It was a Sunday night and my spouse, canine, and I had been lounging in our dwelling after a protracted stroll. My pup seemed notably photogenic within the heat rays of the sundown filtering by way of my dusty home windows, so I took my cellphone’s stylus out for a fast sketch. I confirmed my outcomes to my spouse and he or she began cackling. I blame the pen.

I do not thoughts accessing a built-in stylus on a smartphone. I do not use them a lot, however they are often enjoyable for doodling and useful for signing paperwork. I notably take pleasure in utilizing the stylus in Samsung’s smartphones as a distant shutter for the digital camera, however this is not a operate obtainable on Motorola’s telephones. Alas, the styli remained inside their housing for a lot of my time with the brand new Moto G Stylus ($200) and Moto G Stylus 5G ($400). Still, if it is one thing you know you need, these are nearly the one low-cost telephones with one.

Classic G

The new Stylus fashions are completely high-quality Android phones, however they’re removed from my first alternative in the event you’re simply after a cheap phone. They’re part of Motorola’s 2023 Moto G lineup, which additionally contains the Moto G Play ($170), Moto G 5G ($250), and Moto G Power 5G ($300). Whew. Design-wise, they appear to be the dictionary’s definition of “smartphone” and are not too unwieldy to carry, although they’re slippery. Thank goodness there is no glass on the again—one much less space to crack.

It’s cheaper, however the Moto G Stylus is more durable to advocate than its sibling. It does not have any 5G connectivity, which is the least you possibly can anticipate from a cellphone lately—sure, even on a good price range. If Samsung’s $200 Galaxy A14 5G has it, there is no purpose Motorola cannot embrace it. The slower speeds of 4G LTE had been noticeable when downloading away from Wi-Fi.

This cellphone is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset with 4 GB of RAM. My benchmark assessments present a tiny enchancment over last year’s Moto G Stylus, however my outcomes had been nonetheless barely down from the 2021 model. I don’t know why a price range cellphone from two years in the past has higher efficiency, but it surely did. Day to day, I used to be capable of handle simply high-quality. Games like Pako Forever ran properly sufficient, and I used to be capable of ship emails, browse Instagram, and reply to messages. Daily, some apps would take some time to launch, and issues would stutter loads when switching between apps. Launching the digital camera is particularly sluggish—do not ever anticipate to snap a photograph rapidly.

The Moto G Stylus 5G steps issues up a number of notches. As the identify suggests, there’s 5G assist, so it is usually extra responsive as you browse and use the cellphone on a mobile connection. It additionally has a superior Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor with 4 GB of RAM, which places its efficiency barely decrease than Samsung’s Galaxy A54 5G. There are nonetheless a couple of stutters and hangups, however every part feels a lot snappier, and it is not anyplace close to as irritating to make use of.