Motorola sticks a suit on Moto G Stylus mobe, pushes it towards European corporate types
(2020/05/27)
- Reference: 1590601121
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/27/motorola_moto_g_pro/
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Almost four months after it was first unveiled, Motorola has finally announced a European release for its Moto G Stylus phablet.
Except, it has been given a whole new enterprise-oriented direction, with a name to match: the Moto G Pro.
Motorola is touting the Moto G Pro to corporate customers through one of its business portals, where it emphasises the "security first" nature of the device. Like the majority of the firm's output*, this blower is part of Google's Android One programme, which guarantees two years' worth of software upgrades, as well as three years of monthly software patches.
That's a bit unusual because when the Moto G Stylus was first announced earlier this year, that business-focused positioning wasn't there. It was just another budget device, albeit one with a Samsung Galaxy Note-style stylus.
To be fair, the stylus likely makes this device a lot more compelling for business users than it does ordinary consumers. Styluses aren't a great general input device – and that's why they've largely fallen out of favour, except for within a few edge demographics, such as artists and designers. While Android comes with handwriting recognition, it's nowhere near as elegant or precise as Google's voice recognition or a bog-standard virtual keyboard.
But there are a handful of jobs where a stylus-toting blower would come in handy. If not for COVID-19, couriers would have been the most obvious example.
Besides that, the Motorola Moto G Pro is a fairly solid middle-of-the-road budget device, packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 platform, a generous 4,000 mAh battery, and a 6.4-inch FHD+ display. There's the usual triple-camera setup, headlined by a 48MP primary shooter, with 128GB of internal storage. Sadly, RAM is fairly limited, with just 4GB on offer. Full specs are [1]here .
Pricing has not yet been announced. We'd expect it to be around the £300 mark, given the Moto G Stylus sold for $300 in the US. That's factoring in the relative weakness in the pound, along with the fact that US list prices never include sales tax, whereas the UK has a flat 20 per cent VAT rate. ®
* There are exceptions, including last year's Motorola One Zoom.
[1] https://www.motorola.co.uk/smartphones-moto-g-pro/p
Except, it has been given a whole new enterprise-oriented direction, with a name to match: the Moto G Pro.
Motorola is touting the Moto G Pro to corporate customers through one of its business portals, where it emphasises the "security first" nature of the device. Like the majority of the firm's output*, this blower is part of Google's Android One programme, which guarantees two years' worth of software upgrades, as well as three years of monthly software patches.
That's a bit unusual because when the Moto G Stylus was first announced earlier this year, that business-focused positioning wasn't there. It was just another budget device, albeit one with a Samsung Galaxy Note-style stylus.
To be fair, the stylus likely makes this device a lot more compelling for business users than it does ordinary consumers. Styluses aren't a great general input device – and that's why they've largely fallen out of favour, except for within a few edge demographics, such as artists and designers. While Android comes with handwriting recognition, it's nowhere near as elegant or precise as Google's voice recognition or a bog-standard virtual keyboard.
But there are a handful of jobs where a stylus-toting blower would come in handy. If not for COVID-19, couriers would have been the most obvious example.
Besides that, the Motorola Moto G Pro is a fairly solid middle-of-the-road budget device, packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 platform, a generous 4,000 mAh battery, and a 6.4-inch FHD+ display. There's the usual triple-camera setup, headlined by a 48MP primary shooter, with 128GB of internal storage. Sadly, RAM is fairly limited, with just 4GB on offer. Full specs are [1]here .
Pricing has not yet been announced. We'd expect it to be around the £300 mark, given the Moto G Stylus sold for $300 in the US. That's factoring in the relative weakness in the pound, along with the fact that US list prices never include sales tax, whereas the UK has a flat 20 per cent VAT rate. ®
* There are exceptions, including last year's Motorola One Zoom.
[1] https://www.motorola.co.uk/smartphones-moto-g-pro/p