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 S Pen, which can be used as a remote shutter for taking pictures.
Also: Pinpoint your notes or drawings better with the best stylus tablets
If you’re in the market for a flagship new phone or want to treat a loved one this holiday, these are the best stylus phones to consider.
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 new Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Released in early February, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is arguably the best stylus-supported phone on the market, with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a massive 6.8-inch canvas, 5,000mAh of battery, and the unrivaled, built-in S Pen. The flagship is a follow-up to last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, which earned spots in our best smartphone categories. And with all-around improvements to the camera and hardware, a similar tale may play out in 2022.
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 an input near instantly.
You should note that the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a big phone, making it an excellent pairing for a stylus, at the cost of comfort and one-handed use.
Though not the latest and greatest from Samsung, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is unofficially the last of its line, which gives it significance. Still, it’s packed to the brim with processing power and future-proof features that make it a viable stylus phone option in 2022, especially for business users. Here’s why.
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is everything that the name says, an ultra smartphone with a feature-rich S Pen for note-taking and productivity. It sports a large 6.9-inch display, a 4,500mAh battery, triple cameras at the back, with 12GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chip to power it all. That, with 5G-support, keeps the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra relevant two years after launch.
Like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Note is also a massive phone, making it the perfect mobile canvas for the built-in S Pen. Toss in useful business features like PDF annotation and signing, wireless DeX connection, and an updated Samsung Notes app, and you get a reliable handheld for business and non-business users alike.
Motorola’s Moto G Stylus proves that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get the benefits of a stylus. In fact, at $299, the latest iteration of the Moto G device is one of the best budget 5G phones you can get.
So what do you get for $180, and more importantly, what do you miss out on? To start, the Moto G Stylus comes with a 6.8-inch, 1080p display that can ramp up to 90Hz refresh rates. That’s no QHD, 120Hz panel like Samsung’s, but it covers a lot of ground for most consumers. Anything less would be a different story. The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio G88 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a massive 5,000mAh battery, matching that of today’s flagships. Motorola promises 2-day battery life with those numbers.
As for the built-in stylus, it’s capable of all the essentials: Jotting down notes, drawing, editing images, and more. Though not the most intricate stylus phone, this Moto G pick is worth your consideration at its $299 price tag.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a unique device thanks to its folding form factor, but Samsung made a key improvement to the latest flagship that couldn’t set it further apart: S Pen support. Sold separately, Galaxy Z Fold 3 owners can take advantage of previously-exclusive Note features with an optional S Pen.
While the S Pen isn’t built-in like the aforementioned picks, the expansive 7.6-inch main display and S Pen pairing may be enough to entice your penmanship endeavors. Like the Galaxy Note and S22 Ultra, having the S Pen gives you the power to use Air Commands, gesture controls, and up to 4,096 pressure levels for precise inputs. Samsung also sells a Galaxy Z Fold 3 case that can store the S Pen.
Still, the optional stylus shouldn’t be the only reason you buy the Galaxy Z Fold 3 – it’s a dual-screen phone that can fold, after all. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 12GB of RAM, and a new IP-rated design, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best foldable on the market to date.
Microsoft made waves when it first announced a return to smartphones, in the form of a dual-screen foldable under the Surface line. The Surface Duo was promised to be a productivity champion, with all the Microsoft quirks to convince potential buyers. Instead, we got a device that, as good as it looked, didn’t have the software chaps to put it beside the best of the rest.
Fast forward to 2021, and Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 offers a much more robust package, including a refined Microsoft Pen experience. While the stylus is sold separately, once equipped, the sleek accessory provides enhanced accuracy and greater control of your handwritten needs. It can even be propped onto the front side of the Surface Duo 2 by magnets, saving you the cost of a companion case.
Looking at the phone itself, the Surface Duo 2 has a spec sheet that fares well against other flagships of 2021, which is already better than the original. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,449mAh battery. There’s now a camera module at the back of the device and a new hinge that Microsoft calls “Glance Bar”. When the dual screens are folded together, the Glance Bar acts as an always-on display for the time, notifications, and other alarms.
If you’re on the low- to mid-range budget spectrum, then the $199 Motorola Moto G Stylus (2022) is a great pickup. It’s also worth checking with your carrier for any deals or promotions. More often than not, carriers will offer you flagship phones for free, as long as you trade in an older device and stick with the service for two or three years.
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.
