This phone is better compared to some I've had in the past, and I don't curse at it nearly as much as the iPhone I had, but I honestly wish I could have my old Motorola back. I went from a Motorola Moto G Stylus 2020 (not 5G) to this. I was happy with my old phone, but I wished it was just a tad faster. I would still have it if I hadn't accidentally smashed it without a case on it. I researched for hours during Prime Days deciding between this phone and something cheaper to see if it was worth it. I even considered getting the exact same 2020 model I had since I liked it. I finally decided that if I was going to spend money on a new phone, I might as well upgrade and get the latest version of the Android operating system.I firmly believe that if a change is made from an older model/website/whatever, it should be an improvement. While I will say this model is without a doubt noticeably faster than the one I had, this phone changes many things that are simply that, changes, and they are not an improvement over the 2020 model I had. Below are some of the differences I've found over the months that are not as good as the old phone I had.- When pulling the stylus out when the screen is on (device is unlocked), there is no longer an option in the shortcuts to open previously saved notes. Opening a new note and several useless options are available like take a screen shot or create a GIF, but no longer an icon for saved notes. It's already faster to open a new note when the screen is off (device is locked), so I don't need an icon to pop up giving me that same option when the screen is on.- There is no longer an option to save the stylus writing size. Whenever I start using the stylus, the default drawing thickness is too thick for my liking. It takes up too much room for a phone screen. I change it to a smaller size, but it doesn't save this setting, unlike the 2020 model. Even when I save a note and go back to it later, the default thickness is again used rather than the smaller size I was using before. They just did a big update to the stylus functionality, but Motorola still didn't fix this.- There is no longer a button to save notes. It automatically saves any changes made whether you want to save them or not. You have to erase them if you want to go back to what you had saved. It even automatically saves blank notes if you accidentally open a new note. Some people might like the auto save, but I want the option to save or discard when I change my mind or make a mistake.- Every time I restart the phone, there is a notification to explore or eject the SD card that I have to swipe away. It's considered a system notification and they don't allow me to disable it permanently. This useless notification did not happen on the 2020 model, but it was a problem with the Motorola slider phone I had many years ago. I guess they decided to bring the annoyance back.- When I pull down the top menu and then pull down again to expand it, I have to reverse that sequence and swipe up twice to close the top menu. I only had to swipe up once to get back to my home screen on the 2020 model even when I was in the expanded top menu.- Ads on a particular app I've been using for years are so, so much more obnoxious now! And so much more obnoxious than when I use that same app on my tablet currently. Ads are longer, they open up the Play store or open the browser even if I tap the X a dozen times and I end up having to use my stylus to press the X to finally close it. And then it still doesn't always close the ad. I have to wait 5 more seconds for another X to come up to finally close the ad. I don't know how or why changing phone models would do this, but it started happening immediately upon using the new phone. It's not an app update because my app was up-to-date. It wouldn't surprise me if Motorola is receiving some kind of kickback to do this on their cheaper phones. It may seems silly, but it makes me not want to buy another Motorola in the future because this is a quality of life issue.- The most recent update has made swiping an app closed more difficult, which I have to do quite often now that ads are opening up the Play store or the browser. I have to remember to swipe up from the middle of the app rather than the bottom. If I try swiping up from the bottom now, it just moves the screen left or right. I get frustrated sometimes and find it easier to clear all the apps. I hope they will fix this bug since it just started.- I'm no longer able to silence an app separate from other media volume. Once I turn media volume back up, the sound on the app I just silenced comes back on. I absolutely loved this feature on my 2020 phone because it silenced ads for the app and I could still listen to music. For a little while it seemed to be working and every time I opened a particular app, a notice popped up letting me know it was silencing the app. That pop up was annoying enough, but now it's no longer silencing that app I wanted silenced all the time.- It comes with TikTok pre-installed. Motorola opened up my private information and my contacts to a Chinese company that must hand over data if the Chinese government requests it. Again, makes me not want to ever own another Motorola. I feel betrayed by them.- Transferring data from an old phone to a new one took hours longer with this phone than any other time. Even longer than when I switched from an iPhone back to an Android and iPhone never made anything I did easy compared to Android. Additionally, I ended up having an issue transferring texts over from my texting app and then I gave up the next day and did a factory reset. Transferring the data went better the second time (more saved data transferred) and I went with a different texting app as well so I didn't have the issue from the previous day. That issue with the texts had nothing to do with the phone, but why was I able to move more saved data the second time? And I had to go out of my way to transfer saved stylus notes using my PC. They transferred automatically when I went from LG to Motorola, but not when I went from Motorola to Motorola.- Finally, the phone is too tall my my liking. I struggle with reaching my thumb to the top of the screen sometimes and the added screen size doesn't hold any more icons since the OS just makes more space around the icons. The display in my car will hit the top of the phone when it closes into the dash if I forget to grab the phone out of the holder before turning the car off. It sticks out of my back pocket in men's jeans. That means it's too big. My LG Stylo 6 two phones ago was about this size and I was happy with the smaller, sleeker comfort of my 2020 Motorola. The added length does nothing for usability. I guess it's my fault for not considering this before purchasing.The ability to customize the look with the new OS is not worth it. I thought I would be able to change the color of individual apps so I wouldn't accidentally tap on the wrong google app because they all use the same color scheme. If there is a way to do this, I can't figure out how. I did change the color theme for the phone and didn't realize it was going to also change my background image to match whatever their theme was. I lost a cherished old photo of my dog that had been the background image. I was able to replace it with another, but it's not quite as good. I also thought security with the new OS was supposed to be improved. It is nice that I can choose approximate location when apps needlessly want my location, but they keep asking me if I want to switch to exact location when I open those apps. No, I do not. I also get periodic messages from the OS to make sure I really want to keep certain permissions I've already granted. Yes, I still want my recorder to have access to my microphone. Not sure how it will record things without it.This phone is faster than my previous Motorola for sure, but I could deal with apps opening a little bit slower over all this. Maybe the battery lasts longer, I really don't notice as it was pretty good before. The cameras seem about the same too, which is not all that good. I tried to get a good photo of the the moon that looked like a hazy red due to Canada wildfires and it looked like a tiny spec in night mode and a grainy mass in zoom. My sister-in-law texted me a great photo using her Google Pixel. I guess I do like the fingerprint button being on the side rather than the back, but that alone doesn't make "upgrading" worth it. And I rarely make use the the 5G. When I'm at home, I'm on wifi. When I'm around town, for the most part I'm connected to wifi at whatever business I'm at. When I'm away from home visiting family, if I'm not on their wifi, my phone provider doesn't currently have any 5G towers in that area and probably won't until after I upgrade to something better than Motorola in the future.Had I known Motorola was going to make so many things worse on this supposed upgraded model, I would have paid to have my screen repaired on my 2020 model. It's just not something you expect to happen with a newer model. And the reviews I read at the time didn't have a thorough comparison to what I had. I will keep this model because I refuse to spend hundreds more dollars on something else, but Motorola probably won't get any more of my business unless I find out they fixed these changes on cheaper models and value their customers again.