Talking of styluses the first name that comes to mind is the S-Pen.The S-Pen is the stylus in the Samsung Galaxy Note series and is the best out there without any doubt.It has pressure sensitive touch,bluetooth and can act as a remote control for phone cameras besides the other functions of a stylus.
If you compare the stylus of Moto G Stylus with the S-Pen then the latter wins hands down.But then think of the price.The Galaxy Note 10 comes at around the $1000(US dollars) and the cheapest is the Galaxy Note 10 Lite which costs around $600.The Moto G Stylus costs $299.
To be frank at this midrange value the stylus is a welcome try.LG tried it about a year ago but was not that successful.Motorola on the other hand has been continuously making mid range phones for the past 2-3 years and they know their business.What I mean is that besides the stylus you also get enough for a phone at such a price.It is expected to be available in India from June 18,2020 at Rs.21,490.
Yes there is competition at this price point and the question arises that whether the stylus can save this phone?A look at the specs will give you a fair knowledge.
DESIGN AND BODY
Moto G Stylus has a glass front with plastic back and an aluminium frame(6000 series aluminium).The stylus port is at the bottom edge along with the Type C port speaker grill and 3.5mm jack port.The power button and the volume rockers are on the right side and the sim tray on the left side.The sim tray has place for dual nano sim or a sim and micro SD card.
On the back is a triple camera setup which looks like quad(why described later) and a LED flash and the physical fingerprint sensor with the company’s logo.The front has a punch hole camera on the top left corner.
The dimensions are 158.6mm x 75.8mm x 9.2mm.It weighs 192g.As usual Motorola says the phone is water repellant which literally means that the phone is splash resistant.
DISPLAY
Moto G Stylus sports a 6.4″IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16M colours and FHD+(1080 x 2300)resolution.The aspect ratio is 19.5:9 and the display has ~399ppi.
The display in spite of the resolution could have been better.It loses brightness when viewed from side.As an excuse you have to cut off some corners to reduce budget and Motorola has done it here.
OS,PROCESSOR AND STORAGE
The phone runs on Android 10 and gives you stock android i.e. there is no UI on top similar to other Motorola phones,Nokia and even the Pixel series.It comes with the usual Motorola features mainly gestures like twisting to open camera app or slashing twice to turn on flash.I love the stock android feeling and no skin on top means better battery life.
Under the hood is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC with octa core processor(4×2.0GHz,4×1.8GHz) powered by Adreno 610 GPU.This is a midrange budget SoC but quite good.Unless you play some high graphics games you will not find any lags in the device.
The phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB on board storage.There is also a shared sim slot for Micro SD card.RAM and internal storage is quite good for a phone of this budget.
REAR CAMERA
Moto G Stylus sports a triple camera module with an extra TOF sensor.The primary camera is a 48MP(f/1.7) wide sensor and alongside is a 16MP(f/2.2) ultra wide angle sensor with 117 degrees field of view and a 2MP(f/2.2) macro lens.
HDR,Panorama are supported and there is LED flash.The Portrait mode has good edge detection in spite of the absence of any depth sensor.This is possible due to AI.The Night Vision mode also produces quite good low light images.
Motorola calls it the AI powered camera.There are some unique modes like the Cinemagraph where you can keep a portion of your shot in motion while freezing everything else.Another such mode is the smile detection AI where the camera automatically captures a photo when everyone in a group is smiling.
VIDEOS
Maximum 4K videos can be shot at 30fps and 1080p videos at 30/60fps.Slow motion videos of 1080p can also be captured at 120fps and 720p at 240fps.
The highlight of the video feature is the 16MP camera lens which acts as an action camera.The sensor is intentionally placed horizontally in stead of vertical as is the norm.This allows you to shoot vertically and more importantly with one hand and view in landscape mode.While skating or capturing while in motion this camera enables some wide angled videos.
FRONT CAMERA
The front or the more popular selfie camera is a punch hole module featuring 16MP(f/2.2) sensor.It also has AI powered features.
Videos can be shot of maximum [email protected]
OTHER FEATURES
No face unlock is available meaning the rear mounted physical fingerprint sensor is the only means of smart unlock.
The phone supports 3.5mm jack and has dual Dolby stereo speakers.Audio quality is good as you will realise if you talk with speakers on or if you are video conferencing.
It supports USB 2.0Type C cable,Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 5.There is no NFC so no tap and pay.
THE STYLUS
Now lets address the highlight of Moto G Stylus which is the stylus.as I mentioned earlier it is not of the quality of Galaxy S-Pen but a pretty good one for such a budget.
The stylus is a metal stick with a knob to put it bluntly.The Knob is actually some metal mesh and I am at a loss of words to describe it.You can pen notes on images or screenshots or use it to highlight something like you use a pen on notes.A good feature is that even if the phone is locked you can take out the stylus and note something on the screen which will be auto saved.
As soon as you take out the stylus a bubble appears on the screen with menu options of taking notes or a screenshot on which you can write something instantly and the Google Keep menu where you can write and store your notes.
As soon as you take out the stylus it is saved in reminders and if you forget to put it back a notification will come.Moreover it will remind you where you had opened the stylus thus reducing chances of misplacing it.
BATTERY AND COLOURS
This phone is powered by a 4000mAH battery which supports 10W fast charging.
The Moto G Stylus comes in only one colour variant the Mystic Indigo.
CONCLUSION
At 300 US dollars you can now get the discounted Google Pixel3A,a phone with far better camera quality.Still I would say that the Moto G Stylus is a good phone at its price.The stylus is an added advantage and rest specs are suitable for this budget.
Not that you can’t get more on specs score in other phones but you cannot deny the legend of Motorola brand and of course the Stylus.It is a welcome change in respect to features which smartphones bring.I agree that the display, camera could have been better but overall it is worth a try atleast in the budget section we are talking about.
What are your thoughts?Please let me know in comments.