Finally, I have a iPhone to compare with my iPad.  And, hubby has an Android tablet to compare with my iPad.

We traded the Pantech Cruxes in for iPhone 5s on Monday.  Hubby was going to get a 4S, but the clerk convinced him that if one of the reasons he was getting the iPhone was for Mobile HotSpot capability, he’d be much happier with the 5 with LTE next year around this time when Verizon has upgraded their entire current 3G network (where we primarily live and travel) to LTE.  I had to agree with the argument, so he decided to go with the black iPhone5 with 16G of memory. I decided to get the white iPhone 5 with 32G of memory. (He doesn’t plan to use many if any apps, and I have a pretty strong app structure on the iPad that I’m looking forward to having access to on the iPhone.)

I convinced hubby we needed OtterBox Defender cases, so he got black, and I got blue.  He doesn’t like the case — he says it’s clunky and it digs into his side on his belt.  He thinks it will break.  I assured him I’ve heard OtterBox stands by their product and replaces them with no questions asked if they break.  He’s grumbled a little about the case but I haven’t heard any complaints about the phone.  He’s not wild about apps or surfing the web with it, but that’s fine.  He’s used it to make phone calls, and it has seemed to work well for him. He was always screaming at the Crux for not behaving, so this is an improvement so far.

I spent most of the first day or two getting it set up the way I wanted.  I haven’t brought all the iPad apps to the phone, but I’ve brought a few.  I even sprung for the $10 Things app (yes, the biggest criticism for Things now that they have a Cloud solution is they charge for each iteration — Mac, iPad, and iPhone, which really jacks up the price of their product and annoys the user base).  But mSecure, Twitter, Camera+, Simplenote, Evernote, The Weather Channel, FeeddlerRSS, Sudoku2, iHeartRadio, Trello, Dropbox, Skitch, PlainText, Words with Friends, Kindle, and EasyNote have all found their way onto the phone.

I was watching hubby work at the shop today, and it was nice to cruise Twitter while he worked. I finally understand why apps work better than web experiences on a smart phone.  The iPad has a large enough screen that web browsing isn’t that much different from a computer screen.  In fact, I usually opt for the full version of a website instead of a mobile version when asked on the iPad.  Safari, not my favorite browser, works adequately on the iPad.  I’m not particularly fond of the browsing experience on the iPhone.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s far superior to other instances of mobile browsing I’ve attempted on previous near-smart phones, but a 4″ screen, no matter how you slice it, tends to leave a lot to be desired.

Hubby also picked up a Toshiba Excite 10 tablet on Monday.  He wants what amounts to a mobile electronic picture album for his lantern inventory and his car parts inventory.  He has specific ideas about how he wants to do this, and one thing he needed, besides portability was a full size SD card reader.

For me, the iPad was pretty intuitive.  For hubby, the Toshiba, loaded with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, hasn’t been quite as intuitive.  He’s getting it figured out, though.  At least he was able to establish a Google ID without having to provide a credit card number.  That’s one improvement over the Apple ID (which, for now, he’s refusing to get for the phone, because he doesn’t want to have to provide that information).  Today, he began the search for a solitaire program that closely duplicates the one on his computer.  This is of particular interest because the video card on his laptop died this week, so no laptop until he takes that in to get repaired after we return to San Antonio.  He’s finding a couple that seem to work.  It seems like a nice tablet.

In general, I love the iPad.  The Toshiba seems equally useful but with a bit of a learning curve.  I like the convenience of the phone with internet in my pocket.  I prefer the larger screen of the tablet, but sometimes, the small screen is just fine (not so much for Facebook).

What are your experiences with tablet versus smartphone?  What are your preferences?