This Black Friday deal on a $200 Motorola is still live

What’s the deal?

On the heels of Black Friday and leading into Cyber Monday, Motorola has heavily discounted its Moto G Stylus 5G (2024), and what to expect in the $399 Android smartphone, so I won’t repeat all that here. Instead, I’ve been testing the phone for a couple of months with my T-Mobile SIM and will share my experience with it so far.

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Earlier this year, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra for three times the price of the Moto G Stylus. However, for daily use, I prefer carrying the Moto G Stylus. It’s smaller, the stylus meets all my needs, and I enjoy the streamlined Moto experience and customization. My notification shade isn’t cluttered with ads, and I can even go two days before needing to charge it.

Motorola sent me the Caramel Latte color with a vegan leather back, which is lovely and matches one of my favorite coffee types (haha!). There’s also a Scarlet Wave color that’s more red, almost like lipstick. With 8GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage with microSD card support, and a 5,000mAh battery, all for just $237, the new Moto G Stylus may be the budget phone to beat in 2024.

The stylus remains the distinguishing feature of this year’s Motorola model. It has been improved over previous generations with reduced latency, better targeting, and an updated user interface. Pulling out the stylus when the phone is off is convenient, and there’s a new note pop-up for quickly jotting down thoughts. It’s a subtle but very handy feature for notetakers on the go.

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As far as default notes apps go, you can choose between Moto Note and Google Keep Notes. Since Keep Notes is my default, the phone is even more useful for my needs.

When the phone is on, and the stylus is removed, a list of favorited shortcuts appears on an overlay screen, allowing you to jump right into the action. The stylus settings include removal notifications and the last known location of the stylus to help you find it if it’s lost. The stylus has a much nicer design than previous Moto Stylus models I’ve used, closely resembling the Samsung S-Pen. It’s easy to hold, slim, and charges within the phone.

The Moto G Stylus 5G launches with Android 14 and has monthly security updates, but given the affordable price and processor of the phone, you can likely expect one major upgrade to Android 15 and possibly two years of Android security patches. The cadence will vary, of course, though I wish Motorola would push the limit a little more and promise at least two years of OS upgrades. Samsung and Google, for comparison, offer upwards of seven years of updates.

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The 6.7-inch OLED supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate that can dynamically adjust based on your use cases. For example, it’ll lower the refresh rate when you’re scrolling through photos or a webpage — when there are fewer animations to render. I’ve enjoyed hours of content with the phone, and having a legacy port in the 3.5mm headphone jack certainly helps when traveling without wireless earbuds.