothing apart from a microphone hole, on the right is a volume rocker and power button below, all quite high-up, and on the bottom, a 3.5mm audio-out socket, USB-C charging port and one of the pair of stereo speakers before we get to the silo where the stylus lives.

The front panel has slight, balanced bezels and is flat. And big! It has a selfie-cam cutout up top, central, which is not too big, underneath the second of the stereo speakers doubling up in the usual way as the phone's earpiece speaker. Although the phone is big, it is well-balanced, as I say, and the handling seems to defy the size. Again, much like the Nokia 7 Plus. It's nice in the hand, slim and light enough. It's actually 162.6 x 74.8 x 8.3mm and 190g. Moto claim that it's been tested to IP5/2 which means that with their usual nano-coating of internals it'll be good enough for splashes of clean water/rain/sweat.

The 6.7" front, flat panel is, as I say, a typical Moto pOLED one. Amazingly bright, colourful and vibrant as I always seem to say! The brightness peaks out at 1200nits according to Moto, in auto mode, but even in manual, cranked up, it's very bright indeed. I can see why this year's users have been pleased about the switch from LCD. The 1080p, 20:9 ratio screen refreshes at 120Hz (or 60/Auto when set) and returns a ppi of 395. Zero complaints about the screen - it's lovely.

The SnapDragon 6 Gen 1 is the same as the previous year's model and some have raised an eyebrow in this respect. I guess it was an attempt to keep the price down to within scope of last years, but to make the improvements elsewhere. As usual these days, I personally think that for 98% of users, most chipsets are perfectly good enough for what people are going to throw at them - and this is no exception. My car-racing game runs without a hitch and the only slow-down that I detected was during initial setup and being bombarded installing 130 apps from my Restore (from another Moto phone using Google's Backup/Restore function). Beyond that, I've seen nothing to suggest that it's not perfectly fine. I even copied over a ton of media files onto my 1TB microSD card (with the card in-phone) and, yes, if you're going to be picky, it was not as fast as some hyped-up flagships, but it gets there.

The read/write times generally between card/phone are really quite impressive - no sooner had they loaded up, I was playing music videos with no juddering or latency. It is great to have microSD as an option, even if Google doesn't much like the idea! This model also has 256GB storage onboard, so I'm on 1.25TB here! There's 8GB RAM which seems perfectly adequate to me, dancing around between open apps. There's also a 128GB version out there (according to GSMArena) for those who want to save a few quid. Er, dollars! I just had a look to see how much that 128GB version is/was but I can't seem to find one for sale - so maybe it was only available initially as they all look like 256GB now.

We now arrive at the biggest concern about this whole deal for me, though apparently not for Moto's customers who they claim to have researched on the matter - and that's one, single OS update. That's it. Not even the two of many of their lower-priced models. It arrives on Android 14. It will (eventually) get Android 15 (knowing Moto, probably not before summer 2025) and that's it. Three years of security updates are promised, taking it to May 2027, but come on Moto. Whatever your research says about your customers not caring about updates. One measly, single OS update?! In a climate that now seems to have twisted their arm as they released the new Edge 50 Neo with 5 OS Updates and Security to 2029. Motorola have a track record of not back-porting this kind of change though, like HelloUI, for example - only new phones, going forward. The phone has August 2024 Google Security Patches onboard at time of writing, September 2024, so not bad at all.

The stereo speakers are really quite loud. Not the best quality, lacking any real bass and favouring the top-end frequencies, making the built-in Dolby Atmos something of an essential in order to strip out the treble/tinny. I eventually played with the settings and got a decent-enough output using the custom sliders in Dolby Atmos and restricting the volume to about 80% (which is still decently loud). Most of Moto's users will have little to complain about, I'm just being fussy and as, if you're reading, might know, sound from speakers is of particular importance to me. Less and less phones are being made these days with a 3.5mm audio-out socket, so I was delighted to see this in attendance for use with legacy head/earphones and (depending on quality of attached gear of course) the output via this route sounds amazing. Ludicrously loud and great quality. Sounds as good as it does using Bluetooth to me. I wonder if that's possible - or that my hearing is just wonky!

In terms of security and connectivity, the face unlock works very well, registering and in use, the optical under-glass fingerprint scanner similarly does the job well, the NFC, GPS, WiFi, 5G/4G Cellular (for data and calls) all seem to work perfectly well in my tests here.

HelloUI is present in terms of supporting software over Android 14 and works pretty much as it does on my Edge 50 Pro - so here's a link to my review of that where I highlight the features and benefits of Moto's newest layer, following MyUI, including all the fabulous Smart Connect stuff (which, like the 50 Pro has wired functionality via USB-C to PC, but unlike the Edge 50 Pro, not to TV or other monitors) including Phone on PC. It needs Moto's PC software to run with the USB2 protocol, not 3.x. There's no AoD in the same way and now that Peek Display has gone, we're back to the more basic lock-screen/nudge/lift/wake stuff with shortcuts when 'livened up' but it works OK and no doubt helps with the battery performance - not that it needed much help...

Qi Wireless charging is present and overnight at 15W it works perfectly well charging up the 5000mAh battery. There's also 30W wired charging which, although not anything like the 125W of the Edge 50 Pro (and others) is pretty snappy and will charge the phone from 0-50% in about half an hour and continue to full in another hour, so about 90 minutes. Battery performance is stunning in my tests, as we've come to expect from the relatively clean version of Android and efficient chipsets, like this SnapDragon 6 Gen 1. My 10% Reading Tests returns somewhere between 2 and a half/3 hours and it's easily (for my average use) a two-day phone.

The cameras are pretty basic, headed up by the 50MP f/1.8, OIS capable main shooter, supported by a 13MP, f/2.2, wide-angle with AF. The very same one that enables really good close-up photography (and not with the resulting 2MP output of so many other so-called 'macro' phones' cameras). These are very good and usable short - for even more than sharing with mates on social media. There's no 4K video shooting bu there is a 32MP f2.4 Selfie, which looks good to me. Otherwise, there's the usual array of Motorola's Camera App's modes and features, again, which I've covered in the Edge 50 Pro review and I shall now do my usual trick for those who want a deep-dive with samples of the camera capabilities by hooking you up with GSMArena. Their coverage of the G Stylus 2024's photography/camera stuff starts here, so do click through and lend them your support for all their hard work and insights. The short version is that they think the main shooter creates very good photos, day and night, especially liking the Selfie's performance but that the video capture is mediocre.

I know I'm a self-confessed Moto fan, but even laying that aside, this is a great phone! There are not many options for those who want to use a pen, especially one in a silo inside the phone, and even though this is no smart pen, it's really useful for casual scribbles and note taking on-the-fly. For more, yes, of course, the Samsung S-Pen can't be beaten - but there's also the cost equation and difference between this and the cheapest Samsung phone which supports (and has) an S-Pen. The pOLED panel is gorgeous, as usual with Moto phones these days - we still think made by LG - and for those who are OK with such a big phone (though nicely slim), middling but very capable chipset, great battery life, lovely software implementation over Android, decent enough loud speakers this could be a contender. The fly in the ointment (and for some at least dealbreaker) which can't be ignored, is the ludicrous one single OS update on offer from Moto. Absurd Motorola. Spoiling the party for such a great idea and lovely phone.