Motorola’s new Moto G Stylus for 2026 is giving its namesake stylus a makeover. But, like many other phones this year, it’s coming with a price bump. 

The $500 phone, announced Tuesday, includes a powered stylus that Motorola says responds to tilts and pressure, enhancing notetaking in supported apps. The stylus recharges while slotted inside the phone, and also supports gestures like hovering the stylus over text to magnify it or dragging and dropping by holding the stylus over an image. 

The phone also gets a slightly larger 5,200-mAh battery, up from the 5,000-mAh one in last year’s model.

The Moto G Stylus’ 6.7-inch display is said to reach a very bright 5,000 nits at peak and run at a 1.5K resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone’s cameras include a 50-megapixel wide-angle, a 13-megapixel ultrawide, and a 32-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

These enhancements boost a number of features that carry over from last year’s phone, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, fast 68-watt wired charging and 15-watt wireless charging. The Stylus is also one of the few phones in this price range still featuring a headphone jack, and it’s kept its IP68 and IP69 ratings for water- and dust- resistance.

I do have concerns about the value and specs, though. Last year’s $400 phone included 256GB of storage, but this year’s $500 model starts with 128GB. To get that 256GB of space, you’ll have to pay $600. Both phones have a microSD card slot for expanding the storage up to 1TB. That pricing mirrors what we’re seeing with Google’s Pixel 10A and Apple’s iPhone 17E, and if you don’t need the enhanced stylus, many of these specs are similar enough to last year’s $400 phone, which is on sale. 

Motorola’s limited update support policy of two years of software and three years of security for its G devices is also glaring at this price range, because the Pixel 10A and Samsung’s $450 Galaxy A37 provide seven and six years of support, respectively.

Motorola’s doubling down on its stylus makes this phone stand out among the competition. While Samsung still includes an S Pen stylus in the much more expensive $1,300 Galaxy S26 Ultra, the company has stopped using a powered stylus in recent years. So if you want a phone with an included stylus that natively supports pressure sensitivity, this Moto G Stylus may be your best option, especially if you don’t want to search for another stylus-packing handset like an older Galaxy S24 Ultra on the used or refurbished market.

The Moto G Stylus will go on sale on April 16.