Moto G Stylus vs. Moto G Power - Which budget phone you should get

The Moto G Power and the Moto G Stylus: A Comparison of Two Android Phones

When it comes to Android phones, there are many options available on the market, each with its own unique features and benefits. In this article, we'll be comparing two phones that are often overlooked in favor of more popular models: the Moto G Power and the Moto G Stylus.

One of the main differences between these two phones is their storage capacity. The Moto G Power comes with 64 gigabytes of storage, while the Moto G Stylus comes with a whopping 128 gigabytes. Both phones also have expandable storage options, allowing users to increase their storage capacity by up to 512 gigabytes using a microSD card. While the Moto G Stylist is certainly more generous when it comes to storage, it's worth noting that the Moto G Power still offers plenty of room for apps, photos, and other data.

In terms of design, both phones have a unique aesthetic. The Moto G Stylus is available in a gorgeous "Mystic Indigo" color option, which is truly stunning. Unfortunately, this phone is not for everyone - the back of the phone can be prone to smudges, which may deter some users. On the other hand, the Moto G Power comes in a more subdued "Smoke Black" color, which still looks great but doesn't have the same level of visual flair as its stylus counterpart.

One area where the Moto G Power has an advantage over the Moto G Stylus is in terms of weight and build quality. The Moto G Power feels slightly more solid to hold, with a 7-gram weight advantage over the Moto G Stylus. This may not seem like a lot, but it's noticeable when you're holding both phones side by side.

Now, let's talk about cameras. Both phones have impressive camera capabilities, with multiple rear cameras on each device. The Moto G Power has a main rear camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a macro camera - all of which can be used for both photos and videos. However, the Moto G Stylus takes things to the next level with its "Action Cam" feature, which allows users to capture ultra-wide-angle video without having to use a separate camera.

One thing that's worth noting about both phones is their macro camera capabilities. Both devices can produce incredible close-up photos and videos, thanks to their advanced lens technology. However, it's the Moto G Stylus that truly shines in this department, producing some of the best macro shots I've ever seen on an Android phone.

For those who are considering purchasing either of these phones, there's a big question mark over when the next generation will arrive. For now, though, both the Moto G Power and the Moto G Stylus offer impressive value for their price - with features like expandable storage and macro cameras that make them stand out from more basic Android devices.

Ultimately, which phone is right for you? If you're looking for a premium camera experience without breaking the bank, then the Moto G Stylus may be worth considering. However, if you prioritize battery life and a more affordable price tag, then the Moto G Power could be the better choice. And who knows - with rumors of new budget iPhones on the horizon, it's possible that you'll have to wait another week or two before making your decision.

As for me, I have to say that I'm absolutely enamored with the Moto G Power. Its massive battery and impressive camera capabilities make it a compelling choice for anyone looking for an Android phone that can keep up with their active lifestyle. But ultimately, the best phone for you will depend on your individual needs and preferences - so be sure to do some research and read reviews from other sources before making your decision.

For more information about either of these phones, be sure to check out my full reviews on CNET.com.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the Moto G stylus and this the moto G power these are the newest members of the Motorola budget G family of phones they have a lot in common including a wallet friendly price and well most of their specs but they are pretty pretty pretty different and here's why it's a weird time to be reviewing phones I mean right and yet this phone the Moto G stylus cost $300 and this film the Moto G power cost 250 dollars it's amazing that in 2020 you can get two outstanding brand new phones for under $300 but you might be wondering which one do I get well that's what we're gonna talk about so let's start out by talking about the marquee features on these phones for the Moto G stylus it's gonna be well the stylus in fact the only other phones that I know of today that have a stylus are the Galaxy Note family of phones from Samsung and the LG stylo series of phones but the Galaxy Note 1000 and $50 and the LG stylo 5 that came out last year it costs $300 but you can find it heavily discounted right now so on the phone stylus spectrum where does the Moto G stylus fall well if you have the Galaxy Note 8 on one side and the lg stylo 5 on the other it's actually gonna fall pretty close to the LG side of things not only in terms of price but actually in the amount of functionality that its stylus offers the stylus fits flush on the bottom right corner of the phone it hooks easily open and can trigger a pretty basic Notes app that you can use to create drawings write notes or just doodle the stylus can also be used to navigate the phone mark up screenshots and edit photos Motorola even has a camera feature called cinah graph which allows you to record a video and then choose parts of the video that remains static like a photo and as opposed to using your finger the stylus gives you a lot more precision to edit those Bart's out but I don't know how many Sena graphs people are actually capturing these days probably not many like two three look I appreciate the amount of precision a stylus offers me but I have to admit I'm not a huge stylist person at least on a phone and yeah yeah years ago I had a palm treo and that has stylus but that's a long time ago but this feature it isn't for me and that's okay because the moto g stylus is still an amazing phone in fact I've been debating with myself for this past couple weeks if I would recommend this phone to someone who doesn't like a stylus but I kind of feel like that would be someone buying a convertible car with no intention of ever taken the top down and that's why I'm excited about the moto 2 seat power it's largely the same phone but it comes with a much bigger battery and you save $50 I mean come on I have to assume that's why Motorola released these two phones if you're someone who enjoys the precision of a stylus or likes to sketch on the go hey the moto g stylus is waiting for you I wish there were more apps that took advantage of the styles in terms of software features would seem a bit lacking to me hey maybe another way of saying this is that the Moto G stylus is not a $300 Galaxy Note 10.1 Honken battery just how big is this battery well it's five thousand milliamp hours that's the same sized battery as in the LGB 60 that cost $800 and also the same size battery in the samsung galaxy s 20 altra which cost for it I can't say it without laughing 1,400 dollars to put it in another way you could buy 5.6 Moto G power phones for the price of one Galaxy at 20 ultra hey at the time I'm recording this video I'm still running battery tests on the Moto G power that said please take a look at my written review on CNET to see the results of these tests motorola has promised that this phone will last up to three days with regular use on one charge and since I've been second home this thing is on day four I mean come on that's amazing and this has the same five thousand milliamp hour battery as last year's moto g7 power which survived our scene that battery test longer than any other phone we reviewed in 2019 hey and the Moto G stylus with its four thousand milliamp hour battery it's no slouch either it easily lasts two days no doubt those are the headlines features for each phone but let's talk about what they have in common which is a lot both phones have a six point four inch full HD display with a punch hole that houses the selfie camera the aesthetic is very nice and gives the phone's a premium look the screens are surrounded by thick bezels but they're actually thinner than those found on the iPhone 11 and the chin and forehead well they're bit chalky but at least they don't have Motorola's logo on it like last year's moto g7 hey power wise each phone has a snapdragon 665 processor 4 gigabytes of RAM and runs pretty close to stock Android in our performance tests the Moto's fared better than last year's moto g7 however they were slightly behind the Google pixel 3a and the Samsung Galaxy 850 in everyday use I had no problem surfing the web watching youtube videos or playing games even pub G both phones have a USB C port for charging and a headphone jack which is fantastic but both phones also have a 16 megapixel selfie camera the photos it takes are decent the videos are ok as you can see the dynamic range isn't great the colors could be more accurate but at least it takes ok photos on the back of the phones both have a fingerprint reader that doubles as the Motorola logo neither phone has wireless charging or has an IP rating for water or desk resistance however they do have a splash-proof coating that when I was filming footage was stood being in these little puddles of water for like three or four minutes at a time by the way that is not an endorsement to submerge these phones in water that will likely kill them now let's get to some other differences the motor t power comes with 64 gigabytes of storage while the Moto G stylus comes with a hundred and twenty eight gigabytes that said both have expandable storage and could support a 512 gigabyte microSD card the Moto G stylus comes in mystic indigo which by the way was the name of my ABBA cover band in high school it is absolutely gorgeous this is in fact the best-looking moto G phone ever made the Moto G power comes in smoke black and it looks fine it's not mystic indigo I should know too that these phones are covered in smudges all the time they love to gather smudges now if you're going to put this in a case no big deal but yeah it's like a CSI crime scene on the back of my phone okay when I hold the phones the motive to be Power feels a bit more solid it actually weighs 7 grams more than the Moto G stylists please forgive the accuracy of my like coffee scale but it did show that even if the numbers are different and then there are the rear cameras Kamiya just take a moment and acknowledge how cool it is that a 250 dollar phone has three rear cameras I'm filming this part with the Moto P powers rear main camera which is a wide-angle but it also has an ultra wide-angle camera and a macro camera and all the cameras on the back of the Moto G power well they can film photo and video the Moto G stylist has the same macro camera and has a different main wide-angle camera than the Moto G power both of those cameras can be used for both photos and videos hey so the third camera on the Moto G stylist is an ultra wide-angle camera called action cam it only captures video but one of the neat features about it is you can hold your phone in portrait mode and still capture a skate video I mean it's neat and I guess if you didn't want to have to care like a GoPro around that's kind of nice but you have to think ahead to get it into the action camera mode before filming otherwise you're still just filming a vertical video on paper the main rear camera on the moto g stylus seems more versatile than the Moto G power in fact I'm filming with a main rear camera on the stylus right now but when it comes to photos especially in good light man it is hard to see any major differences between once taken with the P power and once taken with the keys times when I'm indoors or the light isn't right the Moto G stylist is a bit more adept at getting a decent photo but again it's not a dramatic improvement hey man my favorite feature on either of these phones has to be the macro camera you can use it to film photos and videos and it gets ridiculously close to your subject and keeps it in focus it's great for food for flowers bugs whatever and every time I use the macro cameras I Kissed astonished at the photos and videos I'm able to capture hey but I want to align your camera expectations the Moto G stylist and moto G power have a solid camera system for a three hundred dollar and two hundred and fifty dollar phone that said you can buy the Google pixel 3a right now for around three hundred dollars and that has one of the best cameras on any phone I do think the Moto G stylist and mother tree power are better phones all around then the 3a but if you're just looking for the best camera at a low price you should really consider that pixel 3a and that brings me to timing unless you absolutely need a new phone I would recommend waiting a week or even two hey at the time I'm recording this video Apple is likely going to launch a new budget iPhone there are also rumors that Google might launch a follow-up to the pixel 3a maybe the pixel 4a and right now you could actually buy the Google pixel 4 for $500 now none of the phones I mentioned are likely gonna cost 250 or 300 dollars brand new but depending on your budget you will likely have a slew of new phones that fall in that 400 to 500 dollar price range that offer many more premium features for just a couple hundred dollars more than these phones right here as for me I'm really enamored with this moto G power and if I were to buy one of these phones it would likely be this one if you want to know more about either of these phones check out my reviews on cnet.com but you know what I want to hear from you guys what do you think of these phones what do you think of this stylus which one appeals to you more the bigger battery the stylus the crazy cool colors also if you have any questions throw those in the comments toothis is the Moto G stylus and this the moto G power these are the newest members of the Motorola budget G family of phones they have a lot in common including a wallet friendly price and well most of their specs but they are pretty pretty pretty different and here's why it's a weird time to be reviewing phones I mean right and yet this phone the Moto G stylus cost $300 and this film the Moto G power cost 250 dollars it's amazing that in 2020 you can get two outstanding brand new phones for under $300 but you might be wondering which one do I get well that's what we're gonna talk about so let's start out by talking about the marquee features on these phones for the Moto G stylus it's gonna be well the stylus in fact the only other phones that I know of today that have a stylus are the Galaxy Note family of phones from Samsung and the LG stylo series of phones but the Galaxy Note 1000 and $50 and the LG stylo 5 that came out last year it costs $300 but you can find it heavily discounted right now so on the phone stylus spectrum where does the Moto G stylus fall well if you have the Galaxy Note 8 on one side and the lg stylo 5 on the other it's actually gonna fall pretty close to the LG side of things not only in terms of price but actually in the amount of functionality that its stylus offers the stylus fits flush on the bottom right corner of the phone it hooks easily open and can trigger a pretty basic Notes app that you can use to create drawings write notes or just doodle the stylus can also be used to navigate the phone mark up screenshots and edit photos Motorola even has a camera feature called cinah graph which allows you to record a video and then choose parts of the video that remains static like a photo and as opposed to using your finger the stylus gives you a lot more precision to edit those Bart's out but I don't know how many Sena graphs people are actually capturing these days probably not many like two three look I appreciate the amount of precision a stylus offers me but I have to admit I'm not a huge stylist person at least on a phone and yeah yeah years ago I had a palm treo and that has stylus but that's a long time ago but this feature it isn't for me and that's okay because the moto g stylus is still an amazing phone in fact I've been debating with myself for this past couple weeks if I would recommend this phone to someone who doesn't like a stylus but I kind of feel like that would be someone buying a convertible car with no intention of ever taken the top down and that's why I'm excited about the moto 2 seat power it's largely the same phone but it comes with a much bigger battery and you save $50 I mean come on I have to assume that's why Motorola released these two phones if you're someone who enjoys the precision of a stylus or likes to sketch on the go hey the moto g stylus is waiting for you I wish there were more apps that took advantage of the styles in terms of software features would seem a bit lacking to me hey maybe another way of saying this is that the Moto G stylus is not a $300 Galaxy Note 10.1 Honken battery just how big is this battery well it's five thousand milliamp hours that's the same sized battery as in the LGB 60 that cost $800 and also the same size battery in the samsung galaxy s 20 altra which cost for it I can't say it without laughing 1,400 dollars to put it in another way you could buy 5.6 Moto G power phones for the price of one Galaxy at 20 ultra hey at the time I'm recording this video I'm still running battery tests on the Moto G power that said please take a look at my written review on CNET to see the results of these tests motorola has promised that this phone will last up to three days with regular use on one charge and since I've been second home this thing is on day four I mean come on that's amazing and this has the same five thousand milliamp hour battery as last year's moto g7 power which survived our scene that battery test longer than any other phone we reviewed in 2019 hey and the Moto G stylus with its four thousand milliamp hour battery it's no slouch either it easily lasts two days no doubt those are the headlines features for each phone but let's talk about what they have in common which is a lot both phones have a six point four inch full HD display with a punch hole that houses the selfie camera the aesthetic is very nice and gives the phone's a premium look the screens are surrounded by thick bezels but they're actually thinner than those found on the iPhone 11 and the chin and forehead well they're bit chalky but at least they don't have Motorola's logo on it like last year's moto g7 hey power wise each phone has a snapdragon 665 processor 4 gigabytes of RAM and runs pretty close to stock Android in our performance tests the Moto's fared better than last year's moto g7 however they were slightly behind the Google pixel 3a and the Samsung Galaxy 850 in everyday use I had no problem surfing the web watching youtube videos or playing games even pub G both phones have a USB C port for charging and a headphone jack which is fantastic but both phones also have a 16 megapixel selfie camera the photos it takes are decent the videos are ok as you can see the dynamic range isn't great the colors could be more accurate but at least it takes ok photos on the back of the phones both have a fingerprint reader that doubles as the Motorola logo neither phone has wireless charging or has an IP rating for water or desk resistance however they do have a splash-proof coating that when I was filming footage was stood being in these little puddles of water for like three or four minutes at a time by the way that is not an endorsement to submerge these phones in water that will likely kill them now let's get to some other differences the motor t power comes with 64 gigabytes of storage while the Moto G stylus comes with a hundred and twenty eight gigabytes that said both have expandable storage and could support a 512 gigabyte microSD card the Moto G stylus comes in mystic indigo which by the way was the name of my ABBA cover band in high school it is absolutely gorgeous this is in fact the best-looking moto G phone ever made the Moto G power comes in smoke black and it looks fine it's not mystic indigo I should know too that these phones are covered in smudges all the time they love to gather smudges now if you're going to put this in a case no big deal but yeah it's like a CSI crime scene on the back of my phone okay when I hold the phones the motive to be Power feels a bit more solid it actually weighs 7 grams more than the Moto G stylists please forgive the accuracy of my like coffee scale but it did show that even if the numbers are different and then there are the rear cameras Kamiya just take a moment and acknowledge how cool it is that a 250 dollar phone has three rear cameras I'm filming this part with the Moto P powers rear main camera which is a wide-angle but it also has an ultra wide-angle camera and a macro camera and all the cameras on the back of the Moto G power well they can film photo and video the Moto G stylist has the same macro camera and has a different main wide-angle camera than the Moto G power both of those cameras can be used for both photos and videos hey so the third camera on the Moto G stylist is an ultra wide-angle camera called action cam it only captures video but one of the neat features about it is you can hold your phone in portrait mode and still capture a skate video I mean it's neat and I guess if you didn't want to have to care like a GoPro around that's kind of nice but you have to think ahead to get it into the action camera mode before filming otherwise you're still just filming a vertical video on paper the main rear camera on the moto g stylus seems more versatile than the Moto G power in fact I'm filming with a main rear camera on the stylus right now but when it comes to photos especially in good light man it is hard to see any major differences between once taken with the P power and once taken with the keys times when I'm indoors or the light isn't right the Moto G stylist is a bit more adept at getting a decent photo but again it's not a dramatic improvement hey man my favorite feature on either of these phones has to be the macro camera you can use it to film photos and videos and it gets ridiculously close to your subject and keeps it in focus it's great for food for flowers bugs whatever and every time I use the macro cameras I Kissed astonished at the photos and videos I'm able to capture hey but I want to align your camera expectations the Moto G stylist and moto G power have a solid camera system for a three hundred dollar and two hundred and fifty dollar phone that said you can buy the Google pixel 3a right now for around three hundred dollars and that has one of the best cameras on any phone I do think the Moto G stylist and mother tree power are better phones all around then the 3a but if you're just looking for the best camera at a low price you should really consider that pixel 3a and that brings me to timing unless you absolutely need a new phone I would recommend waiting a week or even two hey at the time I'm recording this video Apple is likely going to launch a new budget iPhone there are also rumors that Google might launch a follow-up to the pixel 3a maybe the pixel 4a and right now you could actually buy the Google pixel 4 for $500 now none of the phones I mentioned are likely gonna cost 250 or 300 dollars brand new but depending on your budget you will likely have a slew of new phones that fall in that 400 to 500 dollar price range that offer many more premium features for just a couple hundred dollars more than these phones right here as for me I'm really enamored with this moto G power and if I were to buy one of these phones it would likely be this one if you want to know more about either of these phones check out my reviews on cnet.com but you know what I want to hear from you guys what do you think of these phones what do you think of this stylus which one appeals to you more the bigger battery the stylus the crazy cool colors also if you have any questions throw those in the comments too\n"