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Ricoh Theta Z1 is Ricoh’s flagship 360 camera, the first consumer 360 camera to feature 1-inch sensors, along with other groundbreaking features.  I have been using it since April 2019 and have found it to be the best overall 360 camera for virtual tours as of June 2020.  In this long term hands-on review, I discuss its specifications, features, image quality compared to other 360 cameras, as well as price and availability.  This post will be continuously updated as new features are added or new information becomes available.

The Ricoh Theta Z1 is a 360 camera with two 1-inch sensors, the largest sensors among 360 cameras under $2000.  It uses an advanced optical design to achieve a remarkably slim profile despite its large sensors and lenses.  Because of its large sensors and sharp lenses, it has very good dynamic range and detail, second only to the XPhase, which requires much more editing skill to get good quality (see my virtual tour camera comparison). For video, the quality is a bit mediocre other than in low light.  Because of its excellent photo quality and ease of use, it is my recommendation for the best virtual tour camera for most people.

Here is a two-part in-depth look at the Ricoh Theta Z1.  In Part 1 of this video, I discuss the Theta Z1’s features for image quality and workflow.  Then I compared the Z1 to popular 360 cameras for virtual tours including Insta360 One X and Ricoh Theta V:

With the Theta Z1 side by side with the Theta V, we can see just how incredibly compact the Theta Z1 is for a camera with not one but two 1-inch sensors.

The Theta Z1’s key feature is its large 1-inch sensors, which are around 4.3x larger than the 1/2.3 inch sensors typically used in consumer 360 cameras.  The Z1’s sensor is actually more than half the size of a Micro Four Thirds sensor, and as much as 1/3 the size of an APS-C size sensor.

Ricoh was able to achieve this through a folded optical path. In conventional designs, the sensors are directly behind the lens, which would have made the camera thicker.  The original Theta innovated with the folded optical system.  As light enters through its lenses, light is reflected 90 degrees to either side of the camera, where the sensors are.  By placing the sensors on the sides of the camera, Ricoh was able to move the lenses closer to each other.  With the Z1, took this design even further by creating a new triple folded optical path that uses not one but three prisms in a remarkable feat of engineering and manufacturing.

The Z1 has a variable aperture, the first consumer 360 camera to have such a feature.  It appears to be a true physically variable aperture, not just a digital ND filter because Ricoh states that the image will be sharper with the smaller apertures.   The smaller apertures also enable longer exposures, up to 3 stops longer than the Theta V.

The Theta Z1 can not only shoot in DNG Raw mode but Ricoh has created a special plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic called Ricoh Stitcher, which for the first time will enable users to edit photos in Lightroom and then stitch them on export, with adjustments for zenith, horizon, and stitching distance.  See workflow below.

The Theta Z1 has an OLED display and a new Fn button, which enables the user to switch between normal shooting and self-timer shooting without having to use a smartphone.  You’ll also be able to switch between three plug-ins, or turn off the OLED display or mute the Z1.  You can also access custom settings (one for still images and one for videos).  These controls enable faster shooting with the Z1 compared to previous Thetas.

Like the Theta V, the Theta Z1 can use Android plugins.  It can accommodate up to 3 plugins at any given time, which are accessible through the in-camera menu.  By default, it includes the remote playback plug-in to enable photos and videos to be played wirelessly on compatible devices, and the USB transfer plugin for transferring data to a USB stick.  Other plugins include:

– Time Shift Shooting: the user can take two photos, one lens at a time, so that the photographer can move out of the way and be invisible in the stitched photo.

The Theta Z1 features a new aperture priority mode, and has a multi-bracket shooting with up to 19 photos, with user-customizable exposure settings for each of the bracketed photos.  The Z1 also has the same exposure features as the Theta V, including DR compensation, HDR rendering, interval composite for star trails.

The Theta Z1 has 4-channel spatial audio.  It is able to record both horizontal and vertical direction of sounds.  In a 360 video, the sound will change accordingly, depending on which direction the user is viewing, thus increasing the immersiveness of the video.  However, unlike the Theta V, the Z1 does not have a microphone input and cannot use the optional TA-1 microphone of the Theta V.

The Theta Z1 can geotag 360 photos if you take a photo with a GPS-enabled smartphone.  The Z1 is compatible with the Street View app, which can be used to control the Z1 to take geotagged photos one at a time, or in intervals.  However, as of April 9, 2019, Z1 videos cannot be uploaded to Street View yet.

The Theta Z1’s video is completely stabilized in all three axes, which makes the video appear level regardless of the camera’s direction.  Not only does this make the Theta’s video smoother, but when the Theta Z1 is attached to a monopod, it can be made to appear as an invisible third person view camera.  To see a stabilization comparison, see video quality below.

All other factors being equal, a camera with a larger sensor will have better image quality.  Indeed, sensor size is one of the most important factors for imaqe quality.  Sensor size will affect bit depth, dynamic range, signal to noise ratio (low light performance), and other factors.

It is true that the Theta Z1’s resolution is modest at around 23mp.  However, you can see in my comparison below that it has more detail than most other 360 cameras, even those that have nominally higher resolution.  It also has exceptional dynamic range and shadow recovery (see below).

For those who prefer not to edit their photos, the Z1 also has an excellent built-in HDR mode hat requires no stitching or HDR fusion.  The HDR image is ready to use straight out of the camera.  Here are comparisons between Theta Z1’s HDR mode vs non-HDR mode:

The Theta Z1’s nominal resolution is not impressive at around 24mp.  However, for 360 cameras, specifications are seldom an accurate indicator of actual image quality.  There are many examples of 360 cameras with lower specifications that outperform 360 cameras with supposedly higher specifications.

The video quality on the samples seems to be underwhelming.  The detail level is noticeably lower compared to 5.7K cameras in 2019.  The contrast is also quite high, with very deep shadows.  I took test shots in brighter light conditions which did not materially change the appearance of the videos.  On the positive side, the videos can be edited to reduce contrast, which reveals a little more detail in shadows.  However, see below re its low light video quality.

In July 2019, Ricoh updated the desktop software to improve the Theta Z1’s video stabilization.  Here is a comparison by Naoto Somese that shows the dramatic improvement in stabilization performance:

2. Drag the stitched video over the Theta Movie Converter icon. The app will generate a new video file with spatial audio, and with a .mov extension.  If you upload this video directly to YouTube, it will have spatial audio.

3. If you would like to edit the video in Premiere CC 2019, go to Edit… Preferences… Timeline… and under Default Audio Tracks, look for Multichannel Mono Media, and change “Use File” to “Adaptive.” You’ll see that when you import the Theta Z1 .mov file, it will have 4 tracks within 1 audio track.

One of the benefits of a larger sensor is better low light performance.  Here are low light sample photos and videos from the Z1.  First, here are low light photos:

The photos at base ISO show excellent dynamic range and are able to capture details even in shadows, such as the distant buildings in the background.  However, there is some noise in shadows (which can be cleaned in post).  Please note the slight banding in the sky is primarily due to re-compression when I uploaded the photos to Kuula.

As I mentioned above, the Z1’s 360 video quality has too low of a resolution to be competitive with other leading 360 cameras in 2019.  However, in low light, the Z1’s video quality makes it useful even with lower resolution.

The Theta Z1 can shoot Raw+DNG.  The DNG photos are saved as double circular fisheye photos.  There are three ways the unstitched DNG photos can be stitched: (i) Lightroom and the Ricoh Stitcher plugin, the first of its kind in the 360 camera industry; (ii) PTGui version 11.3 or later, and (iii) the Theta Stitcher mobile workflow.  These options are discussed below.  You can try the options with the sample files above.

When Ricoh Stitcher launches, it will show a low-res equirectangular stitched preview of your DNG photo.  You can then adjust the pitch, yaw, or roll to straighten the image.  Remember that whatever part of the image is in the middle of the frame will be the ‘front’ of the 360 image, i.e., the first thing that your audience will see when they open the photo in a 360 viewer.  You can also adjust the stitching distance from the default.  When you save the file, it will be automatically added to your Lightroom library.  By default, the photo will be stacked with the original.  If you don’t

In addition to Lightroom, it is now also possible to stitch the Z1 DNG Raw photos with PTGui, which added a Z1 stitching template in version 11.3.   PTGui supports a variety of imaging formats for import, including TIFF, PNG, Photoshop PSD format, OpenEXR, HDR Radiance, and of course JPG.   In addition to supporting more formats than Ricoh Stitcher, I also found that PTGui’s stitched files have a higher nominal resolution, although in my comparisons, the Ricoh Stitcher photo yielded slightly more detail.

A third way to process the Z1’s DNG photos is through the Theta Z1 Stitcher app and the Theta DNG Transfer app. Both were made by Yoichi Hirota (developer of the Mi Sphere Converter and other apps), and both apps are currently available in beta for Android.  iOS versions may be possible, depending on demand.

With this workflow, DNG photos can be stitched directly (DNG to DNG), but for best results, DNG photos should be edited first and converted to JPG or TIFF before stitching.  Here is a tutorial by Yuqing Guo:

Step 1.  Download Z1 DNG photos via the Theta DNG Transfer app.  Connect the Z1 to your phone wirelessly, then launch the Theta DNG Transfer app.  You’ll be able to select and download DNG photos to your phone.

Step 5.  If necessary, you can straighten the horizon as needed using the arrows on the upper left corner. Click on the disk icon to save the stitched file to your Gallery, complete with 360 metadata.

Theta Z1 Stitcher cannot stitch correctly unless it is first calibrated.  Calibrating the Theta Z1 Stitcher works exactly the same way as calibration for Mi Sphere Converter.  It is a somewhat tedious process but you only have to do it once, and you’ll be rewarded with excellent stitching for the remaining life of your camera.

Step 1: take a calibration photo in Raw mode.  The photo must be taken at a 90 degree angle (parallel to the horizon, with one lens facing the sky, and the other lens facing the ground).  It helps to use a ballhead.  Choose a location where there is nothing within 5 meters (15 feet) from the camera along the stitch line.  Usually, it is good to choose a location with tall objects around the camera but not close to the camera.  For example, a place with buildings or trees.

Step 5: In Theta Z1 Stitcher, tap on the pencil icon on the bottom right, and select Start Lens Calibration.  In the following screen, scroll down and tap on the button Proceed to begin the calibration.

Step 6: Here is the tedious part.  You manually must find 5 control points (corresponding points in each lens).  Ideally, the 5 control points should be spread evenly around the image circle.

The Lightroom workflow also adds a new way to make HDR photos.  The Theta cameras are all capable of taking bracketed photos.  The problem is that each photo is stitched differently, so that if you try to merge them, there will be serious misalignments between the photos.

I have not been able to use the Ricoh Stitcher for photos that have been edited on other programs but you can stitch them on PTGui.  For example, I shot a 10-shot Raw+DNG bracket, then combined the DNG photos into an HDR photo using Photomatix HDR.  I then imported the HDR photo into Lightroom for editing.  From there, I stitched the photo in PTGui.

One drawback is that Lightroom does not have a feature for patching 360 photos (such as to remove objects or to add text).  However, Lightroom can do roundtrip editing to Photoshop or Affinity Photo, where a photo can be patched if necessary.

You can get amazing quality from the Theta Z1 using the free Dual Fisheye plugin from the Theta plugin store.  The Dual Fisheye plugin adds several modes to the Theta Z1:Single unstitched file in JPG or DNG (so you can use your own third party stitcher)

Please note all of these modes result in unstitched files (hence the name of the plugin).  The files can be stitched with Theta Stitcher plugin in Lightroom, or with third party stitching software such as PTGui.  To ensure compatibility with Theta Stitcher plugin for Lightroom, please install the Dual Fisheye plugin version 2.8 or above.  If Theta Stitcher gives you an error (“no compatible DNG files”), please use Theta Stitcher from August 2019.

Theta Z1 has much better photo quality than almost all 360 cameras with the exception of XPhase Pro S.  At the same time, it has one of the easiest workflows.  Beginners can use the built-in HDR mode, which can stitch and merge HDR photos in-camera.  These automatically stitched HDR photos look very good even with no editing.   Experienced users can get even better quality by shooting in Raw or using the Dual Fisheye plugin (see above).  Because of its excellent photo quality and easy of use, the Theta Z1 is my top choice for virtual tours and 360 photography (tied for #1 with XPhase).  If you have the time and skills for more involved photo editing, XPhase can give better quality.  But for most people, Theta Z1 will be the best 360 camera for virtual tours.

The Theta Z1 is available for $999.95 from Amazon or B&H Photo.  I believe the Theta Z1 is a very good value at $999.95, given the exceptional image quality.  It appears ideal for virtual tour photographers and for photographers who edit their photos.  For videos, it is not remarkable and there are several 360 cameras that are more affordable and provide better video quality.

From the main screen of the app, tap on the camera icon to launch the live preview.  In the preview screen, tap on the bottom right corner to choose the exposure mode and set it to Auto (HDR is available only in Auto mode).  Tap on Option Setting and swipe to choose HDR mode.  If you do not see the HDR option, tap on the settings on the upper right corner and change the format to JPEG (HDR is not available in Raw + JPEG mode).Can you use Ricoh Stitcher with other cameras?

As of now, no.  It only works with Lightroom Classic CC.  I’ve recommended to Ricoh to enable it to be used standalone but I don’t know if they will adopt my recommendation.Can the USB Type C port be used for a microphone?  Can it be used to connect to storage?

I don’t know yet.  I’m testing it.  Theta Z1 does run on Android OS so in theory the USB Type C can be used to connect and save files directly to external storage with the right plugin.

Photo (9.3) – Highest dynamic range among 360 cameras tested thus far, excellent shadow recovery, ISO invariant in bright light, excellent sharpness and detail, well controlled flare, and the best workflow for photo with a unique Lightroom plugin to enable editing of DNG and subsequent stitching. Detail is almost as good as Aleta S2C.

Usability (8.6) – Slightly better usability than Theta V. In-camera stitching for JPEG, including in-camera HDR. Option for realtime in-camera stitching for video.

The Moto G Pure is the rare $160 phone that works well enough that you forget you’re using a sub-$200 device. Yes, Motorola made some compromises to deliver a phone at this low price point, but it still nails all the basics that you should care about: good build quality, good battery life, and good cameras for the price.

That is not to say the Moto phone is perfect. Its processor is just a second slower in most tasks, it only works on 4G networks, and its paltry 32GB of internal storage is just not enough space to use for long. But for its price, it’s hard to argue against the Moto G Pure — it gets a lot right.

For a big phone with a 6.5-inch screen, the Moto G Pure feels relatively compact, measuring 0.34-inch thick and weighing 0.41lbs. Thanks to its rounded corners and sloped edges, the G Pure is comfortable to hold for long stretches, though it’s a bit tall (the screen has a 20:9 aspect ratio) to use single-handed for my small hands.

Available in deep indigo, the G Pure has a subtle sheen to its textured, matte back cover. Its plastic material is very hard and slippery, despite that texture. In fact, I’ve lost count of the number of times the phone has magically slipped off an ottoman or table and still works. Yes, this $160 Moto phone is quite durable, but I wouldn’t test the smartphone gods — you’ll still be better off with a case.

It has a snappy fingerprint sensor under the Motorola logo, as well as Face Unlock to give you a hands-free option to unlock your phone. I like that the Moto software gives you more control over how this works. You can use your face to unlock the phone (no need to press the power button first), and ask the phone to bring you to the last app or webpage that was opened (rather than the lockscreen). With good lighting, Face Unlock works well enough, but the fingerprint sensor is faster and more consistent.

As part of the cost cutting to hit the G Pure’s low price, Motorola decided to use a weak processor and minimal RAM, and it shows. At the heart of the Moto phone is the MediaTek Helio G25 processor, which is comparable to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 but actually lags behind that 2018 Snapdragon chipset. Everything from opening a website, switching between apps, to opening the camera app to take a photo just takes an extra second on the Moto phone. While this doesn’t sound like much, those extra seconds really add up over the course of a day and can make you question your sanity.

It has just 3GB of RAM to support its under-powered processor and a meager 32GB of internal storage. At this point, 32GB is simply not enough capacity for a phone, especially when most people are hanging onto their phones for longer. After just two weeks of light use — installing updates and a few apps, plus taking some photos — I’ve already burned through 18.04GB (56 percent of storage) on the G Pure. With Motorola promising one OS update and two years of security updates, you’ll likely run out of space before you run out of software support. Good thing it has a microSD card slot, where you can expand its limited capacity with up to a 512GB card.

The G Pure’s 6.5-inch LCD screen may look vibrant with its brightness set to 100 percent, but it is only a 720p display, with a low 269 pixel density. At 1600 x 720p resolution, The Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer looks more pixelated and dim on the Moto than on the OnePlus 9’s 2K display. Day to day, you probably wouldn’t notice just how low-res the display is, but if you have any higher-quality screens in your life, it will stand out and not in a good way.

I played some Pokemon Unite to stress test it, and performance was better than I expected, at least once I was able to launch the game fully. It took three tries and multiple force quits on it before I could actually play. Once the game finally loaded, I was able to move my pokemon around the battlefield without lag, with the battle music blaring from the lone speaker.

Using only 4G service to test the G Pure’s 4,000mAh battery, I spent the day toggling between two email accounts, sharing content on Twitter and Hangouts, and playing some Pokemon Unite. The G Pure stayed cool to the touch no matter how much I was stressing it. Although the battery didn’t quite live up to the two days of use claim from Motorola, I got about 16 hours out of it (or about seven hours of screentime) before needing to hit the charger. Don’t expect a fast charge, though: It took me about two hours to recharge this battery with the included 10W charging brick. In all, the battery should last you a full day at minimum, or maybe as long as two days for a light user.

For a $160 phone, the cameras on the Moto G Pure are better than expected, especially for photos that you’ll likely only share online. Rather than squeeze another lackluster ultrawide or macro camera onto the back, Motorola made a smart decision to keep it simple with just a rear dual-camera system — a 13-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor — plus a 5-megapixel front-facing camera (f/2.4) for selfies.

The 13-megapixel main camera with f/2.2 aperture was surprisingly capable at capturing details in low-light situations. At a recent indoor event with tricky lighting, it had no problems focusing with various light sources in dark rooms, and it managed to photograph small details in the art installations.

Like other smartphone cameras in this class, color accuracy seems to be an issue with the G Pure. Most photos look fine, but there are a few issues, like the pumpkins that look too red with stems that look too blue to be realistic. Likewise, the yellow door should look more orange, and the blue door should look more teal (with more green) than blue.

My biggest gripe with the G Pure’s camera is its slider interface for zooming. Unlike other camera apps where you can tap to select the most optimal digital zoom presets, Moto’s zoom slider doesn’t automatically appear in the app. In addition, your hand will probably block your screen as you try to frame your shot and navigate the slider bar at the same time.

At $160 — or less if you catch a sale or carrier deal, as this phone works on many 4G networks in America — it’s hard to deny that the Moto G Pure will be good enough for most people looking for a basic budget phone for under $200. After all, it has an all-day battery, a versatile main camera, all in a well-designed, durable package.

It’s a shame it doesn’t have a faster processor, more RAM, or more onboard storage, which would make it a clear winner. I’d rather Motorola charge a slightly higher price like the $190 TCL 20SE, which offers 128GB of internal storage, has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor, and is supported by 4GB of RAM. At least you wouldn’t have to constantly worry about backing up the files from your phone.

But these issues might not be deal-breakers for more casual users or those with a strict budget. Not many great phones are available at this price point, and the Moto G Pure is quite the catch.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

Last week, Google after a long gap of three years launched the company"s premium Pixel phones in India. It comes in two variants-- Pixel 7, and 7 Pro--with prices starting at Rs 59,999.

There is a lot of anticipation among Pixel fans on how the camera hardware fares against the competition and how well the phone performs with the new Tensor G2 silicon.

The new Pixel 7, and 7 Pro series retain the design language of the Pixel 6 series, but they are still unique and easily stand out among their peers in the industry.

The only difference between the two --Pixel 7 and 7 Pro-- is that the former comes with a 6.3-inch screen and two cameras on the back, and the latter features a bigger 6.7-inch screen along with a triple camera on the rear side.

They feature a massive metallic visor camera hump on the back. The regular Pixel 7 has a matte finish and the rest of the body has a smooth glass cover. Also, it does a good job of resisting fingerprint smudges to an extent.

Also, the metal on the top and the rails around the edge are made of 100 per cent recycled aluminium. It offers a premium sturdy hand feel. The phone feels light and easy for the fingers to find a grip around it.

Pixel 7 has Corning"s Gorilla Glass Victus shield, one of the sturdiest glass covers for phones in the industry. And, it is incorporated on both the front and the back. It has managed to keep my phone scratch-free so far. Also, the device comes with an IP68 rating, meaning it can survive water up to 1.5 metres (approx. five feet) depth for close to 30 minutes.

Google"s new phone features a 6.3-inch full HD+ (1080 x 2400) OLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and a pixel density of 416 ppi (pixels per inch). It is really good for reading, browsing and watching videos indoors. And, even outdoors, the phone can reach a peak brightness of 1400 nits and is easily manageable to read messages without any issues. It also supports the Always-on-Display feature and works fine. Users can just take a glance at the screen to view time or any notification without unlocking the screen.

There is hardly any false rejection and most importantly, it doesn"t unlock with unregistered fingers, which was the case with some Pixel 6a units around the world.

The face-unlock feature that uses just the 10.8 MP front camera too works great in the natural light and takes a bit of time in the dark but is manageable.

I loved the live translation and transcription features on Pixel 6a. Here too, the Pixel 7 works as smoothly as it can get. As said before, I am more impressed with heat dissipation when doing heavy-duty tasks such as photo processing and gaming. It gets slightly warmed up during the 4K video recording but never overheated.

Pixel 7 runs pure Android 13 with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB storage. It is very smooth to operate with no bloatware. And, if you are a rookie, you can turn on the Pixel Tips while setting up the phone. The phone offers valuable tips to make the best use of the device.

If you get fully accustomed to the Pixel phone, you can disable tips" prompts on the screen. Just scroll the finger upwards on the home screen, and there you will find Pixel Tips in the app drawer. Then, just deep press the app, and there will get the option to pause it. You can always go back to the app drawer and unpause the Pixel Tips.

I"m in love with Google"s in-house built transcribe feature. For a journalist, this is a boon. In the audio recording app, the transcribed text come with a time stamp. This helps in narrowing down to any particular point of the interview with ease. And, the most important thing is, it is free of cost and never have to subscribe to some expensive premium app to get audio notes transcribed.

I have to note that sometimes, transcribing feature falters at times. But, the sentences give away the context and also, it is easy to rewind to a particular spot in the audio recording.

Also, the translation feature has improved a lot. It supports several Indian languages-- Bangla (Bengali), Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

And the refined material feature of the Android 13 offers some excellent customisation options to match the app"s icon, fonts and the colour of the wallpapers, to ensure uniformity in the user interface.

One of the underrated features of the Pixel series is security. The Pixel 7 comes with Google"s proprietary Titan M2 chipset, which has multiple layers of hardware security to help keep personal information safe.

It is tested under Common Criteria PP0084, an industry security gold standard that is used to test identity, SIM cards, bankcard security chips and other applications.

Additionally, Google has to get third-party certification from SGS Brightsight, a leading international security lab. It has received certification against CC PP0084 with AVA_VAN.5 for the Titan M2 hardware and cryptography library from the Netherlands scheme for Certification in the Area of IT Security (NSCIB), the highest level of security vulnerability evaluation system.

Add to that the data from features like Now Playing, Live Caption and Smart Reply in Messages are said to be all processed on the device and are never sent to Google"s server to maintain the owner"s privacy.

If people spend most of their time outdoors and depend on cellular networks, there will be faster draining of the battery. But, with a Wi-Fi connection at home and the office, the Pixel 7 can easily sail through the day. Even if you connect to the cellular internet during your commute or spend some time outside for a few hours, the new Pixel can still manage to last a whole day.

With the Extreme Power Saver feature, the Pixel 7 can go into a strict power diet restricting almost all functions of the apps installed on the device and ensure, it can last for 75 hours.

And, it is advisable to keep the Adaptive Battery feature on. It will ensure most used apps get power while others unused for a long time don"t work in the background. It is activated by default.

Even the Adaptive Charing is on by default too. The latter will charge the phone slowly overnight and reach 100 per cent just before you get up. It observes your sleep pattern and alarm over time and accordingly adjusts speed.

One qualm with the Pixel 7 is that it supports just 21W charging speed, very low compared to most of devices. Even those with Rs 30,000 price tag with with faster 33W or even 65W chargers.

And, the Pixel 7 customer has to buy a separate charging adaptor, as the retail box comes with just the Type-C-to-Type-C charger. I used the iPhone"s 20W adaptor and with Pixel 7"s charging chord, it was able to hit the 100 per cent mark, in a little over 90 minutes.

It also supports wireless charging, but the speed is low. Add to that, it comes with a Battery Share feature. Once activated, users can place any supported devices such as the Pixel Buds Pro case on the back of the Pixel 7"s Google branding to wirelessly charge the earphones.

Both the Pixel 7, 7 Pro and even the Pixel 6a, which was launched earlier this year, will be getting a feature drop update in December to enable 5G connectivity in India.

Pixel 7 boasts a feature-rich dual-camera module-- main 50 MP Octa PD Quad Bayer wide camera (F/1.85, 1.2 μm pixel width) sensor with LDAF (Laser Detect Auto Focus), OIS+EIS (Optical and Electronic Image Stabilization), 82-degree FOV (field of view) backed by 12 MP ultrawide camera (ƒ/2.2,  1.25 μm pixel width) with 114-degree FOV, Lens correction and LED flash.

It takes fantastic pictures in all light conditions and most importantly, it processes the photos in a very balanced way to ensure subjects be they are humans, animals or flowers retain near-natural colours. And, you won"t see any overly processed with smoothened skin or warmer colours in any of the pictures taken in the Pixel 7.

The new Pixel 7 has something special and unique, and others will take time to reach that mark. Google has incorporated advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered computational photography technology. They deliver the most magical motion pictures.

Be it night or in daylight, the photo quality is remarkably good and no other comes close to this. And, some, which cost double the Pixel 7, don"t even have this feature.

Even the Photo Unblur and Face Blur features are really great too. Even some old blurred photos or pictures taken with shaky hands on other phones and stored on Google Photos, can be neatly sharpened too. However, it is exclusive to Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, as the photo processing can only be done by Tensor G2.

This Google Pixel 7"s camera sample was taken in from close proximity. This screenshot of a photo (taken via Google Pixel 7) zoomed-in on a computer. Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit

I played the Magic Eraser feature for the first time on the Pixel 6a and the new phone too, does an exceptionally good job. It leaves very less traces of the object or person, who photobombs in a picture.

It is nearly impossible to see on a compact phone"s screen. But, on the computer screen, if you zoom in, there will be some minute traces. Having said that, there are less than a handful of phones that can come close to this art of erasing photo bombers and that too in the native camera apps.

The Portrait Picture mode of the Pixel 7 is the best I have seen in any phone launched in 2022. It takes perfect photos with clear distinction of hairs on the head and even if you are wearing a pair of spectacles, it manages to neatly capture without any smudging issue with the background. And, the colour tone of the face comes as close to the image we see ourselves in the mirror. Big thumbs up to the photography division of the Google Pixel phone team.

The new Pixel 7 supports full HD 1080p and 4K video recording at 30 frames per second (fps) and 60 fps options. They come off good and stable. Thanks to three microphones, the audio is recorded perfectly and syncs pretty well with the video. There is a speech enhancement feature, wherein the camera captures clear speech in noisy locations and blocks disturbances such as traffic, wind and crowd noise. However, the video should be set to 30 fps.

The only thing that is missing is the macro photo mode. For the obvious reason of product differentiation, Google has kept it for the Pixel 7 Pro model. And, the latter also features longer Super Resolution Zoom up to 30X.

The regular Pixel 7 supports up to 8X zoom and have to tell, the camera does a decent job in reducing the noise in the background of the scene, compared to the rival brands in its class.

Though there is no macro mode, the Pixel 7 takes pretty decent photos in close proximity and captures a good amount of details. You can notice when you zoom in on photos like the one below.

This Google Pixel 7"s camera sample was taken in from close proximity. This screenshot of a photo (taken via Google Pixel 7) zoomed-in on a computer. Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit

Having seen the Tensor Gen 1 capability on the Pixel 6a, there is a significantly noticeable performance improvement in the Pixel 7 series. The phone is very quick and responsive in terms of loading apps, operating the camera and the value-added features such as translations and live transcribing work smoothly. Also, I am very impressed with thermal dissipation while playing games.

And, the AI-powered native camera app is just soo good. The Magic Eraser, Face Unblur and Motion Mode pictures are class-leading. Wish, Google continued to offer free cloud storage space for photos, so users could let the creative self run wild with the Pixel 7 camera. Well, there is no chance of Google reversing that decision, at least they should think of bringing 256GB storage to India.

For now, Google Pixel 7 comes in just one 128GB option for Rs 59,999 on Flipkart. For more storage, they have to buy a premium Google One cloud storage subscription.

As part of the launch programme, there are several lucrative offers including Rs 6,000 cash back and also additional discounts through phone trade-in deals.

I’ve been using the DJI Action 2 pretty consistently over the last few months. After relying on it for video shoots, doing numerous tests and considering purchasing one myself, I now have a clear picture of where it sits in the action camera market.

The Action 2 is the successor to the DJI Osmo Action, but built in a less traditional action camera design. This time, DJI went with a tiny cube aesthetic. This pared-down design is more than a reduced form factor. It includes a new magnetic attachment system that makes the Action 2 quick to mount and compatible with several great accessories.

These accessories open up the Action 2 to be more useful in the world of vlogging, and a more capable action device. Of course, as all flagship modern cameras should, the action camera also shoots 4k footage in 120fps slow-mo.

The camera is 39mm x 39mm x 22mm cube that’s waterproof up to 10 metres and weighs 56g. I found I was able to record a handful of shots over a day of shooting using this as my side camera, probably around 40-minutes of stop and go filming at 4k. It’s a very satisfying package to have this much camera power in the literal palm of your hand.

The small size makes the Action 2 easy to tuck just about anywhere. The magnets on the bottom can even stick to metal things like your fridge or a fence post. I never found the perfect angle to take advantage of this feature, but I’m sure someday it will come in handy.

The selfie screen turns the Action 2 into a vlogging camera by allowing you to see yourself and adds a four-microphone array that captures much clearer audio. This is cool, but the 155-degree field-of-view does make this a pretty wide angle for vlogging. Still, it’s very usable and the audio is greatly improved with it on. The front screen battery extends the camera’s life to a maximum of 160 minutes at 1080p 30fps, according to DJI.

Both modules include USB-C ports and MicroSD card slots. DJI only sells the camera in bundles with the front screen or the battery. Since the front screen piece is more practical, I think that’s what most people should go for, unless you want to save roughly an extra $150 CAD. The front screen also puts the Action 2 on par with theGoPro Hero 10 in terms of features.

To be clear, you can use the primary camera component on its own, and it will last for about an hour and film on the internal storage. But to charge the camera and to use SD cards, you need the attachments. This means anything longer than 40-minutes of shooting requires the camera and an accessory.

That’s not all these magnets can do either. There are numerous magnetic mounting accessories from DJI that allow you to get cool shots with the Action 2 and use it with various traditional camera accessories. I used the magnetic lanyard, the magnetic ball joint adapter and the magnetic adapter for traditional action cam mounts. There’s also a magnetic headband if you want to wear it that way.

These accessories allow you to move the DJI Action 2 between mounting points quickly in theory, but I found that since I only had one of each type of mounting point adapter, I often had to shift those along with the camera.

If I was investing in the DJI Action 2 ecosystem, perhaps it would be worth buying a few extra magnetic adapters to have set up on things you use often, but given the already high price of the camera bundles, I’d rather just move the mounts over the old fashion way instead of shelling out more cash for extra proprietary DJI adapters that cost $20 USD – $35 USD a pop ($25 – $43 CAD).

This is a big issue with all this tiny gear. Over the course of my review, I often misplaced the Action 2’s various accessories since there is so much to keep track of. I carry around all the Action 2 gear in a little tote since it’s easier that way. Sure it can be pocketable, but with all the extra gear, it can become a lot to handle. I’ll also mention that this small size made the device’s lens easy to touch accidentally, so I found myself wiping away my fingerprints often.

The final cool camera feature allows the DJI Action 2 to be used as a webcam with a computer. M1-equipped Macs don’t appear to work in my testing, but the experience with Windows was plug and play. Make sure you keep the camera set to 720p or 1080p recording, or it will likely overheat during your video call

A big feature of action cameras is their companion apps. And frankly, coming from the brutal companion app that passes with the Fujifilm camera system, the DJI Mimo app works surprisingly well. It’s a great external display for the camera, allowing you to frame your shots using a much larger screen than the tiny one on the camera. And the connection between the app and the camera is stable as long as you don’t go too far from the device.

This means you can stick the camera on the outside of the car you’re trying to film in the pouring rain and control the settings from inside the car. While controlling the photo/video modes through the camera’s small touch screen is doable, it’s a lot easier through the Mimo app. Also, connecting to the camera once you’ve set it up is seamless and takes less than a minute.

I’ll mention here that these modes include ‘Time-lapse,’ ‘Video Mode,’ ‘Photo Mode,’ ‘Quick Clips’ and ‘Slow Motion.’ The only mode here that needs an explanation is Quick Clips, which takes videos in pre-set 10, 15 or 30-second chunks for social media.

My two main video cameras are usually my Fujifilm X-T3 and whatever smartphone is in my pocket. Lately, it’s been an iPhone 13 Pro. The Action 2 leaned more toward iPhone level quality, which in 2022 isn’t a bad thing, but its footage isn’t what I’d call cinematic due to its 155-degree field of view.

It looks great when you’re using it mounted to a car or when you’re doing something more active, but I found that in most instances, the resulting footage is pretty warped, forcing me to crop it. That said, the wide-angle worked splendidly when I attached it above the front tire on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicle (EV).

I don’t have many complaints about the DJI Action 2’s colour reproduction either, even if I did find the standard profile a bit vibrant for my taste. There’s a desaturated profile that’s a lot easier to match with other camera footage and I found myself using that the most.

My main complaint regarding the camera from a video perspective is I wish it offered more dynamic range. I often found myself out with it during the day and while it exposed me fine, it made the sky a sometimes weird shade of aqua/teal as it tried to tame the bright blowouts.

The camera’s stabilization is great whether handheld or mounted, and I found it wasn’t very often that I needed to reshoot footage because it was too shaky. I mostly found myself using the basic ‘Rocksteady’ stabilization at high power, but if you drop the camera into 2.7K mode, you can film with a new feature called ‘Horizon Steady’ that locks the horizon to a straight line and keeps it level even if the camera is flipping around.

When it comes to photos, the Action 2 is really fun to use since I felt like a spy carrying around such a small camera. And when snapping pictures outside, it produces images that look sharp and hold up well when you compare them to high-end smartphones. However, the experience falls apart when shooting indoors. With this in mind, the Action 2 is more of a ‘for fun’ camera. It’s cool to throw it on auto and see what it captures, kind of like a point-and-shoot camera.

Under challenging lighting conditions, both video and images suffer a lot unless you don’t mind grain. If you shoot RAW with the Action 2, you also get a nice grain pattern, but it’s still not the most versatile camera because of its super-wide field-of-view.

I will say that as much as I struggled to use the wide-angle camera for anything cinematic, it did excel as a point-of-view camera. So if you wanted to mount it to your chest or helmet, it works well and offers the viewers a great first-person point-of-view.

One of the most challenging parts of reviewing an action camera is testing it in the wide range of action environments someone might use it in. In my case, I tested out the DJI Action 2 while walking, running, biking and driving with the camera.

Driving was the main factor that drew me to the action camera market in the first place. As I’ve started to shoot more car videos for MobileSyrup’s YouTube channel, I wanted to get an action cam to capture unique angles of vehicles in motion. So when DJI reached out and asked if I wanted to review the Action 2, I jumped at the chance.

My first real shoot with it was the PoleStar 2 video, but I got a lot better with it by the time I got around to working on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 hands-on. The camera functioned perfectly in this instance and dealt with a lot of rain both times.

My final project with the DJI Action 2 was theEV road trip video with the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, but as luck would have it, it broke right after my first shot.

I installed my suction cup mount in the dark, so I guess I either didn’t clean the surface of the car enough or attached it on a bad angle. Either way, the next time I saw it, was on the side of the road surrounded by smashed little bits of suction cup arm.

The camera’s lens held up fine, but the rear screen shattered. My theory is that the camera fell off when I accelerated after a stop sign and then someone ran it over. However, I’ve seen other reports of people breaking the back screen easily, so it’s difficult to tell what happened for certain.

Cases are always an option, but because the DJI Action 2 gets so hot when recording in 4K, I worry a case would limit its already poor ability to dissipate heat. It would probably be fine on a moving car, but still, this is something to be aware of.

I was hoping that I’d be able to attach the front screen module to the camera and get more footage off of it or see if the camera would work, but when we did, it just made the camera portion get really really hot.

To be clear, I don’t fault the DJI Action 2 for any of this either. I doubt even a GoPro could withstand being hit by a car. Plus, I saw the Action 2 handle enough drops, water and abuse that I think it’s still sturdy enough for anything I’d need it for.

The Honor 7S is currently on offer at Amazon, and can be picked up for only £80. That"s £20 off the original launch price. Sure, the phone itself is a bit slow and the camera could be better but at that price, it should serve you well as a decent spare phone, or provide something good for the kids.

Nowadays high-end smartphones cost upwards of £500, where some even stretch to the £1,000 mark – now that"s an awful lot of money. So, what if you haven"t got the money to splurge on an expensive phone? Well, there are some great low-cost handsets now.

Honor, the Chinese manufacturer, is among one of the most prolific players in the low-cost market. The company practically comes out with a new device every couple of months, and its latest creation is its cheapest yet: the Honor 7S, costing just £100.

At first glance the Honor 7S looks like a much more expensive phone, thanks to the 5.45in, 18:9 display that takes up most of the front of the case. With a resolution of 720 x 1440, it’s not the sharpest screen in town, but it’s perfectly usable, and there’s a 13-megapixel camera at the rear.

The 7S’ closest rival price-wise is the Vodafone Smart N9 at £109. The internal spec is mostly identical, but you do get a fingerprint reader, which the 7S lacks.

If you’re on a really tight budget, the N9’s predecessor – the Smart N8, as you might have guessed – is also worth considering. Costing just £85, this has most of the same features as the N9, but lacks the 18:9 display. Going even cheaper, there’s the Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) at £55, though this has a lower resolution 16:9 screen and runs the rather outdated Android 6.0.

If you’re prepared to pay a bit more, your options include the £140 Honor 7A, the £145 Nokia 5, and the impressive Motorola Moto G6 Play at £160. All of these have faster processors than the Honor 7S – which makes them all a lot nicer to use, in our view.

In the UK, the Honor 7S is available in two colours, black and blue. The phone looks and feels very well made, helped along by a solid backplate that doesn’t pick up fingerprint marks.

It houses a single rear-facing camera with flash; around the side, there’s a volume rocker and a power button, while the micro-USB charging port is found at the bottom and the 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top. The speaker is embedded into the front of the phone, which is great as sound is projected directly towards you.

One nice feature is the 3-in-1 tray on the left edge, which allows you to simultaneously install two 4G SIM cards plus a microSD card with a capacity of up to 256GB. That’s just as well, since the phone only has 16GB of internal storage.

As we’ve mentioned, there’s no fingerprint reader, which is a shame when the Vodafone Smart N9 manages to squeeze one in at a similar price. It’s not a disaster, but it means you’ll have to manually enter a PIN, password or pattern to unlock the device.

Like most phones in this price range, the Honor 7S doesn’t quite deliver the Full HD experience – if you want that you’ll have to go up to around the £150 mark.

Its 5.45in, 720 x 1,440 display doesn’t look bad, though, with a measured 415cd/m² peak brightness and contrast ratio of 1407:1. Colours are nice and vibrant, and viewing angles are near-perfect. Even colour accuracy and sRGB coverage are acceptable, which is as much as you can really expect from a phone this cheap.

In light of the Honor 7S’ low price and lightweight internals, I wasn’t expecting it to fly through tasks or to smoothly handle multiple apps open at once. Even so, I was surprised by how poor its performance was.

For example, when I wanted to adjust the phone’s volume while watching a YouTube video, the virtual slider didn’t appear on screen until 15 seconds after I’d pressed the rocker. Normally, you’d expect it to appear instantaneously. It’s an awful experience.

This is one of those occasions where benchmark results don’t paint the whole picture. In everyday use, the Honor 7S feels a lot less responsive than its competitors.

GPU performance is weak too. The 7S does at least beat the Alcatel Pixi 4, but it’s simply too laggy to play action games such as PUBG. Casual puzzlers like Candy Crush are more its level – just remember to close all your other programs, or the phone’s limited amount of RAM will bottleneck your experience.

The phone’s battery life, at least, is quite good. It lasted 10hrs 33mins in the Expert Reviews video rundown test, meaning you can enjoy back-to-back movies on a long-haul flight. For comparison, the Vodafone Smart N9 and N8 last only 9hrs 11mins and 8hrs 44mins, respectively.

The Honor 7S has a single 13-megapixel camera at the back, and a 5-megapixel camera around the front. Those sound like decent specs, but I found the image quality disappointing.

For example, in the image below (taken in standard shooting mode), you can see how the rear camera completely smears over the pattern of the brickwork. Trees are a blur of green, and even the buildings in the foreground are lacking in fine detail.

Now the brickwork is distractingly conspicuous, while the trees become harshly dappled and the red building in the foreground comes out looking almost white. The post-processing doesn’t seem to work properly at the edges of the image either – check out the weird ghosting at the right-hand side, which makes it look as if the buildings are moving.

You’d hope that turning on the flash would help, but when I tried it the 7S consistently got the exposure compensation completely wrong. I shot the same scene ten times, from different angles and positions, and every single time I was left with an unusable, hugely overexposed image:

The front-facing camera also suffers from a lack of fine detail and a bit of smearing in the background, but that’s perhaps not such a big deal for selfies.

The Honor 7S is so cheap that it’s tempting to forgive its faults – but they’re simply too big to overlook. The sluggish performance is a constant annoyance, and I wouldn’t be happy carrying such a poor camera around with me.

If you really need to stick near the £100 mark, your best bet is to spend the extra £9 and get the Vodafone Smart N9 instead. But if you can go a little higher, the Moto G6 Play is a much better choice, with far snappier performance, a great camera and a battery that’ll last five hours longer on a charge.

While Motorola is known for making some of the most affordable smartphones around, the Moto G Pure seemed like a bit of a departure when it launched. Sure the affordability is there. In fact, it"s one of the cheapest Motorola smartphones you can buy in the U.S., but it seemed to be lacking a lot of the value that Moto devices are known for. On the other hand, phones like the Moto G Power (2020) managed to balance affordability with respectable performance, a formula that Motorola seemed to get (mostly) right with much of its devices.

That said, Motorola had to cut several corners to reach a price point that could entice first-time smartphone owners or even those who need something cheap to get by with just the basics. The Moto G Pure slides into that space without much fanfare and whether it fits the bill at under $200 is ultimately for you to judge, but hopefully, my experience can help you decide.

As of October 14, the Moto G Pure is available for preorder Motorola.com as well as retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. The device can be purchased unlocked for just $160, and it will work on all the major U.S. carriers.

The Moto G Pure is also available at Verizon, where you can get a free device if you add a new smartphone line. Other carriers such as T-Mobile, AT&T, and others will also offer the device in the coming months. It will also arrive in Canada in the following months as well.

It was admittedly somewhat challenging to find things that I liked about this phone. Even after reviewing the unfortunate TCL 20S and 20 SE, Motorola didn"t make much of a case for this phone outside of its price, which makes it one of the cheapest Motorola smartphone you can buy right now. And it shows.

That said, aside from its accessible price tag, the Moto G Pure manages to have a few things going for it. The near-stock Android experience is always appreciated, especially since it doesn"t bog down the phone with extra flair. It feels a little outdated, but that should change once Android 12 hits the phone, whenever that will be (more on this later).

The Moto G Pure can also last through the day pretty easily. Motorola claims two days of battery life depending on use. For someone such as myself who uses a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra as his main driver, that two-day claim is a bit hard to come by. That said, the phone managed to get me through a full day of taking pictures, playing some games, and chatting it up on social media, with about 6 hours of screen-on time. No doubt, lighter users that this phone is intended for will be able to manage two days of use between charges.

Unfortunately, that trend carries over to performance, with the "gaming-focused" MediaTek Helio G25 struggling to do anything beyond basic tasks. Games were a particular challenge for this phone, which took ages to load new screens or menus in games like Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery or GYEE. Surprisingly, Pokémon Go seemed fair a bit better, but the gaming experience was overall inconsistent and slow. Fortunately, I"m not much of a gamer, so that didn"t bother me too much. Just don"t expect to throw on Genshin Impact and get away with it.The Moto G Pure feels sluggish when performing anything but the most basic tasks.

What did bother me was that even scrolling through social media seemed to give the phone trouble. The experience was jittery, and the phone often lagged to respond to my input. It certainly doesn"t help that the HD+ display is only a 60Hz panel, but at this price point, it"s hard to expect much more, unfortunately. Still, the app experience was far from ideal given the lagging processor, dim display, and middling 32GB internal storage (which you could, fortunately, expand with a memory card, but with the extra cost, you might as well spring for a better phone). YouTube Music would crash a few times while listening in the background, which got really annoying.

The camera situation was not great either. With only one 13MP shooter, the Moto G Pure feels incredibly limited. Sure there"s a 2MP depth sensor, but the phone lacks the versatility of at least an ultrawide sensor that can be found on even some of the best Android phones under 200.

There are some fun features like Spot Color, which highlights only one color when capturing an image. There"s also a Pro mode for more fine-tuning and RAW capture, but don"t expect too much from this camera system, especially given the single focal length of this camera system.

Extra cameras aren"t all you"re missing out on. There"s also no NFC, which is oddly expected for Motorola in 2021. You also only get an IP52 rating, which is suitable for some splashes and a bit of rain. And while the phone is promised an update to Android 12, that"s the only OS upgrade you can expect, aside from two years of security updates.

There aren"t many standouts among sub-$200 phones, but the Galaxy A12 manages to make a name for itself. The MediaTek Helio P35 isn"t anything to run home about, but the Galaxy A12 features a quad-camera setup with a 48MP main camera, 5MP ultrawide, a macro sensor, and a depth sensor. It"s also got at least four years of security updates since its launch, which is much better than the two that Motorola promised. It"s also got a larger 5,000mAh battery and faster 15W charging.

The T-Mobile Revvl V+ 5G (pictured above) is a good contender, as it"s currently the cheapest 5G phone in the U.S. Of course, you have to be on T-Mobile"s network to use it, but it comes with a large 6.82-inch HD+ display, 16MP triple camera setup, a 5,000mAh battery, and 18W charging. Plus, it comes with double the storage, a bit more RAM, and NFC. Of course, it costs a bit more at $200, but for what you"re getting, it"s definitely worth the splurge.

If you"re looking for a basic smartphone either for yourself, a loved one, or a child, this is probably a good place to start. It"s affordable, offers a clean software experience, and will get you by on a single charge. However, camera quality is lacking; the Moto G Pure is not ideal for capturing memories or really much outside of basic tasks, making it not ideal for avid smartphone users.

The Moto G Pure drops the ball for an Android smartphone OEM known for making devices with great value. Sure, it"s ultra-affordable, but other devices around this price point offer better designs, more versatile cameras, and snappier chipsets. In a time when $200 phones can carry 5G, the Moto G Pure had a chance to undercut the competition, but instead, it simply underperforms.

Bottom line: The Moto G Pure arrives with excellent battery life and a very affordable price point, but there are other, better options that offer additional value for just a bit more.$160 at Best Buy(opens in new tab)

The Moto G Stylus finds itself in a bit of a pickle. This mid-range phone debuts at the same time as both the Moto G Power and Moto G Fast. It should come as no surprise for a trio phones that come from the same manufacturer and sport similar price tags, that these handsets are essentially dead ringers for one another.

The Moto G Stylus, Moto G Power and Moto G Fast share matching looks, identical screen sizes and the exact same mobile processors. But the Moto G Stylus trades in the Moto G Power"s marquee feature — epic battery life — for a stylus. Think of this phone as kind of a discount version of Samsung"s more extravagantly priced Galaxy Note 20, which just debuted for three times the price of the Moto G Stylus.

Having completed my Moto G Stylus review, I"m not sure the stylus-for-big-battery trade works out in this phone"s favor. While the Moto G Stylus has some other features to recommend it, including a 48MP main camera and more built-in storage, I look at Moto"s two new budget phones side-by-side and can"t help but feel the Moto G Power has more to offer.

The Moto G Stylus costs $299, a $50 premium over the Moto G Power, but less than the $399 iPhone SE, as well as the debut prices for Google"s Pixel 3a and the Nokia 7.2.

You can buy the phone directly from Motorola. It"s also available from Best Buy(opens in new tab), B&H Photo(opens in new tab) and Amazon(opens in new tab). Carriers offering the Moto G Stylus include Verizon(opens in new tab), Republic Wireless(opens in new tab), Google Fi(opens in new tab) and Metro by T-Mobile(opens in new tab). It"s not hard to find the Moto G Stylus at all.

There"s one chief difference in design between the two phones, and it"s what gives the Moto G Stylus its name. The right corner of the phone houses a 3.8-inch stylus that you can pull out and use to jot down notes and spot-edit photos. The stylus remains in place securely until you dig it out via a little notch in the corner of the phone, at which point it slides out fairly easily.

You"ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom of the Moto G Stylus. Motorola says the phone has a "water repellant design," meaning that splashes are OK, but dunks are most certainly not. There’s no IP rating here.

Still, the stylus on Motorola"s new phone will come in handy for people who really want to scrawl things down at a moment"s notice without even pausing to unlock their phone. Pull the stylus out of a locked, sleeping Moto G Stylus, and the phone immediately springs to life, launching a notes screen where you can jot, scribble and draw to your heart"s content, using three different drawing tools and seven different colors. When you"re done, you can save your scribbles to the included Moto Notes app. Restoring the stylus to its slot on the phone returns you to the Moto G Stylus lock screen.

The stylus can also come in handy when you"re editing photos. Like other recent Motorola phones, the Moto G Stylus" camera supports a Cinemagraph feature in which you can designate some areas of your still image to feature movement. Using the stylus I was able to mark off a much more precise area than I could using my finger to edit a Cinemagraph ima