Motorola Moto G Pro / G Stylus review

Introduction

The Motorola Moto G Pro, or also known as the Moto G Stylus (minus the fast charging and the Android One part) in other regions, is yet another affordable handset from the company but this fellow comes with a twist - it has a stylus pen up its sleeve, hence the Pro moniker. However, don't be fooled by the name, there's nothing Pro about the handset but it does indicate that it offers some advanced features over its similarly-priced Moto siblings.

In fact, the phone borrows one of the iconic features of its close sibling - the Moto One Action. The dedicated 1080p action camera can be found here as well along with a more competent 48MP main sensor with laser autofocus and a 2MP macro camera.

Motorola Moto G Pro

• Body: 158.6x75.8x9.2mm, 192g; Glass front, plastic back, aluminum frame (6000 series); Water-repellent coating;.
• Display: 6.40" IPS LCD, 1080 x 2300px resolution, 19.17:9 aspect ratio, 399ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM665 Snapdragon 665 (11 nm): Octa-core (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver); Adreno 610.
• Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM; microSDXC (shared).
• OS/Software: Android 10, Android One.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF; Ultra wide angle: 16 MP, f/2.2, 117˚ (ultrawide), dedicated video camera (1080p); Macro: 2 MP, f/2.2, (macro); LED flash, HDR, panorama.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/3.06", 1.0µm; HDR.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS); Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 4000mAh; Fast charging 15W.
• Misc: Fingerprint (rear-mounted); NFC; 3.5mm audio jack; Stylus pen.

It's good to see that Motorola isn't relying solely on the stylus to sell. The phone is equipped with an adequate Snapdragon 665 chipset, which is a rare occurrence in Motorola's portfolio. There's also a decent 4,000mAh battery on board as well so we expect at least satisfactory battery life.

Quite honestly, we are happy to see a stylus-operated device in the mid-range segment. For years now, only a handful of devices, mostly from LG, were offered with styluses, except the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup. And those are pretty expensive. So anyone looking for a stylus on Android is kind of forced to open up its wallet. So we are curious to see if Motorola cracked the code and it's finally giving users a decent, well-priced alternative for productivity. It may have found a niche there so let's dive deep to see if the Moto G Pro can bring something else to the table beside the stylus.

Unboxing the Moto G Pro

The Moto G Pro comes in a standard box containing the usual user manuals, a wall charger rated at 15W along with a USB-A to USB-C cable and a transparent silicone protective case.

Curious thing we've noticed - the included USB cable doesn't allow data transfer so we had to use one of our own USB-A to USB-C cables to connect the phone with the computer.