Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 finally brings wireless charging to the midrange line

Summary

• The Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) offers upgraded specs like a larger display and improved stylus for $400, making it a budget-friendly option.
• The device comes with new features like a 120Hz OLED screen and wireless charging, upgrading in key areas compared to last year’s model.
• Motorola’s new model also includes upgrades in camera quality, battery capacity, and screen brightness, making the $400 price tag even more appealing.

The midrange smartphone market is a confusing one. Some of the best budget devices, which can cost anywhere between $300 and $700 claim to offer many, if not all, top-of-the-line features, with enough power to handle daily tasks without any problems. Pairing a midranger with an advanced accessory like a stylus might seem like a recipe for disaster, but Motorola has been doing a decent job at it over the past few years with the Moto G Stylus line.

The Schaumburg, Illinois-based smartphone maker today announced the 2024 version of the Moto G Stylus 5G, coming in at $400. This is the same price as the last-gen Moto G Stylus 5G, though price isn’t the only similarity between the two generations. The 2024 Moto G Stylus 5G runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, offering no upgrades over its predecessor. For reference, the chipset came out in 2022, and is also used in the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, which might land in the US market this year.

The device will come with Android 14 pre-installed, with a slightly larger 6.7-inch FHD+ pOLED display with the same 120Hz refresh rate. The use of pOLED instead of an LTPS LCD screen means the 2024 Moto G Stylus will likely be more durable and shock-resistant than its predecessor, and also lighter, weighing in at 190g, compared to its predecessor’s 202g weight.

The new device will also feature more memory than its predecessor, with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM that is expandable up to 16GB. The storage front, however, received no upgrades, and the new Moto G Stylus is stuck with 128GB and 256GB variants, albeit expandable up to 2TB with a microSD card.

The main highlight of the device, as its name suggests, is the stylus. According to Motorola, the phone’s stylus has been redesigned, boasting a larger contact area and an “improved software” that will reportedly make the stylus more responsive with reduced latency, offer simplified note-taking, and present users with a new UI. We’ll have to test the device ourselves to offer any credence to the claims, though the fact that the phone has more RAM than its predecessor should make all of its operations, including stylus functionality, smoother.

The 2024 Moto G Stylus 5G isn’t much of an upgrade when it comes to the primary rear camera. Just like its predecessor, it features a dual-camera setup with a 50-megapixel (MP) f/1.8 wide, albeit with a better 13MP ultrawide lens with an f/2.2 aperture (up from 8MP). Similarly, the front now boasts a 32MP f/2.4 shooter, up from 16MP, though the exact sensor is unknown, which might affect camera performance.

The first Moto G Stylus phone with wireless charging

Although Motorola didn’t give the 2023 Moto G Stylus 5G an official IP rating, it did say that the phone had a “water-repellent design.” This time, however, the phone manufacturer has stated that the 2024 Moto G Stylus 5G is IP52 rated. This still doesn’t mean that you can dunk the device in a pool or go to the beach with it in your pocket, but it should be fine if it comes in contact with water droplets and minor splashes.

Another con present in the Moto G Stylus 5G 2023 that the new model improves upon is screen brightness. In our review of the 2023 model, we talked about the phone not being bright enough for seamless outdoor use. For reference, the Moto G Stylus 5G 2023 offers 564 nits of peak brightness, while the 2024 model bumps that up to 1,300 nits. This should, on paper, help with outdoor legibility.

The new device boasts a large 5,000mAh battery, which also happens to be the same as the last-gen model, but with faster 30w TurboPower charging (Motorola’s fancy jargon for fast charging). Wireless charging is also finally coming to the Moto G Stylus 5G line. Pair that with the fact that the device will receive one OS upgrade and three years of security patches, up from two years of patches on the company’s budget phones, the $400 price tag looks like an attractive one.

The Moto G Stylus 5G will be available in Caramel Latte and Scarlet Wave colors from Amazon, Best Buy, and Motorola on May 30, starting at $400. Availability at Walmart will follow in the weeks after launch.