Motorola has been trying to stave off bad times with the help of offbeat design elements. From magnetically attaching Moto mods to phones with nontraditional display sizes, action cameras, and more, Motorola has been experimenting with different features to keep its sales from drying up, especially in the U.S. In 2020, the company announced its first Android phone with a stylus, which mitigated the burden of buying a flagship Samsung phone for users who needed a stylus. The phone — along with its successor from 2021 and another 5G model later in the year — garnered reasonable attention. And now, Motorola is announcing the third phone in the series, the new Moto G Stylus (2022).
As seen in the previous leaks, the Moto G Stylus (2022) brings only a handful of external changes with Motorola focusing its energy on inward transformation. The phone comes with a 6.8-inch Full HD+ display that supports a 90Hz refresh rate, an update over the 2021 version of the smartphone. The phone comes in Twilight Blue and Metallic Rose colors.
The Moto G Stylus (2022) also gets a better rear camera, now housing a 50-megapixel (MP) primary camera up from the 48MP sensor last year. This 50MP camera is most likely to employ a Samsung ISOCELL JN1, which is the smallest 50MP sensor. Alongside the primary camera, the camera module — now leaner and with rounder edges — packs in an 8MP ultrawide-angle camera, which can snap images with a 118-degree wide field of view, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie shooter.
Inside, the Moto G Stylus (2022) features a MediaTek Helio G88 chipset. This is paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM along with 128GB of onboard storage. Notably, the chipset lacks support for 5G, which means we could see a 2022 version of the Moto G Stylus 5G sometime later this year.
Motorola claims the 5,000mAh battery on the Moto G Stylus (2022) can offer a two-day battery backup, which can be impressive taking its gigantic screen into account. However, there is no mention of the charging speed, and Motorola could presumably be sticking with the 10-watt charging as seen on the previous model.
One drawback of the Moto G Stylus (2022) is that it comes with Android 11 out of the box. On top of that, it will only get one incremental update to Android 12 along with security updates for a total of two years.
The Moto G Stylus (2022) will be available for pre-ordering right away, starting today, February 3 at major online and offline retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Motorola’s own website. Currently, Motorola is only selling the unlocked model, available at a starting point of $300. Locked devices will be available via Consumer Cellular and Cricket later but the company does not specify exact availability.
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