Let me start by giving a brief introduction of “Billion” brand for our readers who might not be aware of it. Billion is an Indian brand started by Flipkart with a mission to make “#MadeForIndia” products. The products made by Billion are made in India and are made for India (a billion people), hence the name Billion. These products are sold exclusively on Flipkart and there is a variety of products sold under brand Billion. When we are writing this post, Billion already sells products including backpacks, Mixer Grinders, Cookware, Dry Iron and T-Shirts to name a few.
Now that we have some perspective on the brand and its mission, let us start with our review. Billion is debuting in smartphone space with their first Smartphone Capture+ and we have got this phone early for review. We are posting this review after experiencing the phone for sometime and here are our impressions of the products. To start with, the pricing of the phone is very competitive. There are two variants of the phone, one with 3 GB RAM is priced at Rs. 10,999 and other with 4 GB RAM is priced at Rs. 12,999. Billion from Flipkart has used their deep understanding of Indian customers and Indian conditions to design this phone. Trust me, we have seen many phones in the price category and this one seems to be the most loaded phone in this segment, we will talk about it more going along. Let us break this review into 4 sections- Design, Camera, Performance and Value for Money.
Billion Capture+ Design
Billion Caputure+ is a large 5.5-inch display phone but the phone feels quite comfortable to hold in hand. The material choice is premium with a high-quality metal frame, 2.5D curved glass at the front which is a hardened Dragontail glass for superior scratch resistance. The back also feels rich and nice to touch. There are silver linings running across the frame of the phone both at front and rear which looks like a chamfer and gives the phone a premium look. When you hold the phone in hand, the index finger naturally rests at the location where the fingerprint sensor is provided at the back of the phone, which makes it super easy to unlock when you have the phone in your hand. On the rear, the top and bottom parts are plastic strips, which seems like covers for antennas. the On top edge of the phone is a 3.5 mm audio jack and on the bottom is a Type-C charging port and two grills on either side one of which is a speaker grille. A bottom firing speaker grille means loud audio even when the phone is resting on a table. And the speaker is fairly loud for watching videos or listening to music.
Right side of the phone has power key and volume rocker key, both finished in black colour and are very tactile. The left hand side has a SIM card tray which is a dual-SIM hybrid tray which means it can accept either two SIMs or one SIM and one MicroSD card for memory expansion. Above the display is an 8 MP front camera and below the display is a black chin without any touch keys. The Android keys are software keys on the screen itself. On the rear of the phone is also a dual 13 MP camera setup with dual LED flash. We have talked in details about cameras in the camera section. Next to cameras the at rear is a microphone hole for secondary noise cancellation mic.
Overall, the phone looks good, feels nice to touch and is nicely designed keeping Indian customer’s design-taste in mind.
Billion Capture+ Camera
The dual camera seems to be the new norm for modern smartphones. Initially, this feature was found only on very expensive phones, but gradually it has percolated to the budget segment as well and now you can get many phones in the budget segment which feature a dual camera setup. The Billion Capture+ also uses a dual camera setup at rear with two 13 MP sensors. One of these is a standard RGB or color sensor and the other one a is monochrome sensor which helps by capturing more light and helping to make the resulting pictures more crisp and blur-free image processing the shots taken by both sensors and merging them into one for higher detailing. The resulting image is crisp, free of blurs and high in quality and detailing. We have taken shots in different lighting scenarios including indoor, outdoor and low lighting situations and the camera does an impressive job. We have included picture sampled below for you to analyze yourself.
The rear camera shoots in auto mode by default, but you can use it in Panorama, Supernight, Pro and Potrait Modes. The Pro mode gives you option to tweak the white balance, ISO and exposure, while the Portrait mode helps you blur the background using the second lens to sense the depth in the shot just like it works on some very expensive dual camera phones. It can also shoot 4K videos with the rear camera. The rear camera uses PDAF technology to quickly focus and take pictures faster so that you do not miss the moment. The dual tone dual LED flash ensures natural colors when taking pictures with flash on.
Coming to the front camera, it has an 8 MP front shooter, which comes with a wide angle lens for taking good selfies. The front camera comes with support for HDR and Beauty modes. Camera samples from the front camera are also embedded below for your reference.
Billion Capture+ Camera Sample Pictures
Click to enlarge.
Billion Capture+ Performance
To start with, the Billion Capture+ is using one of the best chipset found on the phones in the price segment (and even in higher prices phones), the Snapdragon 625. This chipset is not only very good in performance, but also this is one of the most power efficient processors in the smartphones space. It delivers a snappy performance on the Capture+ with 4 GB RAM. The GPU is also very peppy for gaming and does offer a great performance. With 64 GB of internal memory and unlimited cloud storage on the Smatron TronX Cloud platform, you need not worry about placing a memory card in this phone. You get 50+ GB of local free space out of the box and the cloud storage is also at your disposal to backup the important files.
Battery life is also great with an efficient 14 Nm chipset and large 3500 mAh battery. To make the deal even sweeter, Billion Capture+ also offers Qualcomm certified Quick Charge support and comes bundled with an 18-watt fast charger in the box which you don’t get with most of the phones in this price segment. It means that if you plug in this phone for about 15 minutes for charging, you get approximately 7 hours worth of usage.
If you are into gaming, you will be pleased to know that this phone is loaded with sensors including- accelerometer, gyroscope, linear acceleration sensor, rotation vector sensor, gravity sensor etc. to make the gaming experience better. It also has a full HD 1080p display panel, which delivers sharp graphics.
On software front, it runs Android 7.1.2 out of the box with a very clean and light interface. Billion has also promised a guaranteed Android Oreo update for this phone soon.
Overall, the phone is heavily loaded with features for the price you pay for it. There are hardly any phone at this price, which can match to this phone’s specifications and features.
Billion Capture+ Value for Money
If you are planning to get a phone in the price segment of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 and want the best value for your money, Billion Capture+ is the best bang for the buck you can get. Go ahead and get yourself a Billion Capture+ from Flipkart here.
