The Motorola Moto G Stylus is no longer riddled with bloatware

The 2026 release of Motorola’s stylus phone is very attractive.

My review unit is a charming purple color, has a nicely textured back panel, and includes a MicroSD slot and what may be the last headphone jack found on a feature phone sold in North America. The pen of the same name is no longer just a fancy plastic wand; active It comes with some cool tricks.

Even the bloatware problem has been curbed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still there. But unwanted applications have been reduced to a manageable level compared to a couple of years ago. There is only one “folder” for a pre-downloaded application that is actually an application Instead of three. MotoHub’s full-page widget, which was a privacy nightmare, is gone. Third-party weather app is now clearly identified as “Developed by OneLouder Apps” on the initial splash page – something I complained in my last Stylus review in 2023. If an app is going to ask you to constantly track your location, you should at least be able to understand who did it without searching for 10 minutes on Google.

The fact that bloatware is no longer my biggest concern with the G Stylus is a huge improvement. But the phone comes at a higher price this year: $499, an increase of $100 year over year. I’m sure the memory crisis has something to do with it. But it puts the stylus squarely in the mid-range, and I’m not convinced it works as well as it should for a mid-range phone.

I don’t want to short sell the G Stylus. The active stylus is great to use, and there’s nothing quite like it on any other budget or mid-range phone. It’s pressure sensitive, does a reasonably good job of recognizing handwriting, and you can even configure it to enlarge text when hovered over. I have a feeling this is a feature I’ll really appreciate in a few years.

The Notes app comes with the option to organize your notes into groups, which makes it feel less like a dumping ground and more like a tidy home for all the random things I stumble upon that I want to remember. The pen has been carefully developed and integrated, and I think it even rivals it The more expensive Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Pen experiment.

But the Moto G Stylus stumbles on a few basics, one of which is images. The main camera is good. It is a 50-megapixel sensor with an optically stabilized lens. It does a good enough job in daylight, though so do the colors very Cutting the red and heavy channel can cause some unpleasant color shifts. It gives a certain artificial look to images. The ultra-wide camera is good, and can be used as a macro camera, so it offers autofocus for close-up shots. This means you get shots you’ll actually want to use compared to the days of a dedicated 5MP macro camera.

Here’s the thing: There are four camera lens-like things on the back of the phone, one of which houses the flash. There are only two rear cameras available in the camera app. What does it give? The spec sheet claims the latter is a “3-in-1 light sensor.” It “helps with automatic white balance, exposure, and anti-flicker,” says Motorola spokesman Brendan Hall. Which I think. But there’s no doubt that at least part of its function is to look like a real third camera lens, and that seems like some sort of cheap trick.

The Moto G Stylus Pen offers strong water and dust resistance: IP68 and IP69, so it can withstand immersion in water and high-pressure spray. This is excellent news. But software support doesn’t look good: Only two major OS upgrades and three years of security updates have been offered, and Motorola has a reputation for delivering those updates very slowly.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset appears to be from the Stylus 2026 coupled with 8GB of RAM only Enough power for this device. I noticed very slight hesitation here and there, especially after waking it up and opening a new app. Sure, I’ve been using flagship phones for most of the past year, but it’s been a while since I consciously noticed any sort of lag in launching my everyday apps. It’s not enough to be a real concern today, but this is also the fastest phone that will ever run. It will survive the two scheduled annual OS upgrades, but I’m concerned about it slowing down after that.

I appreciate the Moto G Stylus. I love that it offers something really different from the competition – the active pen, the sleek feel, not to mention the headphone jack and microSD slot. There is bloatware, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. I just wish the cameras were a little better and came with more software updates so I could easily recommend it like the undefeated mid-range champ it is: Google Pixel 10A.

At a significant discount, the Moto G Stylus becomes an even more interesting value proposition. Before RAMageddon, I would have said that Motorola was sure to offer some good discounts on it before too long. Now I’m not so sure. Bottom line, if you want to keep your phone as long as possible and take a lot of photos, you should stick with the Pixel.

Photography by Alison Johnson/The Verge