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What is a Black Friday deal?
The Motorola G Stylus 5G (2023) is selling for an all-time low price of $249 ($150 off) at multiple retailers. Amazon Prime members may also be eligible for free next day shipping.
Why is this deal ZDNET-recommended?
When you first pick up the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023), the all-plastic build, flimsy stylus, and extremely cheap vibration motor make it clear what a pricey phone you’re dealing with. With this, Motorola is not ready to lunch the iPhone Pro or Samsung Galaxy S series.
Too: The best Black Friday deals available now
Instead, it seeks to dominate in the extremely competitive downmarket, where manufacturers must play a game of balance, strategically adding and removing features to reach a value package high enough to win the hearts of budget-minded buyers.
Despite the hardware cuts – which is a story we’ve seen before; Apple sells $449 iPhone SE with nine-year-old design – Motorola In fact The new Moto G Stylus 5G gets a lot of things right. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 has a new and improved processor, a new camera system with larger pixels, and most importantly, a new price tag that’s lower than last year: $399.
Overall, I feel pretty good saying that this is the phone to beat under $400 in 2023.
ZDNET recommends
Moto G Stylus 5G (2023)
One of the few phones on the market with a built-in stylus, and for the price of $399 you also get 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Moto G Stylus 5G is one of the few phones on the market that still has a built-in pen for precise input. This is a significant difference from other slabs in the mid-range market and should appeal to visual learners, journalists, and users who prefer to write rather than type things out.
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The stylus is locked to the bottom right corner of the phone, I’d argue it’s a better location than the left-side bias that Samsung has done with its Ultra phones, and I love that I can only do that when the Moto is locked. Can take it out. And a notepad appears naturally.
Taking the stylus out of the unlocked phone turns on Motorola’s quick menu toggles, including the GIF maker.
Jun Wan/ZDNET
Keep in mind, the stylus experience on the Moto G Stylus isn’t perfect; There’s no palm rejection, and pressure sensitivity is next to zero when you’re writing in front of the new, smaller 6.6-inch display. But, for stylus-supported classics like Bejeweled and Fruit Ninja, there’s no one to beat it for the price.
And like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, you can make a case for buying a Moto phone even if you don’t plan on using the onboard accessories. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor powering the unit, day-to-day apps and services run very smoothly. Sure, YouTube feeds take a second longer to load than more expensive phones, but I was generally impressed by the snappiness of the Moto G Stylus and how well it maintained its 120Hz refresh rate.
Then you’re getting exceptional value with memory and storage; The $399 model comes with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which beats its nearest competitors, the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (128GB), Google Pixel 7a (128GB), and the iPhone SE (64GB). You also have the option to expand the memory via microSD card.
Motorola took a gamble with this year’s camera setup, choosing a 50MP main sensor and a new 8MP ultrawide that doubles as a macro lens in place of last year’s two lower-resolution macro and depth sensors, and its Paid – sort of.
Under the matte-frosted Cosmic Black finish is a 5,000mAh battery that supports 20W fast charging.
Jun Wan/ZDNET
Undersaturation is still a problem with Moto’s camera system, and the lack of optical image stabilization in the main lens makes it tough to capture steady, low-light photos (as the phone will ask you to hold the phone still for 2-3 days). seconds each time). But in the most common cases that most people will care about, I found the 50MP main sensor to be reliable enough for family photos, beautiful scenes, and quick flicks of social-worthy experiences.
Also: Best Stylus Phones Right Now
With the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023), the company is committed to the usual one OS version upgrade (from Android 13 to Android 14) and three years of security support. It’s a notch below what Samsung and Google offer for their mid-rangers, but if access to the latest software features and a year or two less security patches doesn’t mean anything to you, I digress. .
Ultimately, you’re getting a lot for how little you’re paying for the latest Moto G Stylus. We’re seeing an influx of well-equipped, more than adequate smartphones in this sub-$500 price range, I can easily recommend three to four picks that were released only within the last three months. And on that list, the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) — I promise this will be the last time I type the full name — sits at the top if you’re shopping for a phone under $400.