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Performance difference between Omnivision, ST, and Sharp camera modules mic quality.

So I might be getting another replacement One, and I'm wondering if the new Omnivision modules that they've started using are any good.. I was reading the specs on the website (model: OV4688) and it seems that it doesn't offer OIS, it says Electronic Image Stabilization on their website. Also, I read somewhere that they're very poor in low light.. Anyone got proof to back these up? Any pictures to show the differences between these? Also, any difference in the mic audio quality between the old and new batches?
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

BumP!!
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n1234d said:
BumP!!
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
So I wrote about this in one of the purple camera fix threads. First I'll see I haven't noticed any puple/pink hues in any pics in lowlight. It seems to be performing well in that area. I also don't have a pink spot in the middle.
Occasionally in the outer edges I might notice some green tint in low light - particularly in rooms that have a shade of green in them already. It doesn't however grow and get worse. Its just the outer fringes. When I switch the camera from wide to regular crop it pretty much goes away. If not, its easily fixed with a quick touchup by adjusting the saturation with a custom effect in the gallery or just using aviary and the one click color fix. Also you can avoid it all together by adjusting saturation down a notch in the camera settings before taking a pic.
However.....what I have noticed is that in indoor lighting, even good lighting, the video recording frames per second maxes out at like 19-20. This is kind of a bummer. I mean I've turned on a all the lights in a really well lit room and could not achieve what I could in fps compared to the old sensor. I've tried different camera apps and they all max out at 19-20 in these light conditions, which tells me that its most likely set in the kernel. I wonder if this sensor has not been optimized fully by HTC yet. I think they've worked with three different sensors so far: ST electronics, Sharp, and Omnivision. Perhaps its hard to accomidate them all in the kernel - but I'm just speculating. there.
My compromise is to shoot indoor video at the 60fps mode, because that caps out indoors at 40fps.
I've fully tested video outdoors and even this morning indoors when there was no artificial light source and it recorded at a full 30 fps.
If what I think is true - that its not fully optimized at the kernel level it could be something HTC can push out in an update. Perhaps its hard for them to try to support 3 different sensors and find a balance...But this is just speculation on my part. Now I've lived in the same house and conditions for the past year and the old sensor had an edge up on fps than the Omni. I looked at some old videos shot indoors last night and fps was hovering around 29-30. So far this is my only gripe.
A note about the Sensor:
Early on Brian at AnandTech when he reviewed the One talked a bit about the Sensor HTC used when building the first Ones, and he also compared the ST sensor to the Omnivision sensor, because that Omni made its debut at the 2013 CES. Here is his review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6747/htc-one-review/5
I find it interesting that 2 companies made identical sensors, ST and Omnivision according to Brian.
Overall I'm happy I sent my device in and had the sensor replaced, because in the end, no amount of quick photo tools or photoshop would help the purple tint issue.
Hope this helps.

gustav30 said:
So I wrote about this in one of the purple camera fix threads. First I'll see I haven't noticed any puple/pink hues in any pics in lowlight. It seems to be performing well in that area. I also don't have a pink spot in the middle.
Occasionally in the outer edges I might notice some green tint in low light - particularly in rooms that have a shade of green in them already. It doesn't however grow and get worse. Its just the outer fringes. When I switch the camera from wide to regular crop it pretty much goes away. If not, its easily fixed with a quick touchup by adjusting the saturation with a custom effect in the gallery or just using aviary and the one click color fix. Also you can avoid it all together by adjusting saturation down a notch in the camera settings before taking a pic.
However.....what I have noticed is that in indoor lighting, even good lighting, the video recording frames per second maxes out at like 19-20. This is kind of a bummer. I mean I've turned on a all the lights in a really well lit room and could not achieve what I could in fps compared to the old sensor. I've tried different camera apps and they all max out at 19-20 in these light conditions, which tells me that its most likely set in the kernel. I wonder if this sensor has not been optimized fully by HTC yet. I think they've worked with three different sensors so far: ST electronics, Sharp, and Omnivision. Perhaps its hard to accomidate them all in the kernel - but I'm just speculating. there.
My compromise is to shoot indoor video at the 60fps mode, because that caps out indoors at 40fps.
I've fully tested video outdoors and even this morning indoors when there was no artificial light source and it recorded at a full 30 fps.
If what I think is true - that its not fully optimized at the kernel level it could be something HTC can push out in an update. Perhaps its hard for them to try to support 3 different sensors and find a balance...But this is just speculation on my part. Now I've lived in the same house and conditions for the past year and the old sensor had an edge up on fps than the Omni. I looked at some old videos shot indoors last night and fps was hovering around 29-30. So far this is my only gripe.
A note about the Sensor:
Early on Brian at AnandTech when he reviewed the One talked a bit about the Sensor HTC used when building the first Ones, and he also compared the ST sensor to the Omnivision sensor, because that Omni made its debut at the 2013 CES. Here is his review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6747/htc-one-review/5
I find it interesting that 2 companies made identical sensors, ST and Omnivision according to Brian.
Overall I'm happy I sent my device in and had the sensor replaced, because in the end, no amount of quick photo tools or photoshop would help the purple tint issue.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info!

Not perfect but very disappointing.

As much as I love my phone, I have spotted a few things that made me question the phone or Huawei.
First of all, I was playing with the three rear cameras and noticed that when I hovered my finger above the topmost camera (I think it's the 40mp one) or covered it, my finger didn't show up. Is that supposed to happen?
Secondly, when I take a picture in complete dark, there is always some noise present.
Thirdly, the screen has a gradient hue, darker on the left side as compared to the right. I have attached an image in this post. Please check for the gradient as I seem to see it on my screen. This is clearly obvious in a complete dark room.
Please check your phone and let me know if you're facing the same thing. Thank you.

The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
For your noisy dark pictures. If you take a picture in a completely dark room (covered your screen ?) then the ISO is probably cranked up to the moon. So your going to see noise.
Maybe try in pro mode with a sane iso and exposure time (to avoid noise and hot pixels) and see how much noise you get then.

Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.

bk227865 said:
The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.

Others have answered your finger question. Not really sure what that point was about anyway?
Re: noise. What were you expecting? This isn't a full frame DSLR shooting raw. This is still a tiny sensor (just less tiny) with a highly compromised lens (miniaturisation comes at a cost). However, it is in my view head and shoulders above any other smartphone for delivering photos in poor / mixed light and at night when hand held - CM1 & 808 still beat it easily when on a tripod or similar.
Re: the screen. There will always be some gradient. If it's bad, I suggest you talk to Huawei or your provider / retailer's support and get a replacement. But since you say you only see it in a completely dark room, I can't imagine this is worthy of replacement.

birajrai said:
Yes, it seems so that when I zoom while covering the lens, the picture comes as the lens is covered. Thank you for clarifying that to me.
Can you please, if you don't mind, clarify the gradient hue of the screen? Or is it just mine? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's my first oled phone so i don't have any reference on how good oled is supposed to look in very dark rooms.
If you can only see it on dim images in a dark room then your probaly noticing the "mura effect".
I cannot tell if your display is particulary bad or not. But i to can detect it looking at a uniform very dark gray backround in a very dark room. Under minimal light conditions i see no problems.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2107228
Edit : i checked your blue image , but my eyes cannot really spot any meaningfull hue differences even in a darkened room.

bk227865 said:
The top one is used when zooming (5x) i think.
But funny enough the live view seems to not always use the same lens as the lens the photo is taken with.
If you zoom 5x and cover the top lens (or even when its dark ?) the live view switches to the main lens.
Sometime you can catch a glimp of your finger just before the switch happens.
And then when you take the zoomed in shot with the top lens covered you get a black picture, although the liveview shows an image.
I tested this in a fairly dim living room, so your mileage may vary if you test this in a bright office or outside in the sun.
For your noisy dark pictures. If you take a picture in a completely dark room (covered your screen ?) then the ISO is probably cranked up to the moon. So your going to see noise.
Maybe try in pro mode with a sane iso and exposure time (to avoid noise and hot pixels) and see how much noise you get then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The top lens is the tele lens. It only has 3x zoom. The 5x zoom is a hybrid zoom where it uses both lenses.

Screen Issue???

Ok. Is anyone facing screen issue on your P20 Pro? There seems to be a gradient colour shift which is very obvious in a dark room when the brightness is set to low. Plus it has a green hue to it. Have a look at the picture attached. Thank you.

birajrai said:
Ok. Is anyone facing screen issue on your P20 Pro? There seems to be a gradient colour shift which is very obvious in a dark room when the brightness is set to low. Plus it has a green hue to it. Have a look at the picture attached. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't say I've noticed it, will take a look tonight.

Yikes!
I haven't noticed either but I'll also take a look tonight.
Either way i would say swap it out because that is nasty.

birajrai said:
Ok. Is anyone facing screen issue on your P20 Pro? There seems to be a gradient colour shift which is very obvious in a dark room when the brightness is set to low. Plus it has a green hue to it. Have a look at the picture attached. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What software is used ? i want to try to see if i can reproduce it.
But from what i have tried with text on dark backgrounds my screen does not have that colour gradient shift.

bk227865 said:
What software is used ? i want to try to see if i can reproduce it.
But from what i have tried with text on dark backgrounds my screen does not have that colour gradient shift.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is Moon Reader+ and the brightness (which can be adjusted from the app itself) is set at 0 and -25.

bk227865 said:
What software is used ? i want to try to see if i can reproduce it.
But from what i have tried with text on dark backgrounds my screen does not have that colour gradient shift.
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Click to collapse
Ok going by the screenshots is moon+ reader
I tried it for myself and with brightness turned down to zero on phone and in the app i can also see a very slight hue.
But to be honest, i am much more comfortable reading with some background light so i can at least distinguish something of my environment , and then this is a non issue.
For completeness i took a screenshot with my camera , and it's way worse then what i could see with the naked eye.
With the naked eye it is noticable , but not so bad as the camera makes to believe.
Anyway , a non issue for me.
And since my and your screenshot are suffering from the same hue shift , it might even be a problem with the moon+ reader.....
.

bk227865 said:
Ok going by the screenshots is moon+ reader
I tried it for myself and with brightness turned down to zero on phone and in the app i can also see a very slight hue.
But to be honest, i am much more comfortable reading with some background light so i can at least distinguish something of my environment , and then this is a non issue.
For completeness i took a screenshot with my camera , and it's way worse then what i could see with the naked eye.
With the naked eye it is noticable , but not so bad as the camera makes to believe.
Anyway , a non issue for me.
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Click to collapse
Thank you very much for following up. It happens in the gallery too. I've tried it with different pictures that have solid colours such blue, red, green, grey, etc. Do you think the warranty covers intentionally? I bought the phone with full of excitement while I was in Singapore for a holiday. I love this phone so much but the screen is bothering me. Sigh!

birajrai said:
Thank you very much for following up. It happens in the gallery too. I've tried it with different pictures that have solid colours such blue, red, green, grey, etc. Do you think the warranty covers intentionally? I bought the phone with full of excitement while I was in Singapore for a holiday. I love this phone so much but the screen is bothering me. Sigh!
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Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure its not covered , the screen works flawless under normal conditions even in the the dark. Only when i go to extreme's like setting negative brightness levels in software the problem really shows up.
I will never have this problem unless i actively go and look for it.

same for me. the vertical and horizontal lines are not really an issue for me, i though i can live with it: i had the same on my p9 plus but on the left, there is a 2cm zone on all the height really darker and it made it almost unreadable at night (lowest light), even with screen filter or not.
i returned my phone and now i must wait to order a new one... my provider tell me they will not have twilight anymore.
i'm very disapointed.

Amoled screens are always a lottery when it comes to uniformity. Sometimes you have luck other times not. There are good screens out there and this time around I got one of the better ones. I have seen others complain about screen issues so not all screens are good like with most phones that have Amoled. Below is mine at 0% brightness and the app you used.

Mine has the issue as well. I ll be getting my device replaced soon as it also has a slight gap between frame and back panel at top left edge

Same issue here. First P20 Pro had it from bottom to top (pinky purple at the bottom, yellowy green at the top), second one has it left to right, but more pronounced on the bottom of the screen.
Is it worth replacing it again? I'm not happy with paying a significant amount per month for this if the screen is bad on all of them.

I would like to check mine. What is the best way to check this?
Update: So i opened lcd test app on my p20 pro and here's how mine looked like in the dark.
I don't know if i did it right but tell me if i need todo anything more to check this propertly.

Oh ffs, my third one has it too. Significantly green in the top left running about half way down the phone.
I've now been to the store 3 times, it's a 96 mile round trip! Nearly 300 miles of fuel wasted on this rubbish.
I get "it's a chinese phone," but we're paying Samsung prices for it, these screen issues are just unacceptable!

Have p20 pro for 2 weeks now. Always thought it's some dark theme design before found this topic. Have top much brighter than bottom in low light conditions. Can't see in bright room or in dark room with brightness more than 50%. I wouldn't be worried if it wasn't so annoying while I watching YouTube before go to sleep. Half of the screen grey, another near to black.

dannejanne said:
Amoled screens are always a lottery when it comes to uniformity. Sometimes you have luck other times not. There are good screens out there and this time around I got one of the better ones. I have seen others complain about screen issues so not all screens are good like with most phones that have Amoled. Below is mine at 0% brightness and the app you used.
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Click to collapse
99% oled screens has this issue. Some are less visible, some more. But every oled screen phone I held had this issue.
Now I have Note 9 and dark grays are uneven too.

KastrO_on said:
99% oled screens has this issue. Some are less visible, some more. But every oled screen phone I held had this issue.
Now I have Note 9 and dark grays are uneven too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Note 9 now too and while it's not perfect it's one of the most even oled screens I've had when it comes to uniformity.
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

dannejanne said:
I have a Note 9 now too and while it's not perfect it's one of the most even oled screens I've had when it comes to uniformity.
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats right its not that bad but its there. Still visible on dark gray background in dark room.
Can you take photo of your note 9 uniformity? I want to compare it with mine.
You can test it on this picture:
https://imgur.com/a/rfa5O7o

using the app oled tools i can see it quite badly on gren , grey and red .... with mine its at the top .... like the top section of pixels is acting differently .... im going to take mine back because its only 1 week old ... what is it with huawei and screens ... the mate 20 pro is facing big issues with their screens

Washed out images between 1x-5x

Is anybody else experiencing the issue of when taking photos between 1x and 5x zoom (ie: 2.8x zoom) the colors become washed out and very grey looking. However, when taking photos right at 1x or 5x the colors revert back to vibrant hues. Its bothering me a lot. I am considering returning the phone tomorrow. Are there any fixes for it?

Its because you're cropping so you'll lose quality and with sub-optimal lighting, some colour
Between 1 and 5x is pure digital zoom.
Personally I dont bother with that unless its a well lit outdoor shot.
10x is a tuned hybrid zoom but I dont know if between 5 and 10 is hybrid too.
Again I dont bother and just reposition myself to either use 1x, 5x or 10x.
Again 10x and to a lesser extent 5x requires good lighting conditions.
The P30 Pro produces some amazing shots that no other device can pull off, but it's not a Pixel.
The software will not help you as much as Google's does, so you will need to think about things like positioning, shade, light metering and all the other stuff that the Pixel seems to do effortlessly.
Put some thought into it and you'll get amazing photos. A tripod can work wonders too

rajziel said:
Its because you're cropping so you'll lose quality and with sub-optimal lighting, some colour
Between 1 and 5x is pure digital zoom.
Personally I dont bother with that unless its a well lit outdoor shot.
10x is a tuned hybrid zoom but I dont know if between 5 and 10 is hybrid too.
Again I dont bother and just reposition myself to either use 1x, 5x or 10x.
Again 10x and to a lesser extent 5x requires good lighting conditions.
The P30 Pro produces some amazing shots that no other device can pull off, but it's not a Pixel.
The software will not help you as much as Google's does, so you will need to think about things like positioning, shade, light metering and all the other stuff that the Pixel seems to do effortlessly.
Put some thought into it and you'll get amazing photos. A tripod can work wonders too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it's not just a matter of cropping, but image processing is worse between 1x - 5x zoom.
It become very noticeable in indoor lighting, especially skin tone. Color is grey and too many noise.
But in outdoor, it is not noticeable.
I think it is software issue.
In the time being, I would prefer to shoot at 1x and crop it manually to get the zoom I need. It is far better.
Or go directly to 5x.

This of why I always edit afterwards.

Weird smearing/band on the screen

So, today at night I noticed that when I'm in the camera in dark areas, or in Spotify with a dark background. I noticed that the screen in the middle from the notch till the chin has a lighter colour than the edges. The width of it is about half the screen centred in the middle. It's kinda like how Zack (jerryrigeverything) puts a lighter to the screen and the pixels turn white, but it's not that extreme. It's only noticeable in low brightness, and dark backgrounds, not black. The most noticeable was in video on the front camera. The "stain" has a lighter blueish tone to it.
I'll leave some pictures for you to test them. I know that when I checked on my phone again with light, the stain wasn't there. Test them in a low lit area, and lower the brightness almost to the lowest setting.

The second pic is the front camera (the most noticeable in person). On xda, I find Spotify to the most noticeable.

Maybe I'm blind but for me everything is ok. Maybe you have DC dimming on. Sometimes screen may look weird in dark areas with that option turned on.

Yes this must be due to DC dimming, called anti-flicker in the settings, shut that off and see if it gets better. If you want to show us how it looks you will have to take a photo of the screen with another camera since it doesn't show in a screenshot. That picture is captured before it is sent to the display. The "anti-flicker" setting is known to produce distortion at low light conditions.

gerhard_wa said:
Yes this must be due to DC dimming, called anti-flicker in the settings, shut that off and see if it gets better. If you want to show us how it looks you will have to take a photo of the screen with another camera since it doesn't show in a screenshot. That picture is captured before it is sent to the display. The "anti-flicker" setting is known to produce distortion at low light conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I'll test it tonight. If I use another camera, it'll just blow the image or just won't show up.

gerhard_wa said:
Yes this must be due to DC dimming, called anti-flicker in the settings, shut that off and see if it gets better. If you want to show us how it looks you will have to take a photo of the screen with another camera since it doesn't show in a screenshot. That picture is captured before it is sent to the display. The "anti-flicker" setting is known to produce distortion at low light conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked settings, and I have that I had it switched off. I'll see if it makes a difference.

karolak-33 said:
Maybe I'm blind but for me everything is ok. Maybe you have DC dimming on. Sometimes screen may look weird in dark areas with that option turned on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so ive tested it on and off. With dc on, it made worse. So i left it off. The picture ive taken (which was the best i could take) shows a green hue highlighted with the circle. I dont think its the screen protector as it only shows up on low brightness and dark colours, especially grey. Any ideas?
P.s. It looks a bit worse in person than in the pic.

Oh, now I see but I couldn't reproduce it on my Mi9, no matter what brightness or with DC dimming on/off. I'm afraid it may be some screen issue.

That's a dark gray uniformity issue, it's fairly standard on oleds, especially low end ones such as this one. On mine the green tint is most prominent on the top right corner and gradually lessens to the opposite corner. There might be more uniform ones out there but they're like what, 1 in 10 units? If you say yours actually looks worse than in the photo you might have one of the worse ones, but if you can exchange this unit don't expect to get one that's significantly better. To get one that's surely better you have to go for the more expensive ones because those use newer generation panels so the uniformity issues only show at the darkest of grays and and the brighter parts will actually be brighter white which is correct, not green as is the case with the mi 9 panel(pre 2017 panel, samsung stopped having this issue on the s8).

kingbasescu said:
That's a dark gray uniformity issue, it's fairly standard on oleds, especially low end ones such as this one. On mine the green tint is most prominent on the top right corner and gradually lessens to the opposite corner. There might be more uniform ones out there but they're like what, 1 in 10 units? If you say yours actually looks worse than in the photo you might have one of the worse ones, but if you can exchange this unit don't expect to get one that's significantly better. To get one that's surely better you have to go for the more expensive ones because those use newer generation panels so the uniformity issues only show at the darkest of grays and and the brighter parts will actually be brighter white which is correct, not green as is the case with the mi 9 panel(pre 2017 panel, samsung stopped having this issue on the s8).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply mate! Is there any way to tell what specific (display) model do I have?. My box says it was manufactured in July.

kingbasescu said:
That's a dark gray uniformity issue, it's fairly standard on oleds, especially low end ones such as this one. On mine the green tint is most prominent on the top right corner and gradually lessens to the opposite corner. There might be more uniform ones out there but they're like what, 1 in 10 units? If you say yours actually looks worse than in the photo you might have one of the worse ones, but if you can exchange this unit don't expect to get one that's significantly better. To get one that's surely better you have to go for the more expensive ones because those use newer generation panels so the uniformity issues only show at the darkest of grays and and the brighter parts will actually be brighter white which is correct, not green as is the case with the mi 9 panel(pre 2017 panel, samsung stopped having this issue on the s8).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I never saw this on a Mi9, not mine or any other, I don't think this is true in the case of the Samsung display used by Xiaomi on the Mi9.
The topic starter should contact the seller and get a replacement.

gerhard_wa said:
Since I never saw this on a Mi9, not mine or any other, I don't think this is true in the case of the Samsung display used by Xiaomi on the Mi9.
The topic starter should contact the seller and get a replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will all the hassle be worthwhile though?

Jt380p said:
Will all the hassle be worthwhile though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That’s entirely up to you! Can you disregard the distortion you will be ok, but if you find yourself constantly noticing it and being annoyed by it then it will be well worth the hassle I would guess. But only you know what’s right!

Have this on mine, ordered another one in hopes that I can get a better one but it was slightly worse, checked the one they had in a newly opened mi store, that one had it as well to a similar degree. Saying this doesn't happen on the mi 9 is bollocks, all of them have it to some extent, it's a question of how much you're willing to tolerate.
The best thing you can do IMO when you're in a pickle about returning something is do what I said I did: order another one but keep the first one around, compare and just keep the one you like more. That way you won't feel bad about returning the first one and being stuck with the 2nd or just being stuck with the 1st if you don't return at all. Obviously it all depends if you can fit all this into however much time you've got left to return, I was lucky to have 30 days.

Dind!t notice that