Motorola's Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) sees notable feature improvements that go toe-to-toe with Samsung and Google's mid-rangers. This sale puts it at the top for me.
Bought one for my kid because he's a little artist. Seems nice. I use a Pixel, but honestly I miss the moto "chop chop to turn on the flashlight" feature from my old Moto.
I have the 2022 version of this phone, and it's great value for money in the USA. Adequate performance, lots of internal storage, headphone jack, MicroSD slot, and good battery life. I didn't buy it for the (crappy) stylus, I bought it for the good value for money.
The 2023 version most notably updates the SoC from SD695 to SD6g1, which is about 15-20% faster and more efficient. It also adds stereo speakers, which is nice. It seems like everything else is only a marginal change or the same from last year.
I would love to see comparison to the Poco F1 which at the time had the same price. I suspect its pretty close, despite the 6 years gap. That being said, the F1 was unreal value at the time.
For that price point I've had a really good time with using Xiaomi phones. Specifically the Redmi Note series. They're similarly cheap but they're built well and feel expensive, not with a plastic case or anything like that.
You can do a lot better for the price if you're prepared to go without the stylus. Also no OIS on a main camera, and only one year of Android version updates, on a 400 US dollar phone (300 is only a limited discount) in 2023? Surely not. At this price point you can get a Northing Phone 1 or Samsung Galaxy A73 5G, witch both have a much faster and efficient processor, better cameras and much better software support with more Android version updates, some form of water/dust resistance, and OLED displays.
No wonder why Motorola phones are no longer available in my country.
I've been getting the g power series for a while now. Battery life is important to me in my field of work. And for ~$200 it's hard to beat. No, it doesn't have a great display, or even true 5g. No OLED or high refresh rate.
It does have a 5000ma battery that can last two or three days of use. Head phone jack, SD card slot. Features somehow missing from premium offerings?