Moto G Stylus 5G Is the Cheapest 5G-Enabled Galaxy Note–Style Phone Yet

Motorola revealed its latest budget 4G-only Moto G Stylus earlier in May. Now the brand has announced the Moto G Stylus 5G for folks who want the penlike accessory and connectivity to next-gen networks, and the latest version is $100 cheaper than its 5G predecessor from a year ago.

Compared with its current lineup, the Moto G Stylus 5G has better specs than its $200 4G-only sibling, but it comes in at double the price. The G Stylus 5G retails for $400 and will be available at Cricket on June 2 with wider support to follow at AT&T, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Google Fi Wireless, UScellular, Consumer Cellular, Optimum Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, Boost Infinite and Boost Mobile. The phone can be bought unlocked on June 16 at Amazon.com, Best Buy and Motorola.com.

The Moto G Stylus 5G’s improvements over the Moto G Stylus include a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor over a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset and 256GB of storage to start (double the Moto G Stylus’ 128GB of storage), which can be expanded via microSD. Both phones have 4GB of RAM. The new G Stylus 5G has a 6.6-inch 720p display with a higher 120Hz refresh rate than the 90Hz refresh rate of its 4G-only sibling’s 720p screen.

The G Stylus 5G has a better camera array than its 4G sibling, too. Both have a 50-megapixel main shooter, but the pricier phone has an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera rather than a 2-megapixel macro depth sensor. The pricier G Stylus 5G has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera, which is expected to take sharper photos than the G Stylus’ 8-megapixel selfie camera.

The stylus functionality is identical between the phones. 

In this year’s lineup, the $400 Moto G Stylus 5G is priced higher than its budget siblings, the $200 Moto G Stylus and the $250 Moto G 5G. Motorola has shuffled around its prices and features for 2023 — last year, it was the Moto G 5G that cost $400, and both the Moto G Stylus 5G and the 4G-only Moto G Stylus had cost $100 more. To get those cost savings, the new Moto G Stylus 5G has slightly downgraded features compared with its predecessor, like only 4GB of RAM instead of 8GB.