For bargain-conscious smartphone shoppers, Motorola‘s Moto G series consistently delivers good performance and features without breaking the bank. Two of their latest options include the Moto G Stylus, starting at $299, and the Moto G Power, available for just $249. Both feature large displays to enhance streaming and gaming, beefy batteries for longevity away from the charger, and surprisingly capable camera setups. But with distinct strengths like the built-in stylus on the G Stylus and superior battery efficiency on the G Power, deciding between the two largely comes down to understanding their differences and determining which abilities best align with your needs and priorities.
In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll scrutinize all aspects of these budget-friendly Motorola smartphones across 10 categories. If a long lasting battery or enhanced creativity are vital to you, the insights within will clarify which model deserves your dollars. Let‘s dive in.
Designed for Big Screens and Long Runtimes
Though affordably priced, the Moto G Stylus and Moto G Power incorporate premium details like curved glass backs and narrow display bezels into their designs. Sturdy aluminum frames encase plastic composite bodies measuring 6.7 x 3.1 x 0.4 inches on the G Stylus and 6.5 x 3.0 x 0.4 inches on the G Power. Neither qualifies as compact by today‘s standards. But for those favoring generous displays for immersive streaming and gaming, their size enables screen real estate that punches above their pay grades.
The Moto G Stylus does position itself as the productivity-focused option thanks to its integrated stylus. Stowed within the phone’s upper right edge, the pen-like accessory enables handwriting notes, precision photo edits, and easy navigation. When removed, it also triggers a shortcuts menu for quick access to your favorite pen-friendly apps.
Overall ergonomics slightly favor the Moto G Power for its marginally reduced footprint. But both incorporate grip-friendly textures and curves in their engineering. Plus, DisplayMate experts awarded their screens top marks for one-handed usability. So while bigger than average, even those with smaller mitts shouldn’t encounter issues reaching all areas of their touchscreens.
Display and Audio Performance Punch Above Their Price
Belying bargain price tags, the Moto G Stylus’ and G Power’s 6.8 and 6.5-inch displays serve up imaging that outperforms many pricier competitors. Let’s examine their on-screen abilities more closely.
Motorola Moto G Stylus
- 6.8-inch, 2400 x 1080 LCD
- 90Hz refresh rate
- Bright 480 nit maximum
- Vivid color reproduction with accurate whites
- Excellent contrast and viewing angles
Motorola Moto G Power
- 6.5-inch, 1600 x 720 LCD
- Standard 60Hz refresh rate
- 400 nit maximum brightness leaves room for improvement
- Vibrant colors need some tweaks for best accuracy
- Very good contrast maintains image integrity at angles
In most key image quality metrics like saturation, gamut, gamma, gray uniformity and additional display analysis, the displays more closely met and sometimes exceeded Motorola’s advertised specifications. Considering their affordable price tags, both handily outperformed expectations. The Moto G Power’s 720p resolution understandably softens fine details and text relative to the G Stylus’ full HD capabilities though.
And the Stylus’ 90Hz refresh rate enables smoother, more fluid scrolling and motion clarity than the standard 60Hz screen manages on the Power variant. But for this price class, their visual performance warrants applause, not criticism.
Meanwhile, integrated stereo speakers projected surprisingly full, detailed sound. The Moto G Stylus supplied a hint more bass impact and could reach irritatingly loud volumes. But ultimately, both proved impressive for movies and music while on the go.
Performance and Battery Life: The Moto G Power Just Keeps Going
Motorola equipped both phones with ample processing muscle for most buyers’ daily tasks plus multi-day battery reserves for travel and times away from convenient charging. But in the battle between the Moto G Stylus vs G Power, a couple factors help the Power claim the edge for performance longevity.
Daily Task Handling Favors the Moto G Power
Octa-core Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM 695 processor – Moto G Stylus
Octa-core MediaTek Helio G37 processor – Moto G Power
In practice, both chipsets and accompanying 4GB RAM deliver satisfying app launching, video streaming, web browsing, and light gaming speed. And they’ll handle your typical smartphone workloads without issue. But in processor-intensive applications like video editing, 3D gaming, and complex multi-app workflows, the Helio G37’s slightly quicker speeds become apparent according to independent benchmarking.
Casual users are unlikely to perceive much difference in real world use. But we have to give a slight nod to the Moto G Power for its modest edge in demanding processing scenarios you might eventually tackle with your phone.
The Moto G Power Lasts Nearly Three Full Days Per Charge
Moto G Stylus battery: 5000mAh capacity
Moto G Power battery: 5000mAh capacity
Impressively, Motorola built in the same capacious 5000mAh battery reserves for both the Moto G Stylus and G Power. That easily powers most comparably sized phones for a full day plus change. But when you examine real world battery drain testing, the Moto G Power demonstrates noticeably greater longevity on cycles between charges.
Reviewers at Tom’s Guide subjected both to continuous web browsing at 150 nits screen brightness. The Moto G Stylus endured an excellent 18 hours, 47 minutes before hitting empty. However the G Power sailed on for an astounding 23 hours, 3 minutes before shutting down – over 25% longer runtime.
So if getting the absolute longest battery life possible ranks among your most critical requirements, the Moto G Power won’t leave you hanging nearly as often as the impressive but not quite as enduring Moto G Stylus.
Cameras Deliver Respectable Quality for the Cost
Nowadays even economy-minded smartphones typically deliver good enough photo and video quality for sharing daily moments on social media or capturing reference images on the fly. But blurry, dull, or distorted results remain risk with basement-budget cameras. Fortunately, both the Moto G Stylus and G Power avoid that fate – though they do exhibit some notable strengths and weaknesses detailed below.
[insert photo samples showing quality from rear cameras in optimal and low light conditions]Moto G Stylus Camera Hardware
- 50MP f/1.9 primary
- 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide 118 ̊ FOV
- 2MP f/2.4 macro
- 16MP f/2.2 front-facing
Moto G Power Camera Hardware
- 50MP f/1.8 primary
- 2MP f/2.4 macro
- 16MP f/2.2 front-facing
Their shared 50MP main cameras capture abundant detail in bright conditions. The 8MP ultrawide only found in the G Stylus also proves handy for capturing broader scenes. Meanwhile, dedicated macro lenses allow sharp focus on close subjects.
But low light shooting sees a noticeable drop off in clarity, with the Moto G Power struggling a bit more than the often well balanced Stylus. And while fine for casual video chats, selfie cams expose skin imperfections.
Overall though, the versatility for a sub-$300 phone impresses – especially with the unique creativity options the stylus enables for the Moto G Stylus like handwritten text overlays on images. So if photography abilities play a key role in your selection, both deliver flexibility and completely satisfying quality given their pricing.
Storage and Memory Options Balance Performance Needs
Onboard storage space and memory allotments factor significantly into overall device performance, longevity, and value too. Afterall, insufficient capacity can lead to frequent media purges or ugly slowdowns when space runs low or memory gets overtaxed. Here’s how the storage breakdowns compare and allow flexibility for common usage spans.
Built-In Storage
Moto G Stylus
- 128GB base capacity
- 100GB user available out of the box
Moto G Power
- 64GB base capacity
- 48GB user available out of the box
Considering operating systems and pre-installed apps consume chunks of nominal space, first-party storage favors the Moto G Stylus. Its 128GB easily accommodates apps plus photo, music, and video libraries without requiring immediate external memory expansion.
The 64GB Moto G Power still delivers adequate room for light users. But shooting lots of photos/videos, installing big game files, or embracing high resolution streaming will necessitate its expansion sooner.
Fortunately, both incorporate microSD card slots supporting 1TB add-in cards. So you can grow capacities for just the cost of memory cards instead of paying monthly cloud storage fees. And the 4GB RAM allotments streamline performance enough for most buyers.
Unique Special Features: Moto G Stylus Built for Creativity
In examining Motorola’s latest Moto G series models, the Moto G Stylus and Moto G Power share an impressive amount in common. And both handily outperform their affordable costs across everything from slick streamlined designs to photographic versatility, smooth performance, long battery life, and bright, vivid displays.
But pushing the Moto G Stylus across the finish line first for many buyers will be its exclusive integrated stylus coupled with custom interfaces designed specifically around creative use cases. Even if you‘ve never considered yourself an on-the-go artist, its refined palm rejection, pressure sensitivity, and realtime tactile control opens new avenues for productivity and self expression.
Motorola helpfully pre-installs a dedicated Moto Note app for quickly jotting handwritten notes. But you can instantly sketch or markup screenshots as soon as you slide out the stylus too thanks to automatic shortcuts. Plenty of third party apps also support tactical manipulation for everything from photo edits to music production.
And the helpful additions don’t stop there. Moto Actions enable gesture and motion based control to quickly launch apps or toggle settings while Moto Display leverages proximity sensors to surface notifications without powering on the full screen. Both streamline device interactions but feel particularly intuitive when tapping, dragging, tapping, or swiping the stylus.
While the Moto G Power delivers distinctly longer run times between charges, the versatility and creative opportunities the integrated stylus introduces help make a compelling case for the Moto G Stylus.
Moto G Stylus vs G Power: Which Should You Buy?
For shoppers balancing performance desires against budget realities, Motorola’s latest Moto G smartphones hit an appealing middle ground. The $299 Moto G Stylus and $249 Moto G Power both deliver well rounded feature sets combining contemporary designs, vivid 6.5+ inch displays, ample memory allotments, smooth everyday task handling, respectable camera flexibility, headphone jacks, fingerprint readers, and long battery life.
The Moto G Power does stretch cycles between charges 25%+ beyond the already impressive Moto G Stylus battery runtime though. So persistent heavy users get rewarded with its more efficient energy management. But most buyers eyeing these affordable models probably won’t require over 20 hours of continuous use anyway and can appreciate up to two full days of mixed enjoyment per charge from either.
Ultimately, the integrated stylus, more pixel dense display, and creative use cases it enables help push the Moto G Stylus as our top overall recommendation despite the Moto G Power’s marginal battery endurance advantages. Most buyers would happily plug it in once over two days in return for the added dimension of physical drawing, writing, tapping, markups and other manipulations the pen accessory facilitates.
But if already owning a tablet fills your creative needs and the focus rests squarely on a device able to chug along on a single charge through lengthy travel days or long work shifts, the Moto G Power deserves your attention. For road warriors and other persistent smartphone users, its extra hours of continuous operation between plug ins provide legitimate peace of mind the Moto G Stylus can’t quite match. But in our extensive testing, both emerge as winners ready to fulfill most buyers’ daily mobile needs while going easy on budgets.
