The $300 Moto G Stylus and $250 G Power can take excellent photos. That’s not a sentence I thought I would write when I started testing Motorola’s latest budget phones. They’re both capable of shooting some of the most detailed, color-balanced photos that I’ve seen from a device at these prices, while undercutting Google’s midrange Pixel 3A by $100.
In addition to the much-improved camera performance, these new Motorola phones have a lot going for them considering their price. They work with every US carrier, including MVNOs like Google Fi. Both have big screens with hole-punch camera systems and, importantly, they include a few quality-of-life extras. Each has a 3.5mm headphone jack, great battery life, a fingerprint sensor, and Motorola’s clever software enhancements that make Android 10 feel more unique on these phones.
Subpar photo performance has so far been the biggest caveat about Motorola’s budget-friendly phones. But now that Google, Samsung, and now Apple have capable phones in the $300–$400 price range, Motorola had no other option than to read the room and make some big improvements. It needed to pack even more than before into its affordable phone, and this year, it did that.