Moto G Stylus 2022 — what’s new with this year’s low-cost answer to the Galaxy Note

Motorola has carved out an impressive niche for itself with its budget lineup of G series phones, which deliver low-cost devices that focus on one or two key areas. A couple months back, it was the long-lasting Moto G Power that saw an update for 2022, and now it's the Moto G Stylus' turn for a refresh.

Think of the Moto G Stylus as a discount version of a stylus-equipped phone not unlike the old Galaxy Note lineup from Samsung. (In fact, we posted a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 vs. Moto G Stylus 5G comparison last year in which Motorola's phone fared better than you might think.) The Moto G Stylus has its own built-in stylus for note-taking and photo-editing — nothing fancy, but a nice productivity booster for people who don't want to pay big bucks for a flagship phone.

The Moto G Stylus 2022 is a successor to the 2021 LTE version of the phone, and not the Moto G Stylus 5G. There's no 5G connectivity on this $299 phone, but the Moto G Stylus 2022 does get a bigger battery, fast-refreshing display and new processor. Only two of those changes may be welcome, though.

The change that has us concerned is the new chipset powering the Moto G Stylus 2022 – a Helio G88 from MediaTek. That seems like a downgrade from the Snapdragon 678 found in last year's Moto G Stylus. Two recent Moto G phones we've reviewed — the Moto G Pure and Moto G Power 2022 — have also used MediaTek Helio silicon, and we were disappointed with the laggy performance of both devices. Hopefully, the latest Moto G Stylus has a little more oomph.

Motorola's other changes are far more encouraging. The 6.8-inch LCD screen now refreshes at 90Hz. Previous versions of the Moto G Stylus were stuck at 60Hz — even the 5G version of the phone. The faster refresh rate should make for a more immersive experience when scrolling on the phone, especially with the Moto G Stylus' expansive screen.

The Moto G Stylus 2022 takes a page out of the Moto G Stylus 5G's book by turning to a 5,000 mAh battery. (The 2021 LTE model used a 4,000 mAh power pack.) The Moto G series phones are mainstays on our best phone battery life list, so we'd expect that beefy battery to help the Moto G Stylus 2022 last for a long-time on a charge. 

Cameras on this new model are similar to previous Moto G Stylus editions, with one exception — you now get a 50MP main camera instead of the 48MP sensor on last year's version. The 8MP ultrawide lens and 2MP depth sensor remain unchanged for the Moto G Stylus 2022.

Moto G Stylus 2022 price and availability

You can pre-order the Moto G Stylus today (February 3), with an unlocked version of the phone available through Best Buy and Motorola. Amazon and Walmart are slated to offer the phone as well. Motorola says that Consumer Cellular and Cricket will be among the carriers offering the Moto G Stylus 2022 in the coming months.

The phone feature 128GB of storage and costs $299, the same price as last year's LTE version.