Motorola is introducing a new version of its Moto G Stylus 5G with a couple of nice upgrades for 2022 — and, as a result, a higher $499 price tag. The 2022 edition of the G Stylus 5G includes a 6.8-inch screen with a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate, a more powerful 600-series Snapdragon processor, a stabilized main camera, and a bunch of built-in storage. The company is also debuting its $399, budget-oriented Moto G 5G in North America. (It was introduced in Europe earlier this year.)
The most noticeable update on the 2022 G Stylus 5G — not to be confused with the 4G-only Moto G Stylus — is that 120Hz display for smooth animations and scrolling. It’s a 1080p LCD panel, and it houses a 16-megapixel front-facing camera. On the back, there’s a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization. Stabilization isn’t too common in the midrange class, and it should mean a better chance of getting sharp shots in lower lighting conditions. There’s an 8-megapixel ultrawide that doubles as a macro camera, plus a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
This year’s G Stylus 5G also uses a Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, an upgrade from the 400-series processor in last year’s model. It’s also paired with 8GB of RAM, which is a good bit more than the 4GB or 6GB that’s more typical of a midrange phone. That should add up to significantly better performance than the 4G version of this phone, which addresses our biggest complaint about last year’s model: that it wasn’t enough of an upgrade to justify its higher price.
Beyond that, you get a 5,000mAh battery, a generous 256GB of storage, support for sub-6GHz 5G (including C-band frequencies), headphone jack, microSD card slot, and a charger in the box. How’s that for thoughtful? There’s also, obviously, a stylus included, which is stored in the phone and facilitates more precise handwriting and doodling.
The Moto G 5G (sans stylus) comes with a slightly less robust set of specs. There’s a MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor with 6GB of RAM, a 6.5-inch 720p LCD with 90Hz refresh rate, and a 50-megapixel main camera without stabilization. You still get a 5,000mAh battery, headphone jack, microSD card slot, in-box charger, and 256GB of built-in storage. That’s a fairly healthy feature set for $399.
Both phones will ship with Android 12, and Motorola is promising one additional OS upgrade after that. The Moto G Stylus 5G will go on sale on April 28th with preorders starting today; the Moto G 5G will be available on May 19th.