The Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) and Moto G 5G are coming to the US

Motorola is introducing a new version of its Moto G Stylus 5G with a couple of nice upgrades for 2022 — and, as a result, a higher $499 price tag. The 2022 edition of the G Stylus 5G includes a 6.8-inch screen with a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate, a more powerful 600-series Snapdragon processor, a stabilized main camera, and a bunch of built-in storage. The company is also debuting its $399, budget-oriented Moto G 5G in North America. (It was introduced in Europe earlier this year.)

The most noticeable update on the 2022 G Stylus 5G — not to be confused with the 4G-only Moto G Stylus — is that 120Hz display for smooth animations and scrolling. It’s a 1080p LCD panel, and it houses a 16-megapixel front-facing camera. On the back, there’s a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization. Stabilization isn’t too common in the midrange class, and it should mean a better chance of getting sharp shots in lower lighting conditions. There’s an 8-megapixel ultrawide that doubles as a macro camera, plus a 2-megapixel depth sensor.

This year’s G Stylus 5G also uses a Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, an upgrade from the 400-series processor in last year’s model. It’s also paired with 8GB of RAM, which is a good bit more than the 4GB or 6GB that’s more typical of a midrange phone. That should add up to significantly better performance than the 4G version of this phone, which addresses our biggest complaint about last year’s model: that it wasn’t enough of an upgrade to justify its higher price.

Beyond that, you get a 5,000mAh battery, a generous 256GB of storage, support for sub-6GHz 5G (including C-band frequencies), headphone jack, microSD card slot, and a charger in the box. How’s that for thoughtful? There’s also, obviously, a stylus included, which is stored in the phone and facilitates more precise handwriting and doodling.

Both phones will ship with Android 12, and Motorola is promising one additional OS upgrade

The Moto G 5G (sans stylus) comes with a slightly less robust set of specs. There’s a MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor with 6GB of RAM, a 6.5-inch 720p LCD with 90Hz refresh rate, and a 50-megapixel main camera without stabilization. You still get a 5,000mAh battery, headphone jack, microSD card slot, in-box charger, and 256GB of built-in storage. That’s a fairly healthy feature set for $399.

Both phones will ship with Android 12, and Motorola is promising one additional OS upgrade after that. The Moto G Stylus 5G will go on sale on April 28th with preorders starting today; the Moto G 5G will be available on May 19th.