Update (1/29/20 @ 3:35 ET): Motorola's unknown phone with a stylus now has a name: the Moto G Stylus.

Once a driving force in the Android smartphone space, Motorola’s market share has steadily declined over the past couple of years in both the mid-range and premium smartphone segments. The Lenovo-owned company so far has failed to thwart the rise of Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi on a global scale. One thing that hasn’t changed over all these years, though, is Motorola’s creative flair, with the company always ready to explore unique designs and experiment with existing hardware to create new use cases. Last year, Motorola was one of the first OEMs to bring the 21:9 aspect ratio to the mid-range segment with its Moto One Vision smartphone. While on the Moto One Action and Moto G8 Plus we saw the company fitting the Go Pro-style action camera, allowing users to shoot landscape videos while comfortably holding the device vertically in one hand. Now as per a new leak, Motorola will continue to experiment with new concepts - at least for them - in 2020 as well.

Well-known leaker Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) has shared a render of a new Motorola phone which shows that an upcoming device from the brand may come equipped with a stylus. Not much is known about his mysterious device yet including its name, specifications, or release date, but looking at the render, we can form some general idea as to what to expect from this upcoming phone. As you can see in the render below, the device in question will allegedly feature a hole-punch display with very narrow side bezels and a small bottom chin.

Above the display, we can see the earpiece while the power and volume rocker buttons are on the left side. Looking at the stylus itself, the curved head indicates that this could slot into the phone. Unfortunately, we can't see all the sides so we can't tell if there's an insertion point for the stylus. From the overall design profile, though, it’s safe to assume this new Moto device will most likely be a mid-range smartphone.

Consumers looking for a smartphone with stylus functionality have only two choices at the moment: the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup and LG's Stylo series. But if this leak is to be believed, the new Moto phone may emerge as a third viable option.

A near-stock Android phone with a stylus indeed sounds like an exciting proposition, but with the key details of the phone unknown at this stage, it would be too early to pass any judgment. With MWC 2020 kicking off next month, hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to learn more about this new device.

Source: @evleaks


Update: Moto G Stylus

The unnamed Motorola phone with a stylus looks to finally have a name, and it's not super creative. According to Evan Blass, this phone will be called the "Moto G Stylus." Our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, did some further investigating. After finding the model number is XT2043-4, he was able to look it up on the FCC and identify the codename as "sofia+." This means the Moto G Stylus is a variant of the Moto G8 Power, which is codenamed "sofiar."

Source: @evleaks