Moto G Stylus vs. Moto G Power: Which budget phone you should get?

This is the Motor T stylist and this is the Motor G power. They're the newest members of the Motorola budget give family a phone. They have a lot in common including a wallet friendly price and well most to their Specs, but they are pretty, pretty, pretty different and here's why. [MUSIC] It's a weird time to be reviewing phones. I mean, right? And yet this phone, the Moto G stylus cost $300 and this phone, the Moto G power costs $250. It's amazing that in 2020, you can get two outstanding brand new phones for under $300. But you might be wondering which one do I get? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about. [MUSIC] So let's start out by talking about the marquee features on these phones. For the Moto G stylist, it's gonna be well the stylists. In fact the only other phones that I know of today that have a stylus are the Galaxy Note family of phones from Samsung and the LG stylo series of phones but the Galaxy Note 10 Cost $950. And the LG Stylo 5 that came out last year, it cost $300, but you can find it heavily discounted right now. So one the phone stylus spectrum, where does the Moto G Stylus fall? Well, if you have the Galaxy Note 10 on one side and the LG Stylo 5 on the other, it's actually going to fall pretty close to the LG side of things. Not only in terms of price but actually in the amount of functionality that its stylus offers. The stylus fits flush on the bottom right corner of the phone. Hooks easily open, and can trigger pretty basic Notes app that you can use to create drawings write notes, or just doodle. The stylus can also be used to navigate the phone markup screenshots, and edit photos. Motorola even has a camera feature called cinemagraph, which allows you to record a video, and then choose parts of the video that remain static like a photo. As opposed to using your finger the stylus gives you a lot more precision to edit those parts out. But I don't know how many stenograph people are actually capturing these days. Probably not many, like two, three. Look, I appreciate the amount of precision a stylus offers me but I have to admit I'm not a huge. Stylus person, at least on a phone and yeah, yeah, yeah, years ago I had a Palm Treo and that had a stylus but that was a long time ago. But this feature, it isn't for me. And that's okay because the Moto G Stylus is still an amazing phone. In fact, I've been debating with myself for this past couple weeks if I would recommend this phone to someone who doesn't like a stylus. But I kinda feel like that'd be someone buying a convertible car with no intention of ever taking the top down. [MUSIC] And that's why I'm excited about the Moto G power. It's largely the same phone, but it comes with a much bigger battery and you say $50 I mean come on. After assume that's why Motorola released these two phones. If you're someone who enjoys the precision of a stylus or likes to sketch on the go, hey the Moto G stylus is waiting for you Do I wish there were more apps that took advantage of the stylus in terms of software features would seem a bit lacking to me. Hey maybe another way of saying this is that the Moto G stylus is not a $300 Galaxy Note 10 not even close. And that brings me to the Moto G power which its main feature. Is it big old honking battery This How big is this battery. Well, it's 5000 milliamp hours. That's the same size battery as in the LG V 16 that cost, $800, and also the same size battery in the Samsung Galaxy S 20 Ultra. It costs, I can't say it without laughing 1400 dollars. To put it in another way, you could buy 5.6 Moto G power phones for the price of one Galaxy S20 Ultra. Hey at the time I'm recording this video, I'm still running battery test on the Moto G power. That said please take a look at my written review on cnet To see the results of these tests, Motorola has promised that this phone will last up to three days with regular use on one charge. And since I've been second home, this thing is on day four. I mean, come on. That's amazing. And this has the same 5000 milliamp hour battery as last year's Moto G seven power. Which survivors seen that battery test longer than any other phone reviewed in 2019? Hey and the Moto G stylus with its 4000 milliamp hour battery. It's no slouch either. It easily last two days, no doubt. Those are the headline features for each phone. But let's talk about what they have in common which Is a lot. Both phones have a 6.4 inch full HD display, with a punch hole that houses a selfie camera. The aesthetic is very nice, and gives the phone the premium look. The screens are surrounded by thick bezels. But they're actually thinner than those found on the iPhone 11. And the chin and forehead. Well, they're a bit chunky but at least they don't have Motorola's logo on it like last year's Moto G seven. A power wise each phone has a Snapdragon 665 processor, four gigabytes of RAM and runs pretty close to stock Android in our performance tests. The models fared better than last year's Moto G seven However they were slightly behind the Google Pixel three a and the Samsung Galaxy A 50. In everyday use, I had no problem surfing the web, watching YouTube videos or playing games, even pub G. Both phones have a USB C port for charging and a headphone jack which is Fantastic, but both phones also have a 16 megapixel selfie camera. The photos, it takes are decent The videos are okay. You can see the dynamic range isn't great the colours could be more accurate, but at least it takes. Okay photos. [MUSIC] At the back of the phones, both have a fingerprint reader that doubles as the Motorola logo. Neither phone has wireless charging or has an IP rating for water desk resistance. However, they do have a splash proof coating that when I was filming footage, the stood being in these little puddles of water [MUSIC] for like three or four minutes at a time. By the way that is not an endorsement to submerge these phones in water, that will likely kill them. Now lets get to some other differences. The Moto G Power comes with 64 gigabytes of storage while the Moto G Stylus comes with 128 gigabytes. That said both have expandable storage and could support a 512 gigabyte micro SD card. The Moto G stylus comes in mystic Indigo which by the way was the name of my avid cover band in high school. It is absolutely gorgeous. This is in fact the best looking at phone ever made. The Moto G power comes in smoke black, and it looks fine. It's not mystic Indigo. I should go to that these phones are covered in smudges all the time. They love to gather smudges. Now if you're going to put this in a case, no big deal but. Yeah, it's like a CSI Crime Scene on the back of my phone. [MUSIC] When I hold the phones, the momentary power feels a bit more solid. It actually weighs seven grammes more than the Moto G stylist. Please forgive the accuracy of my coffee scale, but it did show that If the numbers are different, and then there are the rear cameras. Can we just take a moment and acknowledge how cool it is that a $250 phone has three rear cameras. I'm filming this part with the Moto p powers rear main camera which has a wide angle, but it also has an ultra wide angle camera and a macro camera, and all the cameras in the back of the Moto G power. They can film photo and video. The Moto G stylus has the same macro camera and has a different name wide angle camera than the Moto G power. Both of those cameras could be used for both photos and videos. Hey so the third camera on the Moto G stylus is an ultra wide angle camera called action cam, It only. Captures video, but one of the neat features about it, is you can hold your fold in portrait mode and still capture a landscape video. I mean, it's neat and I guess if you didn't wanna have to carry like a GoPro around that's kind of nice, but You have to think ahead to get it into the action camera mode before filming, otherwise you're still just filming a vertical video. On paper the main rear camera on the Moto G stylus seems more versatile than the Moto G power. In fact, I'm filming with a Main rear camera on the stylus right now, but when it comes to photos especially in good light, man it is hard to see any major differences between once taken with a p power once taken with the key stylus When I'm indoors and the light isn't bright, the Moto G Stylus is a bit more adept at getting a decent photo. But again, it's not a dramatic improvement. Hey man, my favorite feature on either of these phones has to be the macro camera. You can use it to film photos and videos, and It gets ridiculously close to your subject, and keeps it in focus screen for food for flowers, bugs, whatever. And every time I use the macro cameras, I just astonished at the photos and videos I'm able to capture. Hey, but I wanna align your camera expectations. The Moto G stylus and Moto G power have a solid camera system for a $300 and $250 phone. That said, you can buy the Google Pixel 3A right now for around $300 and that has one of the best cameras on any phone. I do think the Moto G stylus and Moto G power Better phones all around then the three a, but if you're just looking for the best camera at a low price, you should really consider that pixel 380. And that brings me to timing unless you absolutely need a new phone. I would recommend waiting a week or even two. Hey, at the time I'm recording this video, Apple is likely going to launch a new budget iPhone. There are also rumors that Google might launch a follow up to the Pixel 3a, maybe the Pixel 4a. And right now you could actually buy the Google Pixel 4. For $500. Now, none of the phones I mentioned are likely going to cost 250 or $300 brand new but depending on your budget, you will likely have a slew of new phones that fall in that 400 to $500 price range, that offer many more premium features. For just a couple $100 more than these phones right here. As for me, I'm really enamored with this Moto G power. And if I were to buy one of these phones, it would likely be this one. If you want to know more about either of these phones, check out my reviews on cnet.com. But you know what? I want to hear from you guys. What do you think of these phones? What do you think of the stylus? Which one appeals to you more, the bigger battery, the stylus, the crazy cool colors? Also, if you have any questions, throw those in the comments too.