Moto G Stylus (2025) review: the $400 note-taker’s dream phone

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At $400, the Moto G Stylus isn’t pretending to be a flagship. But the signature stylus inserted inside its frame is the kind of trick usually reserved for premium devices like the excellent Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

This makes the Moto G Stylus one of the only phones in its class that caters to note-takers, casual doodlers like myself, and anyone who likes having a little extra control in their hands.

I will admit, I’m not a stylus super-fan. I often have to remind myself to use one when a phone supports it. Having said that, the Moto G Stylus is not a one-trick pony, as Motorola has packed a lot of impressive features into an affordable device.

I’m pretty impressed by what phones like these mean for the increasingly competitive mid-range category in 2025.

Moto G Stylus (2025) specs

Moto G Stylus (2025): Design

The first thing I noticed about the Moto G Stylus was the attractive Pantone Surf the Web Blue color, a striking and vibrant colorway that stands out. Having recently reviewed the Moto G 2025, I was already familiar with the faux-leather backing, and I still like it, both visually and to the touch. It does a great job of uniting Motorola’s brand signature across its mid-range fleet.

I particularly love the two-tone finish on the plastic frame: a frosted band flanked by reflective coating on either side that sells a convincing glass-like look at first glance.

The stylus has an embedded housing at the bottom of the device, and it has never popped out while docked inside my pocket. The spring ejection mechanism feels every bit as premium as the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen.

Despite its svelte form, the phone carries IP68 dust-and-water resistance, a first for the Stylus family, and military-grade MIL-810H shock and heat tolerance. Honestly, though, I never got “rugged phone” vibes from the Moto G Stylus 2025.

And yes, the wired headphone port is alive and well along the bottom edge for those still clinging on to analog audio, as is a micro-SD card slot for expanded storage. In some ways, that makes this device a bit of a throwback to a bygone era in Android smartphones.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Display

The 6.7-inch AMOLED Super HD panel refreshes at up to 120 Hz, though out of the box, the phone is set to an Auto refresh setting that adjusts dynamically depending on the content on the screen. Thankfully, I was able to lock it to 120 Hz, and my eyes were happier for it.

Bright sunlight isn’t much of a problem, thanks to a 3000-nit peak that rocks. Colors are vibrant, if not a bit overly punchy, which can easily be tamed in settings if it bugs you. I’m here for it, though.

The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and I can confirm that my coddled review unit has a few light scuffs after three weeks that are only noticeable in direct sunlight. Either I took it particularly easy on this review unit or the glass protection did its job respectfully.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Performance

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 paired with 8 GB of RAM is fine enough for day-to-day stuff. Swapping between apps or launching the camera can cause a stutter here and there, but I never hit a true deal-breaker unless I tried to do too much too soon after a device restart.

The phone seems to require a solid five minutes to work out all the boot-up kinks, which can trip up impatient users like me.

Genshin Impact still takes its sweet time to load all of the shaders, but once in, it runs smoothly even when manually set to High graphics mode with only occasional slowdowns during big, bursty battles.

Even after long gaming sessions, the back was only moderately warm and not concerning. Performance is certainly not blemish-free, but it’s comfortably within my realm of acceptability for a device of this calibur.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Software

Android 15 with Motorola’s MyUX tweaks is near-stock, save for Motorola’s signature font that I don’t love due to its tight kerning. Thankfully, there are several alternative fonts to switch to in customization settings.

Motorola’s signature gesture shortcuts, like double-twist for the camera and chop-chop for the flashlight, remain some of my favorite secrets hiding in plain sight on Motorola’s phones.  The Moto app adds deeper customization options than what can be found in a pure stock build.

The biggest catch, however, is limited software support covering two years of OS updates and three years of security patches. Even Samsung’s A16 offers six-year coverage at half the cost, and Google’s Pixel 9a stretches to seven for $100 more.

Mid-range is all about trade-offs, but you have to decide whether the stylus is worth sacrificing four more years of updates.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Moto AI

Motorola wants its mid-ranger to keep pace with the premium AI features found on more expensive devices, and Moto AI offers some of the more table-stakes AI features with mixed results.

Magic Eraser can indeed remove objects from photos in the camera roll, but portions of the image can look as though they were bathed in acid.

I wanted to enjoy Sketch-to-Image with its promise to turn doodles into fully realized art, but the results rarely match my sketches very closely. Moto AI seems to prefer wholesale re-imaginings in place of true collaboration.

Processing happens in the cloud, so turnaround is inconsistent, though within reasonable bounds. Overall, I was less than impressed with Moto AI’s output on the Moto G Stylus 2025.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Stylus experience

As I said earlier, I am not a stylus super-fan. Having cleared the air on that, I can share that I’m pretty impressed by how much the passive stylus here gets right, especially when compared to the three times more expensive Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Latency feels competitive with Samsung’s S Pen, and I never felt slowed down while jotting notes freehand.

Ejecting the stylus from a locked display launches a blank Moto Note most of the time, though I did encounter instances where I still had to tap the power button to kick things off. Popping the stylus out while the screen is on produces an on-screen shortcut bar similar in function to Samsung’s Air Command.

The fat nub on the tip of the stylus feels smooth and glassy with almost zero drag.

Now, that being said, it’s not perfect: there’s no pressure sensitivity, making this far from ideal for anything beyond casual art, and palm rejection was often an iffy affair, forcing me to hover my writing hand awkwardly at times. For the basics, like scribbling quick ideas the moment they hit, the stylus definitely comes in handy.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Cameras

The 50MP main camera is improved over last year’s model (one I didn’t test), and I’m genuinely satisfied with its output in good light. Colors are pushed a bit further than what I’m used to from my daily driver, the Pixel 9 Pro, but the eye-popping look pairs beautifully with the AMOLED display.

Outdoor shots keep cloud detail while preserving the information-dense landscape below. Night shots were always a mixed bag and rarely matched the quality that I’m used to from the Pixel 9a.

Macro mode let me creep up on a stupid ant on our countertop, and the wood fibers on our backyard fence are captured with respectable detail intact.

The wide-angle lens handled sunset playground shots of my kids with surprising poise. I was concerned that their quick movements in a low-light environment would result in smearing faces, but thankfully wasn’t the case at all.

The selfie camera is fine in a pinch, though things look crunchy on a larger monitor. Portrait mode did a reasonable job of simulating bokeh while I stood on a bridge in Petaluma, with only minor edge-detection misses.

Is this the best mid-range camera? No, the Pixel 9a still takes that cake, but Motorola is closer than ever.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Battery life and charging

The phone is so slim and narrow that it’s hard to believe a 5,000 mAh battery hides inside, yet I’m thrilled it does because the Moto G Stylus 2025 is an excellent battery performer.

I looped a 4K YouTube video at max brightness for ten solid hours before it finally ran out of juice and powered itself off.

In daily use, the phone routinely crossed a day and a half, sometimes flirting with two full days on a single charge. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 balances performance and power consumption well, and it shows.

Though you won’t find it in the box, the phone is capable of an impressive 68W of wired charging speed with the Motorola TurboPower 68W Charger. Midrange devices like this often easily sacrifice wireless charging to get the price down, but Motorola has included 15W wireless charging support that came in incredibly handy during my long car rides to my daughter’s swim meets.

It’s not the fastest charge, but it still beats my much more expensive Pixel 9 Pro’s 12W wireless charging speed on standard Qi charging pads.

Moto G Stylus (2025): Verdict

It has never been more exciting for midrange devices. Instead of being a category full of let-downs, companies are finally identifying a few key features that can truly set a handset apart. Motorola continues to deliver on its color science, along with its faux vegan leather that gives the lineup a recognizable signature that doesn’t feel cheap or gaudy.

Not only that, but Motorola is doubling down on critical pillars like battery life, premium display quality, respectable cameras, and solid performance. The biggest standout is the included stylus that, while not as cutting-edge as Samsung’s, is a practical everyday tool for almost every pen fan except maybe hardcore artists.

Color me impressed by the Moto G Stylus 2025. There really are no other phones that offer all of this, plus a built-in stylus, at this price point.