Motorola
Motorola is launching more mid-range phones. Both the $499 Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) and the $399 Moto G 5G (2022) are coming to the US in the coming weeks. Don’t confuse today’s $499 “Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)” with the $299 “Moto G Stylus (2022)”; the “non-5G” version was just announced in February and hasn’t been replaced.
The $499 Moto G Stylus 5G is doing something different, with a 120Hz, 6.8-inch, 2460×1080 LCD as its main draw. Like the $282 OnePlus Nord N20, Motorola’s phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC. It’s a 6 nm chip with two 2.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A78 cores, six 1.7 GHz Cortex-A55 cores, and an Adreno 619 GPU. The Moto G Stylus 5G also has 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery.
Enlarge / The Moto G Stylus 5G comes in this lovely sponge color.
Motorola
The Moto G Stylus 5G is also equipped with an NFC chip. No other mid-range Motorola phone includes NFC, so users can’t use tap-to-pay. This is one of the biggest problems with Motorola’s current midrange phone lines.
advertise
There’s a side fingerprint reader, a USB-C port, a headphone jack, a microSD slot, and, of course, the eponymous stylus. Motorola notes that the device has an unspecified “waterproof design” that’s meant to be used only for splashes, not immersion. The rear cameras include a 50 MP main sensor, an 8 MP wide-angle sensor, and a “Macro Vision 2 MP depth sensor”. The front camera is 16 MP.
The second option is the Moto G 5G, which costs $399. The phone comes with a 6.5-inch, 90 Hz, 1600×720 LCD and MediaTek Dimensity 700. The SoC is very close to the Qualcomm 695, with two 2.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A78 cores and six 2 GHz Cortex-A55 cores built on a 7nm process. The phone has 6GB of RAM, a staggering 256GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery. Like other midrange Motorolas, there’s no NFC, but you get a side fingerprint reader, a microSD slot, a USB-C port, and a “waterproof design.”
Motorola
In the US, these two phones are in the same price range as the excellent $449 Pixel 5a (and possibly the upcoming Pixel 6a), so they’re going to have a tough sell. Motorola has only promised one major update to both phones, and right now, they ship with Android 12. Part of what makes the Pixel A series so appealing is the three-year-old Day 1 update that Google includes, so Motorola hopes you’ll appreciate better original specs than having a safe, up-to-date device.
The Moto G Stylus 5G will be available on April 28, while the Moto G 5G will be available on May 19.
Ars Technica may receive compensation for sales through the link on this post through an affiliate program.
