There's no escaping the fact that smartphone market in India is getting oversaturated - especially the budget segment. Smartphones have the same look and feel; boast of similar specifications yet are trying their best to catch the eyes of Indian users. In such a crowded market, it's no surprise to see new entrants trying to gain a foothold. The latest player to make a foray is none other than home-grown e-commerce giant Flipkart.
Now Flipkart is a brand to reckon with, so when it joined hands with phone manufacturer Smartron, there was a sense of anticipation. However, keeping in mind Flipkart's earlier foray in consumer electronics segment - it launched a tablet called Digiflip Pro XT911 in 2014 - there was a sense of being once bitten, twice shy.
The Billion Capture+ comes in two variants based on RAM and storage capacities -- 3GB RAM+32GB ROM and 4GB RAM+64GB ROM configurations. The 3GB RAM version costs Rs 10,999, while the 4GB RAM variant is priced at Rs 12,999. We used the latter for a few days and here is our review:
Design and display
Now Flipkart is a brand to reckon with, so when it joined hands with phone manufacturer Smartron, there was a sense of anticipation. However, keeping in mind Flipkart's earlier foray in consumer electronics segment - it launched a tablet called Digiflip Pro XT911 in 2014 - there was a sense of being once bitten, twice shy.
The Billion Capture+ comes in two variants based on RAM and storage capacities -- 3GB RAM+32GB ROM and 4GB RAM+64GB ROM configurations. The 3GB RAM version costs Rs 10,999, while the 4GB RAM variant is priced at Rs 12,999. We used the latter for a few days and here is our review:
Design and display
Simply put, the looks of the smartphone won't really catch your fancy - at least it didn't work for us. The first thing, however, that grabs your attention is how thick the device is with its 8.5mm depth. Once you get over that, you will find the metallic back and plastic frame with silver ribbon running around all four corners. The right edge houses the volume controller and the power button while the left edge houses the hybrid dual sim card slot. The top houses the 3.5mm jack and the bottom houses the USB Type-C and the mono speaker.
At the back, there is a dual rear camera along with dual LED flash at the top left corner and a finger print sensor in the centre. At the bottom, there is the Billion Capture+ branding.
The front is mainly dominated by the 5.5-inch full HD display with 1080x1920 pixel resolution (401ppi) with a 2.5D Dragontail Glass protection on the top. At a time when smartphone makers are in a race to offer unique features - even in display - it was a surprise to see Flipkart not doing so. Having said that, during our time with the handset, we observed that the display is quite rich and offers good visibility under the sun -- as is the colour production. It offers decent viewing angles. There are no customization options for display that are commonly found in smartphones.
The front also houses one home button key, two on-screen keys -- for multi-tasking and going one page back -- along with the selfie camera, earpiece and the usual array of sensors on the top edge.
Overall, we can say that Flipkart Billion Capture+ smartphone feels a bit big and clunky. Even though sturdily built, its design is definitely not its stronger suit. The display, however, redeems it to a certain extent.
Performance and camera
The Flipkart Billion Capture+ is powered by a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC, paired with 3GB/4GB of RAM. It also has 32GB/64GB of internal storage and supports microSD cards of 128GB.
The handset runs Android 7.1.2 Nougat with Smartron's software ecosystem called tronX on top. Due to lack of customizations, the interface is pretty close to stock Android. It is clean and user-friendly. There is an app drawer which gives the home screen a clutter free look. The smartphone comes pre-loaded with certain apps such Get Kotak 811, SonyLIV, Skype and more. On the down side, all these apps cannot be uninstalled and only be disabled. The saving grace to this is that the company is offering unlimited Cloud storage.
We ran Antutu and GeekBench 4 tests on our device. While the phone scored 63582 in Antutu Benchmarks, the single-core and multi-core scores on GeekBench 4 were 870 and 4279 respectively.
During our testing, the smartphone handled all the daily activities without any hiccups. From multi-app switching to gaming, the performance was smooth and lag free. We didn't face any heating issues either.
Even the call quality and network reception were satisfactory. Calls were handled smoothly where network coverage was a bit of an issue. The audio quality from the speaker -- which is placed at the bottom -- is good but holding the smartphone in landscape orientation somewhat reduces the output.
The Flipkart Billion Capture+ is backed by a 3500mAh battery that lasted us for slightly more than a day of average use that included playing games and browsing social media apps, with Wi-Fi turned on. The smartphone comes with a QuickCharge adapter that the company claims helps deliver up to 7 hours of battery life in just 15 minutes. In our testing, this was not quite as true. In 15 minutes, we were able to charge the handset enough to deliver up to 4-5 hours of standard usage.
Moving on to the cameras, the handset has a dual rear camera setup 13MP rear cameras and an 8MP front-facing shooter. One of the dual rear camera modules is an RGB one, while the other is monochrome.
The 'Pro' mode in the camera app allows users to configure multiple options for controlling the shutter speed and ISO range. The smartphone also offers other camera modes such as panorama and supernight.
In our testing, the images captured by the 13MP rear dual cameras turned out to be disappointing. These aren't images which one would like to share on Facebook or Instagram as the camera couldn't focus properly and the images were a bit grainy specially in the indoor setup. The bokeh effect of the dual rear cameras were just as disappointing. The smartphone lets you adjust the focus and depth of the image before clicking an image and that didn't deliver good results. Head outdoors and the camera delivers far better performance. Images captured in sunlight fared better as they had better colours. The 8MP front camera is also functional at best. If camera is a dominant factor in buying a phone, then this isn't the smartphone for you.
Verdict
Launching a budget smartphone was a bold move for Flipkart. On paper, the Billion Capture+ promises to be everything you may be looking for in a smartphone. In all fairness, it has its share of strengths - mainly battery, pure Android experience and unlimited storage. That being said, its camera and design will leave you wanting for more, especially since the Chinese smartphone makers are offering sleeker designs and better camera experience. In such a competitive market, you need an offering that is better or at least at par with the rivals. Seeing the competition, it is hard for us to recommend the Flipkart Billion Capture+ smartphone.
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