I had one from LG, one from Samsung, a smartphne from apple and a iPad.
LG had a system crash, battery fucked up and my display got rekt after a collision with our floor.
The one I have now is a samung galaxy s3. The battery fucked up like 3 months after I bought it. System is totally gay and it became ridiculously slow after like 1 year.
My iPhone3Gs. Well I lost it kinda 100 times. Partly for like 3 months or something, but damn, that shit was great. Even when iPhone 4s or something came out and all the iPads I was totally fine with it. It did exactly what I needed. SMS, phoning and internet. It was really fast and I love the shape it had, but unfortunately I rekt it when a car drove over it :I
My iPad2 is now 4 years old, holy shit that thing is undestroyable. Got 60/64 GB on it and it is as fast as on the first day my uncle gave it to me! Damn I accidentaly threw it against a fucking wall already, it was falling down our stairs a shitton of times and was already taking some showers too lol.
If I would have to recommend a smartphone, one who is simply there for phoning, sms and whatsapp it is absolutely the iPhone. If I was working I would imo buy one :3 fking school. Still the iPhone 4s is better than any of those gay samsung bullshiting retard phones. Cant say anything about all the other branches cuz I never tried them ^^