Billion Capture+ is the debut smartphone launched by flipkart. It looks ambitious to take on current players in the lower mid-range segment. Priced at Rs 10,999 for the 3GB + 32GB version and Rs 12,999 for the 4GB and 64GB variant, the handset will take on the likes of the Moto G5, Redmi Note 4 and Amazon's 10.or G, among others.
The design of this phone is almost the combination of Xiaomi's Redmi 4 and Mi A1. Flipkart's phone to a large extent borrows design cues from both the smartphones to some extent, which have become a sort of a gold standard in the budget segment. The Capture+ has an aluminium build, while the back has plastic on the top and bottom and a metal panel in the middle that feels smooth to the touch. Flipkart doesn't mention the plastic back, but once you hold the phone you'll find that the finish feels more plastic than premium. This makes it feel rather cheap, and the company could have provided a better metal finish like Xiaomi has with the Redmi Note 4. With that said, the Capture+ doesn't look unattractive, but it doesn't look inspiring either.
The Billion Capture+ does have sturdy build to it and the frame is pretty solid, but it is also a bit on the thicker side at 8.5mm. It's mostly comfortable to hold and use with one hand, but it can feel a little heavy at 176 grams. The edges around the back are slightly curved and don't seamlessly join the frame, but it does give a good grip when holding it. If you look around the frame, you'll find the volume controls and power button on the right, a dual hybrid SIM tray on the left, a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top and a USB Type-C port on the bottom with speaker grilles on either sides.
Display
The Capture+ features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920) display with bezels around it. I mention bezels because we're slowly moving towards edge-to-edge displays. While the trend started for high-end smartphones, we've seen 18:9 displays trickle down to budget phones like Micromax's Infinity and LG Q6 already. Next year, you can expect more phones to sport full-screen displays. The Capture+ has a traditional 16:9 screen, which is alright because there still a market for it and there will be for at least a few more years. But bezels aside, displays in general have improved in recent times, and Flipkart's phone leaves you wanting a little more.
Despite a full-HD display, the colours on screen are pretty dull and washed out. Moreover, the brightness levels aren't great and even at its maximum brightness, you will find it difficult to read the screen outdoors. A dull display may help increase battery life, but it really doesn't provide the best viewing experience, especially when watching videos. Moreover, you're going to want to keep the brightness level on maximum when watching videos or playing games to enjoy the experience, which will inevitably cause more battery drain. Overall, this isn't the brightest of sharpest display out there, which is a shame as its competitors like the Moto G5 and Redmi Note 4 do much better at producing crisp 1080p displays.
Performance and software
The Billion Capture+ is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU and coupled with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. The phone is decent at multitasking and is quite fast at opening and closing apps without any lag or stutters.
The phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat and is powered by Smartron's AI smarts. Despite the company's promise of stock Android, the Billion Capture+ had a few too many pre-loaded apps, which will also disappoint many others. You get apps like Flipkart (obviously), Myntra, Ola, PhonePe, Microsoft's Office suite and tronX app to name a few. The latter is a Smartron-powered service that includes purchasable products, cloud storage and security features. We're seeing more and more budget smartphones including Amazon's 10.or range coming with stock Android that makes the Capture+ look heavy in comparison.
The fingerprint sensor on the rear isn't the fastest out there. It takes about 0.8 seconds to unlock which is quite slow and one expects a far snappier sensor in 2017 and at this price point. But the sensor is mostly accurate so there is some takeaway in that. The dual speakers on the bottom could have been more powerful.
Camera
One of the biggest highlights of the Billion Capture+ is its dual rear camera system that comprises of a pair of 13-megapixel sensors, one RGB and one Monochrome and with f2.0 aperture. Dual rear cameras have become somewhat of a standard this year with almost every other smartphone from budget to high-end now sporting a dual camera system. Flipkart says the phone offers impressive low-light shots, more light in each frame and DSLR-like bokeh effects, among other things. It also comes with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
To be honest, the dual cameras were largely disappointing. Outdoor shots under bright sunlight lets in too much light and the images look overexposed. The reds and greens were too bright and lacked accuracy. The cameras also have a hard time focusing on the subject and you'll likely capture a few hazy shots before one really clear image. The images also lack detailing so I wouldn't suggest zooming in on them or seeing them on a display bigger than 5.5-inch. SInce the sensors let in a lot of light, it works better in low-light conditions.
The Portrait Mode was pretty underwhelming as well. The subject would look artificially laid on a blurred background, which makes it look photoshopped rather than seem like a natural depth of field image. This is probably because the bokehs generated rely on software, which isn't great at differentiating the subject from the background. You'll find that the subject will have heavy blurring around the edges or look cut out and artificially pasted on the background. There is a Supernight mode that you can use to capture low-light shots as it smoothes out the photos via software and removes a lot of noise. I found the feature to be pretty good and prefered using the mode almost always for low-light photography.
Front camera disappoints as well, but perhaps not as much as the primary cameras. The 8-megapixel sensor looks good on paper, but doesn't really work great in real life. Selfies captured were oversaturated and lacked sharpness. The colours looked on the warmer side of things and will look quite hazy when viewed on a larger display.
Battery
The other big highlight apart from the dual rear cameras is the battery. The Capture+ packs a large non-removable 3500mAh Li-Polymer battery that promises up to 30 hours of calls over 3G and 12 hours of video streaming. Now, my experience with this has been quite middling. On an average, streaming movies or TV shows on Netflix or videos on YouTube for an hour drops the battery level down by about 10 per cent. On an average, you should get about 9-10 hours of battery life, which is decent. I found myself needing to the charge the phone only once before going to bed.
The headset supports Quick Charge over USB Type-C and it takes about an hour and a half to charge from zero to 100 per cent, which is pretty fast considering its large battery capacity. The only real problem I have is with the standby time. Considering the battery you're getting, the standby time isn't exceptional here and you'll probably get about 4 days idle time on 4G before the phoned dies on you.
Flipkart's entry in the smartphone game comes at a time when the market is quite crowded and some players like Motorola and Xiaomi are seated firmly in the budget to mid-range segment. Xiaomi, especially, has been dominating the budget to mid-range market in recent times and has invested a lot in advertising both online and offline as well. For Flipkart, the Billion Capture+ will largely ride on the e-commerce platform's name. The company will need to promote the phone a lot more especially on its website if it wants to grab people's attention.
As far as competition is concerned, the Billion Capture+ will face off against the likes of the Moto G5, Redmi Note 4 and Amazon's 10.or G to name a few. Flipkart has launched a decent first smartphone and provides a few compelling features such as good battery life, fast charging, a decent build and performance that could attract buyers. But the phone feels wanting in pretty much every other area such as design, camera and software, which makes it fall short in front of its competition, especially since most others offer near stock Android experience and have upped their camera game. Without proper marketing, the Capture+ risks getting shunned to the background.
Flipkart will probably use the Capture+ to test the waters a little and see how consumers are reacting towards it. It may come out with a another phone that will look to fix some of the shortcomings of the Capture+ based on user feedback and I would suggest waiting for that one to arrive. The Billion Capture+ just isn't compelling enough to buy right now considering what other brands have to offer today.
