I think they flashed mine with the latest firmware. I'm guessing that's standard with any repairs.
Surely CPW can give you a more precise quote? I doubt it would be much (if at all) cheaper than £128.
only thing that I didn't was the screen brightness
do you use it a lot outdoors in direct light?
Measurement of brightness on OLED's is a bit more complex the the usual LCD screen.
Look up APL - http://www.anandtech.com/show/8795/understanding-brightness-in-amoled-and-lcd-displays
In short the brightness of the whites on a screen depends on how much content on the screen is white. More white less overall brightness. Less white, the white's will be brighter. So depends on what APL they measured the brightness. Note 4 is noticeably brighter at 100% for sure.
For me I hardly go above 50% unless im outdoors. Indoors I'm between 15-50%. And 5 to -25% in low light.
I am using the stock app. But I guess I need to change. So when I send a text to more than one person it converts to MMS
Messenger > Menu button > Settings > Advanced > Click on 'Group messaging' and select 'Send individual SMS messages to all recipients. Only you will get any replies'.
Optional:
I like to then scroll down and ensure that, for 'SMS delivery reports', 'Request a delivery report for each SMS that you send' is highlighted.
It really annoys me that O2 doesn't support read really receipts.
There was a code you could enter at the start of any text that the recipient wouldn't see but would generate a read receipt for you, can't check now but will look later unless someone else beats me to it?
Put *0# at the start of each SMS message.
That's great but every other network has supported this for years.
Indeed, O2 literally just got HD Voice so it's normal for them to be years behind. Their 3G is way behind too. I'm noticing a pattern here...