Frankly, you don’t have to be a professional to see the use of a stylus phone. Many devices nowadays offer extensive features that utilize the stylus for more than just scribbling, like Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 Ultra and its built-in S Pen, which can be used as a remote shutter for taking pictures. Also: Top 5 picks for stylus tablets So, if you’re in the market for a stylus-supported smartphone, these are the best ones to consider. Samsung’s latest Galaxy S23 Ultra is undeniably the best stylus phone that one can buy. The company’s signature S Pen is as intuitive as ever with up to 4,096 pressure levels, filled with productivity features like off-screen memos and Smart select, and is conveniently stationed at the bottom of the handset. Samsung’s Notes app, which is the core of the stylus writing experience, has also improved since the early Galaxy Note days. Now, you can collaborate with other users on the same document at the same time, and it’s never been easier to just drag and drop files and images into the notetaking app. Read the review: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Believe it or not, we’ve only scratched the surface of the S23 Ultra’s stylus experience. There are subtle improvements to this year’s Ultra model that make it just a good phone overall, like the large and less-curvy 6.8-inch display, the massive 5,000mAh battery that keeps the lights (and digital ink) on, and a bump in base storage to 256GB, allowing you to store even more memos and files than before. The Samsung Galaxy Note line has long been the perennial option for stylus fanatics, and while the company seems to have discontinued the Note moniker, its spirit lives on through the Galaxy S22 Ultra. While the Galaxy S22 Ultra is no longer Samsung’s poster child, it’s still a competent stylus phone that you can probably buy for less than its successor, with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a massive 6.8-inch canvas, 5,000mAh battery, and the unrivaled, built-in S Pen. Read the review: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Most importantly, the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s S Pen carries a breadth of nifty features, aimed to improve your productivity and content creation. The stylus is housed and charged within the device and carries a latency of just 2.8 milliseconds. That means every tap and stroke across the display produces a near-instant input. While the S Pen isn’t built into Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 like the aforementioned picks, the expansive 7.6-inch main display and stylus pairing may be enough to entice your penmanship endeavors. Like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, having the S Pen gives you the power to use Air Commands and gesture controls, with up to 4,096 pressure levels for precise inputs. Read the review: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 Still, the optional stylus shouldn’t be the only reason you buy the Galaxy Z Fold 4. At the base level, the Z Fold is a dual-screen handset that can literally transform into a tablet. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, 12GB of RAM, and an IP-rated design for water resistance, this may just be your best bet for a stylus-supported tablet experience without buying an actual tablet. Motorola’s Moto G Stylus proves that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get the benefits of a stylus. In fact, with a retail price of $499, the G Stylus undercuts every above phone on this list while still offering the essentials like a 6.8-inch display that ramps up to 120Hz refresh rate, 256GB of base storage, a beefy 5,000mAh battery, and even a 3.5mm headphone jack. The stylus experience isn’t all that half-baked either. For example, removing the stylus from the phone triggers Motorola’s notetaking app. There’s also a quick toggle that appears when the stylus is in use, giving you access to shortcuts like capturing screenshots, launching a selected app, and even creating a GIF. Read the review: Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G From our testing, the Motorola G Stylus 5G (2022) proves its value by packaging a stellar display, an integrated stylus, a reliable Snapdragon 695 processor, and more for less than $500. Like Motorola, TCL has found most of its retail success in the low to mid-end markets. The strategy is sound; users who don’t want to pay up for Samsung, Apple, or even Google’s premium offerings can spend less on a TCL phone, even if flagship features like wireless charging, higher RAM, and better cameras are lost along the way. Still, there’s a lot of bang for your buck with the TCL Stylus 5G which, at the time of writing, is available exclusively on T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile for $269. For the price, you’re getting a large 6.8-inch display, 128GB of base storage that’s expandable via MicroSD, a quad-camera setup, and of course, the built-in stylus. Read the review: TCL Stylus 5G One of the tradeoffs to note is the lack of palm rejection when writing with the stylus. Fortunately, when ZDNET tested the device, the absence of the stylus feature didn’t significantly affect the usability of the writing experience. Lastly, while the end goal is to get the best stylus experience, we recommend phones that play just as well on their own. Every selection on this list carries specs, processors, and features that can go head-to-head with non-stylus counterparts.
