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 (dedicated slot).
- 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.
Design and build quality
Motorola has taken a slightly different approach with its Moto G Pro in terms of build quality. While most mid-range phones come with plastic backs and frames, or at least plastic frames, the G Pro has an aluminum alloy 6000 frame and a plastic back. The back, however, feels pretty close to the glass so it's a build that feels sortof premium.
The Moto G Pro follows a familiar design language, which we saw with previous Motorola devices. The rear cameras are vertically stacked in the upper-left corner with minimal protrusion and the main sensor is positioned separately from the rest of the cameras. The rear-mounted fingerprint reader with the Motorola logo is placed a little bit higher than we would like as we often found ourselves reaching a finger for it.
We are also happy to report that the color of the back we got makes the fingerprints and smudges hard to spot. It's also the only available color - Mystic Indigo. It's mainly black and fades into dark blue at a certain angle. Motorola is definitely betting that you would like that one.
Going around the metal frame, you can feel the edges where it transitions into the back panel while the front glass offers a subtle curvature and overlaps with the side frame. Still, the display is flat by today's standards, offers fairly thin side bezels while the top and bottom ones are a bit on the thick side. Not that we were expecting razor-thin bezels at that price anyway.
We were happy to see the super small punch hole selfie cam. It's perhaps one of the least obtrusive cutouts of the kind.
Another cool small detail we liked is that the power button has a textured surface so you can easily feel if you are pressing the right button. It's placed conveniently enough but we can't say the same for the volume rocker. It's way up on the right side of the frame right next to the upper-right corner of the device. So finger gymnastics are inevitable when you need to use this one.
We suspect that the stylus is to blame here. It inserts on the right side of the phone and takes away precious space for the buttons. Which brings us to the stylus itself. It's a small, thin pen mostly made of metal. There are no buttons or any advanced hardware features that it offers but it does have a nice weight to it.
All in all, the design of the phone is okay with some small drawbacks to consider. The ones that you will most probably notice from the start are the high positions of the volume rocker placement and the fingerprint reader. We are also surprised by the weight of the device as it tips the scale at 192 grams, which is a little bit on the hefty side for a phone that has a 6.4-inch screen and mostly plastic back. Probably the stylus is once again the culprit.
IPS LCD with a punch-hole
The Moto G Pro features a relatively compact by today's standards 6.4-inch display fitting a tall 1080 x 2300px resolution. The also features a small punch-hole in the upper-left corner housing the front-facing camera. It's one of the smallest cutouts we've seen but it's mostly due to the fact that Motorola used a tiny 1/3.06" sensor to begin with.
The maximum brightness is good. In manual mode, the display peaks at 421 nits and in auto mode, the panel can reach as high as 642 nits - enough to provide comfortable viewing experience even in bright sunlight.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.296 | 421 | 1422:1 | |
| 0.452 | 642 | 1420:1 | |
| 0 | 442 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 610 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 424 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 596 | ∞ | |
| 0.343 | 451 | 1315:1 | |
| 0.318 | 421 | 1324:1 | |
| 0.319 | 454 | 1423:1 | |
| 0.4 | 562 | 1405:1 | |
| 0 | 494 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 690 | ∞ | |
Color accuracy, on the other hand, isn't its strongest suit. In its default Saturated mode, the average dE2000 is 6.3 with pronounced blue-ish whites and grays. Switching to Natural mode, which is supposed to be the most accurate of them all delivers an average dE2000 of 5.8.
Battery life
The Moto G Pro sports a 4,000 mAh battery, which would have been enough by 2018 standards but today, the battery capacity of most competitors exceeds the 4,000 mAh mark already. And that's probably part of the reason why the phone didn't score great in our tests. In particular, the screen-on tests aren't impressive while the talk and standby times are just about right.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Motorola Moto G Pro for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging speed isn't particularly impressive either. With the included 15W charger, the phone replenished just 36% of its battery in 30 minutes. A full charge takes approximately 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Speaker test
The phone carries a set of loud stereo speakers - one positioned at the bottom and another one that doubles as an earpiece. The loudness of both speakers seems to be well-balanced and vocals sound clear but the bass is virtually non-existent. We weren't expecting great bass anyway, so we are just happy to see stereo loudspeakers on this budget phone.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Audio output quality
We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.
The reason for that is that most phones that arrived for testing were already excellent in this regard and whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but our lab equipment.
Squeaky clean Android One
The Moto G Pro is part of the Android One family, which is supposed to ensure swift updates whenever the next Android version gets out. That's not always the case, though, but there's another advantage of the Android One devices, and that's the pure, clutter-less Android experience. In case you are looking for a vanilla Android smartphone, this one will deliver. It's also important to note that the US variant called Moto G Stylus is not part of the Android One program.
Still, Motorola did add a couple of customizations and features to the clean Android as it usually does. Once you setup the phone and open up the general settings menu, you will be prompted with two messages on the top - one will take you to a menu to choose your preferred navigation method and also explaining the new gestures while the other takes you through the neatly organized Moto-specific features.
Home screen, general settings, recent apps, notification shade
The gestures are the usual ones from Google with the back gesture executed from either side of the display. There's also a slider for the back gesture sensitivity that determines how close to the edge you have to get for the system to register a back gesture. Or, you know, you can always stick to the good ol' software navigation buttons.
Moto options
Back to the advanced Moto features now. They are split into several categories with the Moto actions one being the biggest one. Among the usual ones like launching the camera with a twisting motion of the wrist or turning on the flashlight with a double karate chop motion, there's one fairly new addition to the list and that's the one-handed mode, which you can activate with a single swipe from the center of the screen.
Two other screen-off gestures that are worth mentioning, although not new, are the lift-to-unlock and the media controls. If you have the face recognition unlock method set up, you can pick up the phone from the desk and once you raise it, the screen will turn on and the front-facing camera will start scanning for your face. That's a quick and easy way to unlock the device. Whereas the volume rocker can act as a media control button when the screen is off. That's probably the only OEM that lets you do that and we really like it.
Moto Actions
The Moto Display section holds two more options - one called Attentive display, which you've probably guessed what that means. The screen will stay on and won't dim while you are looking at it. Assuming you are reading an article, you won't have to touch the display to prevent it from turning off.
Peek Display, on the other hand, is all about the locked screen. It lets you interact with notifications and even reply to messages from the locked screen. The UI is reminiscent of an Always-on display and you can check real quick if you have a notification or just see the time by tapping on the display or moving the phone altogether. The apps and notifications that let you interact with them will appear in small circles in the lower half of the display. It's a really neat feature if you want to do a quick reply or dismiss a notification without having to unlock the phone. And, of course, there's an option to ask for credentials when sending a reply to someone.
Moto Display
Speaking of the display, Motorola finally fixed its Dark Mode. Now all settings menus are in dark gray and the notification shade as well. Previous iterations of the software didn't change the color of the settings menus for some reason so it's good to see the Dark Mode up and running as it should. Sady, you won't be gaining any battery life in the process as this is an LCD panel. It will be much easier on your eyes at night, though.
Stylus pen options and software
Don't expect a lot of customizations surrounding the stylus pen. Once you pull it out, a small bubble will appear on the right side of the screen. This bubble contains four shortcuts. One will let you do a quick note with the usual customizations regarding the writing, the other one is Google Keep, the third one takes a screenshot and the fourth takes to to the Moto Note app where you will find all your previous notes.
Unfortunately, there's no way to add more shortcuts to the said bubble but you can set a specific app to launch when you pull out the pen.
The pen itself works fine and consistently. Sure, it's nothing like the Galaxy Note's pen in terms of usability and accuracy, but we don't expect it to. It's definitely a useful tool for anyone looking for a budget, productivity-oriented smartphone.
Performance
The Moto G Pro comes with last year's Snapdragon 665 chipset based on the 11nm manufacturing process. The chip employs an octa-core CPU with 4x 2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold cores and 4x 1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver cores while the GPU-intensive tasks are handled by the Adreno 610.
There's only one memory configuration available, and that's 4GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage. The latter seems to be more than sufficient considering that microSD card support is also at hand.
Additionally, the chipset is borderline acceptable at this price because there are a couple of alternatives with more powerful and newer Snapdragon 700-series chipsets. Here's how it holds against the similarly-priced competition.
GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
7963 - Realme 6
7815 - Realme 6 Pro
7027 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
6639 - Motorola One Zoom
5802 - Motorola Moto G Pro
5687 - Samsung Galaxy M31
5487
GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
2863 - Realme 6 Pro
2643 - Realme 6
2606 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
2429 - Motorola One Zoom
2084 - Motorola Moto G Pro
1516 - Samsung Galaxy M31
1510
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
1927 - Realme 6
1726 - Motorola One Fusion+
1705 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
1694 - Realme 6 Pro
1666 - Motorola One Zoom
1534 - Motorola Moto G Pro
1385 - Samsung Galaxy M31
1315
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
616 - Realme 6 Pro
565 - Realme 6
548 - Motorola One Fusion+
542 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
521 - Motorola One Zoom
509 - Samsung Galaxy M31
349 - Motorola Moto G Pro
311
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
318117 - Realme 6
288931 - Realme 6 Pro
268785 - Motorola One Fusion+
267980 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
253271 - Samsung Galaxy M31
195284 - Motorola One Zoom
180000 - Motorola Moto G Pro
173611
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
38 - Realme 6
31 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
30 - Realme 6 Pro
30 - Motorola One Fusion+
27 - Samsung Galaxy M31
16 - Motorola One Zoom
15 - Motorola Moto G Pro
13
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
32 - Realme 6 Pro
27 - Realme 6
27 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
26 - Motorola One Fusion+
25 - Samsung Galaxy M31
14 - Motorola One Zoom
13 - Motorola Moto G Pro
12
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
21 - Realme 6 Pro
18 - Realme 6
18 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
17 - Motorola One Fusion+
16 - Samsung Galaxy M31
10 - Motorola One Zoom
8.1 - Motorola Moto G Pro
7.1
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
17 - Realme 6 Pro
16 - Realme 6
16 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
15 - Motorola One Fusion+
14 - Samsung Galaxy M31
9.2 - Motorola One Zoom
7.1 - Motorola Moto G Pro
6.6
3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
3294 - Realme 6
2570 - Realme 6 Pro
2506 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
2467 - Samsung Galaxy M31
1599 - Motorola Moto G Pro
1127 - Motorola One Zoom
972
48MP main cam with a dedicated, ultra-wide action cam
Motorola has a knack for including an unusual set of cameras on some of its smartphones. This is the case with the Moto G Pro as well.
The Moto G Pro main cam is the popular 48MP sensor (f/1.7 aperture). The sensor size is 1/2.0" and is aided by the laser autofocus positioned below the other three vertically-stacked cameras.
The second camera is where it gets unusual. It's a 16MP ultra-wide, which is used for capturing action videos - much the same way an action cam like a GoPro would take them. In fact, this is the reason why Moto calls this one their 'action cam'.
The aperture is f/2.2 and the lens itself is 14mm equivalent providing a 117-degree field of view. Another quirk is that the sensor is rotated so that you shoot the horizontal videos while holding the phone upright - in portrait orientation.
Unfortunately, though, the camera is used for videos only. You can't snap photos with it, which is a major misstep.
Considering the price range of the phone, we aren't expecting a telephoto camera but an ultra-wide one for stills would have been nice. Most, if not all, of the Moto G Pro's competitors offer one.
Anyway, the third camera on the back is a dedicated macro. It's 2MP with fixed focus and features an f/2.2 aperture.
One the front, we have a 16MP f/2.0 camera with a tiny 1/3.06" sensor and 1.0µm pixels.
Camera menus
Motorola's default camera app is quite different from the rest of the camera apps. Swiping left and right cycles through only three modes - the default photo mode, video recording, and the last used mode. Tapping on the squares icon opens up the rest of the camera modes like manual, portrait, night, etc.
Camera menus
The familiar settings icon in the upper-right corner of the viewfinder opens up options such as video resolution, aspect ratio settings, etc. In other words - nothing out of the ordinary.
Daylight samples
During the day, the main camera captures relatively sharp photos with good amount of detail. However, sharpness deteriorates quickly once the light drops and you can see that in the dark areas of the stills. Some amount of noise is also visible, once again mostly in the shadows but can also be seen in the sky if you look close enough.
Daylight samples
Color reproduction is pretty close to the real thing and dynamic range is around what you'd expect from a phone at this price. In challenging light conditions, you can see plenty of details in the shadows without much penalty in the highlights.
Low-light samples
We weren't expecting miracles during the night but there are some things that the competition does a little bit better. For instance, the dynamic range is a bit too narrow here, with shadows being way too dark while highlights look (mostly) well-contained. It gives the impression of a really dark scene, which wasn't the case.
In other photos, however, the phone seems to capture the right exposure and provide enough detail in the shadows but messes up the highlights in the process.
Low-light samples
Noise is rather well-controlled, contrast is nice and colors are close to real-life. Sharpness and detail could be a tad better when put side by side with some of Xiaomi and Realme's contenders.
Turning the so-called Night Vision mode on will only give you small advantages over the standard photo mode. The night mode brightens up the whole scene, brings out a lot more detail from the shadows, light sources do look a little bit better and makes the colors juicier. But in the process, the Night Vision produces more noise, irons out fine detail and images are noticeably softer overall.
Night Vision samples
We recommend resorting to the Night Vision only if the scene is really dark and requires you to do some images tacking. The good news is that taking photos in night mode is quite quick.
And here's a comparison between the Moto G Pro and some of its rivals in our photo compare tool.
Moto G Pro vs Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G and the Realme 6 in our Photo compare tool
Macro samples
The macro shots are what we've expected them to be. The 2MP camera doesn't have autofocus so getting a crisp shot of the subject is challenging. The 2MP sensor lacks detail by default due to its lower resolution but it delivers vibrant colors. Make sure you are shooting in conditions with enough light.
Macro shots
Selfies
For 16MP selfies, they don't look all that sharp and detailed. The dynamic range also seems to be adequate enough bringing out the subject's face from the shadow.
Selfie samples
Portraits
Unfortunately, we ran into an issue with the Portrait mode. It doesn't detect the subject's face, and it doesn't seem to blur the background at all. We will update this section once an update arrives and fixes the issue.
Video recording
The Moto G Pro can do 4K videos up to 30fps and 4K at 19:9 aspect ratio. But the highlight feature is the dedicated action cam that can do 1080p videos with great stabilization. And you shoot with it by holding the phone vertically, which is rather unusual, but it makes it easier.
Let's start with the 2160p video sample. We can once again see some issues with the dynamic range. Even on a bright sunny day, shadows are crushed and you can see that with the black passing cars and the trees. Colors are also a bit washed out but we find the sharpness to be on par with the competition. Also, virtually no noise can be seen in the sample.
Full HD videos look exactly the same - same processing. Sharpness is lower, which is understandable.
We shot a couple of stabilization videos to see what's up and turns out there's no stabilization in 4K with the main camera as seen below.
Using the action cam, you can capture well-stabilized videos with a wide field of view almost like a proper action cam. Unfortunately, image quality is not the best, the dynamic range is quite narrow too.
The 1080p@60fps video sample below lacks stabilization too.
It's only in 1080p@30fps mode that the action cam allows for electronic image stabilization. The result is quite good but again, video quality is not that great.
You can also take a look at how the Moto G Pro stacks against the competition in our video compare tool.
2160p: Moto G Pro vs Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G and the Realme 6 in our Video compare tool
The competition
The Moto G Pro, or the Moto G Stylus, whatever they call it around your parts, comes with one indisputable advantage over its competitors - the stylus pen. Even though there aren't many functionalities associated with the pen and it's a passive pen, it's still something that none of its competitors has. Anyone looking for a phone with a stylus for productivity but doesn't want to pay top dollar for a Samsung Galaxy Note might be interested. But is it enough of a selling point? Well, it would all depend on the pricing.
Currently, the G Stylus ($270) in the USA costs considerably less than the G Pro in Europe (€300). In markets where the mid-range segment is oversaturated with great smartphones by Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Realme, it would be hard to steer in users just because of the stylus.
It's not only Chinese challenger brands, but even Samsung has a few great offers that easily undercut the G Pro at its current pricing in Europe. We are not even going to list particular alternatives here because we feel the Moto G Pro current European pricing of €300 puts it into a segment that is way out of its league.
Things are looking a tad better on the US market for the Moto G Stylus.
The only stylus-equipped alternative to the Moto G Stylus in the US in the same price bracket is the LG Stylo 6. But the latter falls behind in pretty much every important aspect but the sheer screen size. And if the stylus isn't that high in your priority list, we have two solid alternatives.
One comes from the same company in the form of Moto G Power. It offers similar hardware with less storage, same chipset while boasting considerably better battery life, and a proper ultra-wide camera capable of taking stills. It has the stereo speakers on board too while going for $40 less ($230).
Motorola Moto G8 Power • Samsung Galaxy A51
Samsung also has a contender roaming the territory. Asking merely $10 to $20 more, the Galaxy A51 grants you with a superb AMOLED screen, a comparable camera experience, similar battery life, and arguably more flexibility with One UI based on Android 10. An easy recommend from us even some seven months after its release.
Verdict
In isolation, the Moto G Pro is a nice phone within its own niche, especially in the US where there aren't many options to choose from. But unfortunately, if the stylus pen isn't up on your priority list, there are much better alternatives out there. The chipset on the Moto G Pro is aging and battery life isn't particularly impressive when put against the competition, nor is the camera performance. And frankly, it's only the main camera that takes nice photos.
This leaves the Moto G Pro with a stylus, microSD card support, and nice-sounding stereo loudspeakers to brag about while failing to impress in other key aspects. The Moto G Pro is a good example of a niche product, which we find hard to recommend for the wide audience but we're sure it will find its fans as there is nothing wrong with it but it's slighly higher price.
Pros
- Bright display, and a stylus included
- Tiny punch-hole camera design.
- Stereo loudspeakers.
- Clean Android experience.
- Photos by the main camera comme out nice.
Cons
- Pricey, you can get better deals if you are not madly in love with the stylus.
- No ultra-wide photos.
- Battery life could be better.
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