Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) review

Android 15, Moto app, stylus

The Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) boots Android 15 with Hello UI by Moto. It will receive 2 OS updates and three years of bi-monthly security updates. The 2024 model got only one major update, so there is an improvement.

Motorola's software looks a lot like AOSP with some added in-house features and finishing touches.

Something as simple as a font can add a lot of personality, though Motorola has been doing that expertly. The customizations live in the usual Moto app 'hub', which has been restyled for this iteration. Things are now more neatly organized, with categories that have a lot of entries, like Gestures, fitting things on a single page, and no scrolling required.

Moto app

Speaking of, the info page for each gesture has a great visual explanation as to how the gesture should work.

More Moto app

Smart Connect is the new combined name for the features that involve connecting the phone to a PC, tablet, or standalone displays, be it wired or wirelessly. Streaming, mobile desktop, phone to PC, smart sharing, smart clipboard, cross control and more - all features are here under one roof.

There's also a wireless desktop-like environment. You can connect the phone to a smart TV or a monitor to bring out that interface and use the phone as a trackpad and even as a keyboard. There's also a dedicated gaming mode, so you can bring out your game on the big screen.

Smart Connect isn't new to the Motorola ecosystem, but with Android 15, Motorola has enabled voice commands, leveraging AI. You can cast your phone's screen to the TV or extend it to the PC or even search for a file across all connected devices with a simple voice command.

Smart Connect

Moto Unplugged and Family Space are two features meant to restrict access to apps and features for one of two reasons - relaxing or staying focused yourself, on the one hand, or limiting a child's phone usage, on the other.

Moto Unplugged • Moto Unplugged • Family Space

Finally, and most importantly, let's talk about the stylus features.

When you remove the stylus from the phone, you get a floating menu with customizable options - open a new note, take a screenshot, free crop, gif maker, handwriting calculator. You can add or remove apps and settings from this menu, which is handy.

Notes • Screenshot • Free crop

Taking notes is super easy, and the screen and the stylus are nicely responsive. We also found the handwriting calculator quite handy. It supports quite advanced calculations, including integrals!

Handwriting calculator

The free crop and write from the screen is neat, too, and it will probably be one of the most used stylus functions.

There is also support for starting a note when the screen is turned off.

Oh, and sketch to image is a cool feature - it turns your sketches into art.

Sketch to image

Finally, Google's Circle to Search is available by default, and so is Gemini. The G Stylus 2025 doesn't have the latest Moto AI features, which premiered on the Motorola Razr family, which was just launched in the US.

Google AI

Performance and benchmarks

The Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip. It was announced in 2024 as a minor update over 2023's SD 6 Gen 1 that was inside the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024). It is manufactured on an efficient and modern Samsung 4nm node.

The CPU setup has two clusters - four ARM Cortex-A78 cores, clocked at up to 2.4 GHz (up from 2.2GHz) and another four Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 1.8 GHz. The onboard GPU is an Adreno 710.

The Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) is available in only one memory configuration with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage.

Let's see some benchmark scores now.

The CPU and GPU scores are in the same ballpark as most of the midrangers from the same price bracket. The only noticeably more powerful smartphone is the new Galaxy A56.

The sustained performance is very good - the Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) scored 72% on the CPU and 99% on the GPU stress test. It never got hot, just warm.

CPU test • GPU test

Overall, the Moto G Stylus 5G (2025) offers adequate performance for its price bracket.