Moto G Stylus (2025) Review: Major upgrades, but with one big letdown
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Moto G Stylus (2025) Intro
Motorola is back with another stylus-powered mid-ranger, and the new Moto G Stylus (2025) could be the biggest update this lineup has seen in years, although with one major disappointment.
Headlining the changes are a new, faster stylus, a much brighter and sharper OLED display and faster charging — all at a competitive price point.
A big deal here is that the G Stylus (2025) is one of the only phones under $400 with stylus support, making it a true alternative to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra — especially now that Samsung has stripped the Bluetooth and air gesture features from its latest S Pen.
The Moto G Stylus (2025) scored quite well in several of out categories, with the most notable ones being the Display Quality and the charging speeds. It even did quite well in performance thanks to that new processor. But, for some reason, it failed to reach the average Battery Life score for this price point, something that's truly surprising considering the predecessor excelled in this area.
Table of Contents:
Moto G Stylus (2025) Specs
Improvements on multiple fronts
Here’s what the Moto G Stylus (2025) brings to the table:
| Moto G Stylus (2025) | Moto G Stylus (2024) |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight 162.15 x 74.78 x 8.29 mm 191 g | Size and Weight 162.6 x 74.8 x 8.3 mm 190 g |
| Display 6.7-inch OLED 120 Hz 3,000 nits peak brightness | Display 6.7-inch OLED 120 Hz 1,200 nits peak brightness |
| IP68 | No IP rating |
| Processor Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 4nm | Processor Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 4nm |
| Software Android 15 2 years OS updates | Software Android 14 1 year OS updates |
| Cameras 50 MP wide, f/1.8 13 MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 32 MP selfie, f/2.2 | Cameras 50 MP wide, f/1.8 13 MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 32 MP selfie, f/2.4 |
| Battery Size 5,000 mAh | Battery Size 5,000 mAh |
| Charging Speeds 68 W wired 15W wireless | Charging Speeds 30 W wired 15W wireless |
| Prices $ 399.99 | Prices $ 399.99 |
Moto G Stylus (2025) Design and Display
Enhanced stylus and durability
The Gibraltar Sea color is smooth and pleasing to the eyes. | Image by PhoneArena"
The Moto G Stylus (2025) comes in at 162.15 x 74.78 x 8.29 mm, which makes it (give or take) the same in size compared to its predecessor. It is thin enough, though, fro me to handle it with ease.
Thin enough to be comfortable, despite its larger size. It is a bit top-heavy, though. | Image by PhoneArena
We had the Gibraltar Sea version here at the office, which is like pastel purple and looks quite nice in real life. There is also a Surf the Web color option.
An image representing the Gibraltar Sea (left) and Surf the Web (right) color options for the Moto G Stylus (2025). | Image credit – Motorola
Both versions come with a synthetic leather texture on the back — a finish that's become Motorola's signature for the past few years, with a few advantages like making the phone less slippery and not attracting fingerprints.
Motorola has also improved the durability of the new G Stylus, which now meets MIL-STD-810H standards and carries an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
You should know, though, that the MIL-STD-810H covers a wide range of durability tests, and not all devices are tested the same way. Not to mention that manufacturers aren’t required to disclose which tests were performed or how thoroughly they were conducted, so it is not exactly the most reliable durability standard out there.
The Moto G Stylus (2025) has one of the best displays in the budget phone segment. | Image by PhoneArena
The display is another part that's getting a big upgrade. It is still OLED but it comes with a higher resolution of 2712 x 1220 and a new peak brightness of 3000 nits (one of the brightest in its class), which makes it much easier to use on a sunny day.
Display Measurements:
Motorola has added a truly amazing display to the new Moto G Stylus, with brightness levels that can match even flagships. I wished it's minimum brightness was a bit lower, though, as at night it was a bit too bright for me.
As for biometrics, the fingerprint reader embedded in the display is decent. It's accurate, but it is also rather slow.
No charger, no case — nothing extra. | Image by PhoneArena
Lastly, the unboxing experience is somewhat underwhelming, as Motorola has included only a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, a SIM tool and documentation. You don't get a fast charger in the box to match the new 68W wired charging speed.
The new stylus
Motorola upgrades the one part that makes the Moto G Stylus unique. | Image by PhoneArena
The stylus has seen the biggest upgrade so far. Motorola claims it’s 6.4x more responsive than the previous generation, and I can't speak for exact numbers but it feels sufficiently responsive to me.
It supports AI-assisted features like Sketch to Image and integrates with Google's Circle to Search. The included stylus tools — Moto Notes, screenshot capture, handwriting calculator, GIF creator, and more — are genuinely useful and can come in handy for some users.
Moto G Stylus (2025) Camera
Some minor improvements, but mostly the same as last year
No, it does not have three cameras. | Image by PhoneArena
The Moto G Stylus has never had a truly good camera system, and that remains the same this year. That said, it tends to do the job well enough for the images to be useful.
While the main camera is still 50 MP, it is now powered with the Sony LYTIA 700C sensor. This image sensor is a first for the Moto G series and does indeed bring some improvements to the main snapper, possibly thanks to its larger pixels (up to 2.0μm with pixel binning).
The 13 MP ultrawide and 32 MP selfie cameras seem to be unchanged from last year.
The 13 MP ultrawide and 32 MP selfie cameras seem to be unchanged from last year.
This time around, the camera system also makes use of Motorola’s new AI engine to improve all aspects of an image: exposure, contrast, colors and more. That said, I suspect this might it doesn't always work to the phone's benefit, as sometimes the images feel overprocessed.
The main camera does sometimes produce a decent image with good detail, but other times it cannot expose well enough and crushes the blacks, meaning areas that are in shadow are not very visible. The colors are also a bit oversaturated.
The good news is that the 2x crop mode looks pretty good provided that you are taking the photo in decent lighting conditions.
The ultrawide camera is soft, but the images can still be usable with the right conditions, at least for social media platforms or a quick snapshot.
The selfie camera still pretty solid, with plenty of detail and somewhat good color representation.
Video Quality
As for video, the Moto G Stylus (2025) supports 4K video at 30fps on both the rear and front cameras. You can also shoot 1080p at up to 60fps, and there’s slow motion at 1080p at 120fps and 720p at 240fps.
Moto G Stylus (2025) Performance & Benchmarks
Powerful enough for most tasks
Decent performance considering the price. | Image by PhoneArena
Powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 and 8 GB of RAM, the Moto G Stylus (2025) delivers smooth performance for daily use. Multitasking, stylus use, social media apps, and moderate gaming run without hiccups.
Don't expect this phone to handle demanding 3D games at high settings, but it’s perfectly fine for casual titles and everyday use — even some photo and video editing.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
CPU performance on the Moto G Stylus (2025) is decent, and it rivals that of the Galaxy A35 from Samsung both in terms of single-core and multi-core performance.
GPU Performance:
The GPU performance of the new Moto G Stylus was about on par with the competition, matching and even slightly beating the Galaxy A35.
There’s 128GB or 256GB of storage, and yes — there is a microSD card slot.
Moto G Stylus (2025) Software
The Moto G Stylus (202)% comes with Android 15 out of the box, as well as Motorola’s light skin on top, which includes features like:
The experience is close to stock Android, with little to no bloatware on the unlocked model. You get two years of OS updates and three years of bimonthly security patches — decent at this price, though some competitors offer more.
- Moto Secure
- Moto Unplugged
- Hello UX
- Gesture shortcuts
- Moto Note and stylus-specific tools
The experience is close to stock Android, with little to no bloatware on the unlocked model. You get two years of OS updates and three years of bimonthly security patches — decent at this price, though some competitors offer more.
I've always enjoyed Motorola's clean version of Android, and that hasn't changed throughout the years. It's easy to work with and understand, and throws in neat and sometimes useful additional features.
The stylus-specific features are nice to have at this price point, but I can't say I would use them often if I was daily-driving this phone. Instead, what I found the stylus helpful for was whenever I was editing photos and video content in applications like Adobe Lightroom and CapCut. It's much more precise to use the stylus instead of my fingers, especially for actions that require more finesse, like applying a mask, for example.
Moto G Stylus (2025) Battery
A major downgrade
Faster charging speeds save the Moto G Stylus (2025) from its biggest downfall. | Image by PhoneArena
Motorola claimed that the 5,000 mAh battery inside the new Stylus can deliver over 40 hours of usage, depending on your use case. That’s about two full days of power for the average user.
However, it appears things have gone downhill compared to last generation, as our battery tests show an estimated 5 hours and 17 minutes of battery life for the Moto G Stylus (2025). That's around 3 hours less than the previous generation.
This could be due to several reasons, but the main culprits here are the new chipset and the brighter display. The new display also comes with higher resolution, which can also impact battery life.
It was a little weird to me when with a full charge and very little use, the battery would drop by 6-8% in less than an hour. Before the end of the day, the battery was already below 20% and I had to recharge the phone.
The good news is that Motorola has added even faster charging speeds with this generation, bumping the wired charging from 30W to 68W. Wireless charging remains the same at 15W, but I am just happy that it is even here considering the price range.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
As you can see from our battery test results, the G Stylus is no longer the battery life king it used to be, and it now performs even worse than the competition from Samsung.
The difference is most visible in the Video streaming test, where the Galaxy A35 lasted about two hours more, which leads me to believe that the issue is mostly with the new brighter display.
Moto G Stylus Audio Quality and Haptics
The Moto G Stylus (2025) comes with stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos support. They can reach surprisingly high volume levels, but the audio lacks richness to it. The good news is that despite its lack of umph, the speakers sound clear, which is especially helpful when listening to speech.
The Moto G Stylus is also one of the few remaining phones from the mid-range segment to still feature a 3.5mm audio jack, which you can use with any wired headphones you have laying around.
Should you buy it?
Yes, maybe... | Image by PhoneArena
If you want an affordable phone with stylus support, the Moto G Stylus (2025) is in a class of its own. It improves key areas like display brightness, stylus responsiveness, and chip performance.
Even though the short battery life is a bit disappointing, the fast wired charging and the option for wireless charging somewhat make up for that downside.
Alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G offer longer update support and better cameras, but they don't have the G Stylus’s pen features, which have always placed this Motorola mid-range in its own pocket dimension.
At the end of the day, Motorola’s done a great job delivering meaningful upgrades at a sensible price — and that makes the Moto G Stylus (2025) one of the best budget phones of the year so far, so it is definitely worth your consideration.
Alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G offer longer update support and better cameras, but they don't have the G Stylus’s pen features, which have always placed this Motorola mid-range in its own pocket dimension.
At the end of the day, Motorola’s done a great job delivering meaningful upgrades at a sensible price — and that makes the Moto G Stylus (2025) one of the best budget phones of the year so far, so it is definitely worth your consideration.
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