Motorola’s new $400 phone is putting some flagships on blast
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Last year’s Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 was a surprisingly impressive midrange phone, one that I had a hard time putting down despite costing less than half that of the flagship phones I tested in 2024. This year, the Moto G Stylus 2025 manages to step things up a notch in ways that I did not expect, and it may put other flagships on the spot, yet again.
While it’s not exactly the AI powerhouse that the Pixel 9a might be, Motorola has upgraded the Stylus 5G in other ways, mostly with better hardware specs and some improvements on the software front. The result is a phone that, at least on paper, feels like it should cost a lot more than it does at just $399.
I’ve had the Moto G Stylus 2025 for a few days now, and while I’m excited to really put it through its paces, here are some of my favorite things that I’ve noticed, based on my early impressions of the phone.
Lets talk about that design
Motorola seems to have settled on a design for 2024 and 2025, so the Stylus 2025 doesn’t look too different from its predecessor aside from the larger camera housing. That’s not a bad thing, and I quite like the design of the Stylus 2025, especially when you take its new colors into account.
Motorola began its partnership with Pantone a few years ago, a collaboration that has seen both companies applying some rather unique color options to Motorola’s phones, such as the Razr. The Moto G Stylus 2025 comes decked out in two Pantone colors, and while they both look great, Surf the Web really stands out with its vibrant blue-ish/ indigo hue.
The color looks great on the phone’s frame and soft vegan leather back, giving it an almost neon vibe that I don’t often see on smartphones.
Lately, Motorola seems largely against launching phones with the typical white or black color ways, forcing users to pick devices with a bit of flair added to them, even if they’re just mid-range or budget phones. The Moto G Stylus 2025 follows this trend, looking arguably more attractive than Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series at half the price of the cheapest model (although the Navy Galaxy S25 is a great one).
The front looks great as well
Then there’s the display. Motorola has done a great job shrinking the bezels down on its Stylus phones, to the point where the Moto G Stylus 2025 could almost be mistaken for a flagship phone.
That said, there’s more to the display than meets the eye, at least at first glance. Motorola is using an OLED panel with a “Super HD” resolution, which I admittedly hadn’t previously heard of on a phone. With a 2712 x 1220 resolution, it appears to sit somewhere between a Full HD+ panel found on most mid-range and higher-end phones these days and a Quad HD+ display found on premium phones.
The result is a display that’s pushing more pixels than even the $800 Galaxy S25 while retaining a smooth 120Hz refresh rate.
The Moto G Stylus 2025 has better display specs than the base Galaxy S25, a phone that costs twice as much.
Not only that, but the display can reach an impressive 3,000 nits of peak brightness, which is higher than all Galaxy S25 models, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It also includes flicker prevention, which is great for people with PWM sensitivity.
This is arguably the best display on a Moto G phone, and I hope Motorola continues to incorporate more impressive displays into its devices, especially its flagship models like the upcoming Razr 2025.
Keeping the lights on
With display specs like that, it’s natural to wonder about how battery life would be affected. After all, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 isn’t the most powerful or efficient chip, and while the battery has a respectable capacity of 5,000mAh, I would have wished to see something larger.
Still, Motorola seems to have mitigated any concerns, rating the phone for over a day of use on a single charge. So far, the phone manages to exceed my expectations, easily lasting a full day in regular use. I hope to see how that changes as I use it more and the phone conditions itself to my habits, but so far I’m quite pleased with battery life.
But that’s just part of the story.
Motorola outfitted this $400 phone with 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. These are specs I usually only see on higher-end OnePlus phones, so to see them on a phone this affordable is a very welcome surprise. I haven’t quite timed how fast the phone fully charges yet, but it will reach 50% quicker than most other phones I’ve used, and I would feel more than comfortable walking out of the house at that charge.
It’s nice that we’re starting to see larger batteries, but being able to charge them quickly is also just as helpful. I really hope this becomes a norm for U.S. phones, especially at this price.
Everything else (so far)
As noted, the Moto G Stylus 2025 isn’t an AI powerhouse, so don’t expect anything like a Pixel’s Gemini Nano tricks here. That said, Circle to Search is honestly a feature I don’t think I can live without on a smartphone, so I’m glad to see its inclusion here.
There’s also a new Sketch to Image feature, which reminds me a bit of Samsung’s feature of the same name. I haven’t played with it much, but early impressions are pretty good so far (anything that can produce a pretty spot-on R2-D2 out of a nearly indecipherable drawing is okay in my books).
I’m very curious to see how the cameras fare in my testing. The newer Sony Lytia 700C sensor sounds very promising, and last year’s Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 didn’t disappoint in the imaging department. That said, I’m not sure why Motorola decided to include a color sensor, other than for uniformity on the camera housing, and I wish it had been left out.
And of course, there’s a built-in Stylus. Like last year’s model, the stylus has a much more robust design and doesn’t look or feel as cheap as previous models. I don’t expect S Pen levels of precision on this passive stylus, although the company says it has 6.4X more responsiveness than its predecessor. I do find it interesting that Motorola’s passive stylus keeps getting better as Samsung continues to remove features and functions from its S Pen… but I digress. 🍵
Already giving flagships a run for their money
I’ve only had the Moto G Stylus 2025 for a few days and will be testing it more ahead of my full review, but I’m already surprised at just how good this phone feels to use. In the wake of fairly mediocre phones that are somehow priced even higher, the $400 Moto G Stylus 2025 feels like a big step in the right direction for not only Motorola but for cheap Android phones.
Along with the Pixel 9a and even the OnePlus 13R, the Stylus 2025 shows that you won’t have to pay a ton of money for a flagship experience, whether that’s with a ton of cool AI features or with impressive hardware.
I only hope that other companies are watching, especially in the U.S., where the midrange smartphone market seems to have stagnated. At this point, it feels as though the Android underdogs like OnePlus and Motorola are pushing the needle in any meaningful way.
Flagship for less
The Moto G Stylus is one of the best midrange phones you can buy right now. It offers plenty of specs that match or surpass more expensive phones and it’s all for a resonably low price of $399.
