I have tried both blackberry and Samsung tablets. Now I am not an apple fan boy but both the above devices are in a drawer somewhere whereas my ipad is used for absolutely everything. Where it wins hands down is the shear volume of quality software, please note the quality remark. The machines are only as good as their software and the blackberry fails spectacularly in that area. The Samsung was a decent attempt but miles behind the one they are all trying to copy.save yourself the heartache and just get an ipad it will do everything you need and more importantly you will not have to wrestle with software to get it to work.
The decider was the size. An ipad is not what I want and the phone is just perfect. Having thought about a tablet and discarded it as an option I am quite happy.
There will always be favourites and people like different things and like camping optioms it is all a compromise. Size, weight, use, appearance, convenience, facilities, non facilities etc etc ....
I can't afford to just leave one in a drawer and buy another if it was not right, so had to make a first choice based on my own needs. So thanks for all the advice as it helped me to make up my mind and sort out just what I wanted.
I have an iPhone and iPad. I can link up my iPad to my iPhone via the Personal Hotspot. As for not being able to use Flashplayer on my iiPad have just downloaded the App. ISwifter and it does the job.