I would go for the Rezound if they offered... It's the TB2, (the scrapped the name because of all the bad press about the battery life when the TB first came out...) Like another poster said, the Charge is a downgrade. Also, make sure they don't try to renew your upgrade date. They've pulled that on me before because of the "courtesy" of giving me a different phone.
Go sms is great. Never had a problem with my tbolt don't downgrade.
The Rezound was never the Thunderbolt 2. It's code name was the Vigor, and it's production name was Rezound. Almost the entire first half of your post was feeding a long dead rumor that was proven to be just rumor. That is not what I'd consider being helpful to the OP.
Guess I missed it being "proven to be just a rumor" thing, (not to mention every time I went into a VZW store, they try selling me a rezound, that they of course pitch as "basically the TB2"). It was really just my own opinion because of the specs, body, you know. But who really cares, never gonna be a retail TB2.
Sorry buddy, didn't mean to say VZW has shady contract terms... I've been with them for 10+ years. Don't worry, I still recommend them to everyone, and I'm not going any where, your job is safe.
Just as a follow up from someone that technically hasnt paid for a phone in 4 years argue with them and get mad but not to mad and they will usually upgrade you free after 3 phones. I startex with a blacmberry storm went through 4 of them was upgraded to a storm 2 went through 6 of them got the droid incredible. Used my new every two and sold the incredibke actually made $50 picking up the thunderbolt went through 3 of them and they just gave me the galaxy nexus last week for free, i bricked it rooting it told them it came defective and they sent me a brand new not refurb one.
That would be fraud.
You forgot $30 upgrade fees....all of this is a contributor to what drives prices higher each year; higher prices for phones, higher prices for plans, lengthier contracts terms and lengthier phone upgrade eligibility periods.
I don't mean to offend anyone, and I'm sure there are folks out there with legitimate problems that necessitate getting a new phone, but having said that...
If every EVERY smartphone you've had has to be replaced MULTIPLE times, then there may be chance you're the one with the problem.
It seems like with every device there's always folks in forums saying their on their 3rd or 4th (or 5th or 6th...) device and it still doesn't work right. I don't know if some of these folks are abusing the device or just demanding a level of perfection that is beyond absurdity, but frankly I'm surprised Verizon doesn't just "see ya!" and terminate the contract.
(Again, I KNOW there are folks out there who have REAL issues who deserve to have a lemon swapped out for a working device, I know that)
Before my Thunderbolt, I've had the following devices:
BB Storm, BB 9650, BB Storm2, Droid Eris
Every one of them, including my Thunderbolt, I had only 1 device the entire time (and those are some of the devices with the most reported problems!).
Verizon (et al) could probably save TON of money by actually training some techs to diagnose and fix problems rather than just swap devices. I guess it really bothers me though because I have to imagine that all of this is a contributor to what drives prices higher each year; higher prices for phones, higher prices for plans, lengthier contracts terms and lengthier phone upgrade eligibility periods.
Sorry for the rant.