The race is on to deliver the most compelling package of specifications in a smartphone for under $500. Motorola is up next with the refreshed $400 Moto G Stylus update for 2025. It has many compelling features, including a built-in stylus and a massive battery. It also has fast charging through Motorola’s 68W TurboPower, which purports to charge the device fully in about 15 minutes.
Motorola bills this as one of its smoothest Moto G Stylus devices in a long time. The built-in stylus pops out and can be used as a mouse pointer or to fire up Sketch to Image in Motorola’s Note app, or Android’s latest, best new feature addition in ages, Circle to Search. The 6.7-inch Super HD POLED display goes up to 3,000 nits in sunlight. There are stereo speakers and a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 mobile processor with 8GB of RAM powering it all up. There is also a triple-array camera system, featuring a primary 50-MP rear camera, a 13-MP ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a three-in-one light sensor for tempered photography. The selfie camera is a 32-MP sensor.
And then, there’s the 5,000 mAh battery. Motorola promises up to 40 hours of battery life on a charge. When you are ready to recharge, you can plug in Motorola’s 68W TurboPower charger to get a full battery. The Moto G Stylus 2025 also supports 15W wireless charging. The only caveat is that you’ll have to stick to Motorola’s branded charging accessories and cables to achieve the full speed via TurboPower.
Speedy charging seems to be the new thing smartphone manufacturers offer. With chips getting more capable at the low-end, it’s about the extra features that sweeten the deal. OnePlus, for instance, has long differentiated itself from the rest of the flagship competition by its super-fast charging capabilities via its SuperVOOC technology, which tops out at 240W in some cases. Motorola’s TurboCharge typically tops out at 125W on its premium devices. It’s not as fast on the Moto G Stylus, but at the sub-$500 price point, it’s still quite impressive to have proprietary charging technology that you can use in a bind.
The Moto G Stylus has a bunch of other notable specs at its price, including IP68-rated water protection and military-grade durability. The device also comes in two Pantone-colored styles: Gibraltar Sea, a deep blue-green, and Surf the Web, a brighter, stark ocean blue. It’s available to buy beginning April 17, starting at $400 for 128 GB of storage space. We’ll test this one to see how it ranks among the upcoming Google Pixel 9a and other budget lineup devices.
