Motorola’s long been a kind of quiet workhorse on the mobile scene. Aside from the occasional razzle-dazzle of a Moto Z or Razr, the Lenovo subsidiary mostly trades in budget handsets. The G line is probably the best example of the bunch. The devices aren’t flashy and the specs are often a year or two old, but you can’t really argue with the sub-$300 price point.

To its credit, however, the brand does a solid job introducing compelling features into the mix, even while keeping the cost down. This morning, at an event in Chicago, Motorola introduced two new entries into the line: the Moto G Power and Moto G Stylus, which will run $300 and $250, respectively.

The devices are similar in a number of ways, including the addition of a macro lens, borrowed from last year’s Motorola One Macro. It’s a curious addition — one that certainly sets the device apart from a million other multi-camera systems. How handy a macro lens will be on a phone is another question entirely, of course — though the company is convinced that users will appreciate the option.

Certainly it will help mix up the photos they do shoot, moving from your standard shots of people and landscapes to flowers and food, I suppose.

Both products also sport beefy batteries — a longtime and welcome staple of Motorola’s devices. There’s a beefy 4,000 mAh battery on the Stylus and even more massive 5,000 mAh on the Power. Those are listed at 19 and 27 hours, respectively. Less impressive is the Snapdragon 665 processor found on each. It’s a cost-cutting measure, honestly.

There are, after all, trade-offs to keeping budget phones budget — and Qualcomm’s decision to go all in on 5G for the 765 is no doubt going to sting some budget device makers. On the positive side of things, the headphone jack is still clinging on for dear life.

The biggest distinction factor between the two is, of course, in the name. Nearly a decade after Samsung proved that the world (or parts of it, at least) still wanted a stylus, the technology never really went mainstream. Sure, plenty of companies have tried it, but none found anywhere near the success of the S-Pen.

Motorola takes a cautious leap here with the inclusion of a stylus and the Moto Note app (which it tells me has cleared all of the legal hurdles in spite of sounding quite similar to an existing product). Perhaps there’s room for the tech at a far lower price point.

Another feature worth noting (as it were) was also inherited by the Motorola One line. The clever dedicated action camera allows users to shoot wide screen while holding the phone portrait mode. That way you can move the phone around with a single hand while shooting action scenes.

Both devices start shipping this spring.

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Say what you will about the success or general usefulness of the Moto Mod line — Motorola keeps plugging away. The company currently offers 17 Mods with an 18th on the way, bringing one of the most interesting use cases yet.

Along with the new Moto Z3 handset, Motorola unveiled a Mod that will bring 5G connectivity to the entire line via Verizon’s nascent network. Due out early next year for an undisclosed sum, the new Mod presents an interesting workaround to the pains of introducing a next-generation network to a handset.

With this backdoor approach, the company is able put the Z3 up for sale on August 16th, and work another half-year or so to get its ducks in a row on the 5G front. Perhaps Verizon’s 5G coverage map will be a bit more dense by then, though at present, the company has only announced three cities — Houston, Los Angeles and, oddly, Sacramento. A fourth unnamed city is also on tap to get coverage by the end of the year.

At the very least, this lets Motorola tout the claim of being one of — if not the — first phones to offer the technology to U.S. customers. The company also claims that putting this tech directly into the phone would have been much more resource intensive than just sticking it and an extended battery inside the mod.

I’m not sure how much I buy that line of reasoning, but it certainly helps keep the cost of the handset down — the new Z3 will be available for $480 unlocked. The company has long focused on providing budget options for users, and that’s certainly the case here, helped along by some good — but last-generation — silicon like the Snapdragon 835. 

Motorola also likely didn’t feel confident that most users would be willing to take the plunge on a 5G phone at this early stage. As for the phone itself, it looks pretty similar to the recently introduced Moto Z3 Play in most respects. There’s a six-inch display, a 3,000mAh battery and dual-cameras with depth sensing and Google lens built in. No word yet on whether Verizon will eventually bundle the phone with that new mod.

Disclosure: Verizon owns Oath, Oath owns TechCrunch.

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