The New Moto G Stylus Is Affordable, but Updates Make It a Tough Sell

Some of you might not remember, but the first-generation Motorola Moto X got Android 4.4 KitKat before the stock Android-powered Nexus 4 twelve years ago. Under Lenovo ownership, Motorola has strayed far from that. The Moto G Stylus 2025 is trying to make things better, but it still needs improvement.

Motorola has just announced the Moto G Stylus 2025 (stylized as “moto g stylus-2025”), the company’s latest entry in the mid-range phone game. First, the good stuff. Motorola says that the stylus in this phone offers 6.4 times improved responsiveness compared to the previous generation. It is still a passive stylus, so you’re not getting anything like what we’re getting with Samsung’s S Ultra range of phones with an active stylus, but it’s a notable improvement nonetheless.

As for the actual specs, we have a 6.7-inch Super HD (1220p) pOLED display. The screen itself looks pretty good, at least the way Motorola is painting it, as it features a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz for smooth visuals and a peak brightness claimed to reach 3000 nits, improving visibility in bright outdoor conditions. Under the hood, the Moto G Stylus 2025 is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, coupled with 8GB of RAM.

The device includes a RAM Boost feature, which temporarily converts storage into virtual RAM to potentially speed up app loading and multitasking. Some people might disagree, but I’ve always considered these “virtual RAM” features as snake oil for marketing, and evidence shows it can harm your performance rather than improve it, so you should disable that if you’re going to buy this. You do have up to 256GB of internal storage for apps and media, so at the very least, you have plenty of space for apps.

We have a 5,000 mAh battery, with Motorola claiming over 40 hours of use on a single charge—we’d need to see whether this claim is any accurate. For charging, the phone supports 68W TurboPower wired charging, which is stated to provide a day’s worth of power in 15 minutes, according to Motorola’s own wording. Additionally, we have 15W wireless charging support.

Related

You Might Want to Skip the 2025 Moto G Phones

The phones so bad, they might get banned by the United States.

Now we’re getting into the bad stuff. The Moto G Stylus 2025 ships with Android 15, so you do have the latest version of Android out of the box. But don’t expect to get much more other than this. Motorola has confirmed to us that the phone will be getting two years of major Android updates and three years of security updates. To Motorola’s credit, this is better than what it gave to some of its older budget phones, which were lucky to even get one single major Android update.

This new update policy brings the Moto G Stylus 2025 in line, updates-wise, with its Razr flagship phones, but I’d still make the argument that this is not enough. Samsung commits to at least six major Android updates to even its dirt-cheap budget phones. They will last twice as long receiving updates compared to Motorola’s phone. This is a problem for a number of reasons. You might not use the Moto G Stylus for longer than two/three years, but unless you’re shoving it in a drawer as soon as you get a new phone, you’re either selling it or handing it down to a family member, which will be using an insecure phone that doesn’t get updates.

If you want to get this, the phone will go on sale starting next week, April 17th, at nationwide retailers. Check out Motorola’s website to learn more.

Source: Motorola