Can I return a mobile phone?

handsewn

Ok, so...the coverage issue is confusing. I have two orange phones in the house. When place side by side, the older phone coverage is roughly 3/4 bars. The new phone, Rio, sometimes has a signal of only 1 bar or less. I don't know enough about mobiles but this doesn't seem right?

grumbler

Generally, all handsets are different in terms of reception. See, for example, this thread: Vodafone contract problem, really need legal rights
Also, number of bars is just an rough indicator.

However, you can use the same (unlocked) handset with different sim-cards to compare the reception for different networks.