While I did use Android phones for 5 years, since I switched to iOS I've used to do your config of iOS phone + Android tablet for a long time now as well. Since I've linked up my wife's 4S with my 5S and using app sharing, I think I see enough value in finally ditching the Android tablet. I always felt Android was a better tablet OS due to the customization. With ad blockers on iOS9, app sharing, more streamlined interface, security updates, better support, the general convenience of free iMessages, Facetime and Apple stores for same-day repairs, I'm probably going all Apple if I even continue to use a tablet at all. The new Amazon Fire tablet is nice for $50, but I think I'd probably put that money into a 6S Plus and use it for the same purposes and more.
For us I think our phones and laptops may be all we need.
Completely agree that the 6S is underhyped, which is amazing because it's basically the new iPhone4.
After playing around with my Nexus 7 for a long time and performing all kinds of experiments (like running Linux alongside Android) I found I used my tablet almost exclusively for web and media consumption.
So my latest tablet is a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's perfect for those needs in a way where an iPad would be sub par. Media management is way more straight forward on Android and I can have 64gb SD card.
But I did root the tablet and uninstall 70% of the bloatware running on it on the first day. It came with 4-5 pages of (useless) applications and I'm now down to 2. Apple products also come with useless uninstallable applications (Stocks, Watch, etc) but it no where near what this Samsung device had running.
My wife has an iPad and I really could not recommend, for her, an Android tablet.
On Android me and my wife have a shared Google account with purchases that we share. It's a little painful that Google Play doesn't do sharing the way Apple does, but the setup is doable. On the other hand I really, really hate any interactions with iTunes Store, with Google Play being a complete joy to interact with by comparisson. Apple made the choice to separate users in stores linked to their geography, so I have to "switch store" in order to see actual reviews. Who ever thought that's a good idea was an idiot, as I have to search on Google to find good apps and reviews for iOS.
Mobile Safari is very polished. I like how reliable the reader mode is. I like that it now does ad-blocking. On the other hand the web apps feel more integrated in Android. For example Chrome on Android does notifications now, so for example I could just use Facebook on the web and get push notifications. Also Android does alternative browsers, so Android has Firefox and Firefox has real extensions, including ad-blockers. Mobile Safari is really good though.
In terms of UI, Androids notifications are much better, as in they are reliable, they get grouped, you get shortcuts to act on them or you can dismiss them easily. On iOS the notifications are broken and the "unread" indicators are completely annoying. On iOS I also miss the Back button. They added sort of a hack lately for Safari, so you can return to the previous app from Safari. Along with double-tab on home, a pattern emerges ... they keep adding hacks as a substitute for the lack of a Back button. As a consequence of this, one of the things I hate on iOS is how every app opens its own web view. I mean, don't you just hate that?
Skype on my iOS is broken. It simply doesn't ring if the app is inactive. This is probably a bug, but it's also a bigger problem related to iOS. iOS is killing inactive apps, so it has special hooks for apps that need to be awoken by messages. This leads to weird effects - like Dropbox is unable to backup my photos in the background, because it cannot stay alive long enough to do it. And I've lost some photos that way, as I've reset my phone thinking that Dropbox managed to back me up. It's also weird to pause and then resume my music or my audiobooks. As resume doesn't necessarily work remote-controlled through your headsets as you have to wake your phone up first. Actually the behavior is inconsistent. It really depends on whether iOS managed to put your app to sleep or not. The upside of that is that the iPhone's idle mode is very efficient, but given my usage patterns, I haven't seen an overall improvement in battery life.
On the apps ecosystem, I feel Android has better apps. This may sound like heresy, but it's true, with Android having the benefit of a stronger open-source ecosystem. They finally unified the design under the material design guidelines. And with Marshmallow they finally fixed the permissions system, though iOS has the benefit of not having such a broken permissions model for such a long time. So for instance on iOS I felt comfortable installing Waze, but not on Android - thankfully that changes with Marshmallow.
iOS does better at out-of-the box standards being supported. It supports CalDAV and CardDAV for example. For Android you need special adapters that need to be bought for CalDAV / CardDAV and Google should be ashamed of themselves. On the other hand on Android just about anything is extensible, so support for CalDAV / CardDAV synching can be added by buying some available apps.
To sync my iPhone with my desktop I need to use iTunes. I hate iTunes with a passion, I really do. With Android I can just plug it in to my computer and just copy/paste some files in a folder.
Related to UX in general, iOS apps are good, except when they are not. For example RunKeeper on Android is more usable than RunKeeper on iOS, because on iOS you have to tap on things that don't seem tap-able. And for iBooks to not do bookmarks for audiobooks is a total screwup for a company like Apple.
On my iPhone I do like that I get SMS messages on my MacBook through iMessages and phone calls through FaceTime. That's pretty sweet. On Android I've used PushBullet but it's not the same. On the other hand I don't like feeling locked in Apple's ecosystem or in anybody's ecosystem for that matter. So I'm enjoying my iMessages and my FaceTime, but I try not to like it so much :-)
I'm like you in that I try not to go down the rabbit hole too far with anyone. That said, over the years I went from using zero Apple products (first computer was a Commodore, never had an Apple), to really appreciating the things I find so polished and good about them. If I did go too far, it would be with Apple because I feel they actually work hard for my business. Most IMO, clearly do not. Everyone else is selling devices, they want us happy with our i-devices because they sell music and services that are device-locked. Google is more willing to bring their services crossplatform and that has led to a lack of TLC for Android and how sloppy it is in many ways.
You mentioned you use a Macbook. I've never owned a Macbook, but frequently wonder if I'm as wrong about them as I was about the iPhone. I ran Cyanogenmod on my Androids and honestly I would not go back from iOS.
My opinions always change with new information and experiences but right now these are my products of choice for various categories. I own or use all of these currently, other than the laptops. Currently using work-provided laptops.
Phone- Apple iPhone
Console- Nintendo Wii U
Music match/service- Google Play Music (if I had Amazon Prime I'd probably move to Amazon Music but we shop more locally and are Costco members)
Browser- Mozilla Firefox
HTPC- Amazon FireTV (replaced a jailbroken AppleTV2)
Laptop- Lenovo Thinkpad
Cheap laptop- Acer Aspire One Cloudbook, 14-Inch
Desktop OS- Windows10 (gaming) & Linux Mint (dev)
Email- Google Gmail
Search- DuckDuckGo (bangs sold me on it, it's the new
Google)
Programming language implementation- PyPy4 (Python 2.7)
Media- OTA antenna, Netflix and HBO Now
As you can see, I only use 1 Apple product currently and very diversified. Hardly an Apple diehard, but I'm learning and definitely don't carry that grudge against them that many long-term Android users do.
I ended up with a MacBook Pro because at work we're interacting with a corporate environment for which Linux is not supported and everybody is on Windows. At some point I gave up the fight of configuring a VPN connection to our deeply broken L2TP/IPsec server and asked for a MacBook. My VPN now works, albeit with interruptions.
But my next laptop is going to be a Thinkpad, because these slick MacBooks can't be easily repaired and can't be upgraded. They look and feel good, but that's of no consequence when you suddenly need 16 GB of RAM, or when the battery has worn off, or when the keyboard started to peel. I hate this trend of slim laptops you can't tinker with. OS X is nice, but I prefer Ubuntu's software repositories, though having access to popular applications not available for Linux feels good. And the Retina display on this thing will make all alternatives look inferior.
I also have a Windows corporate environment at work. In your situation I would get a Thinkpad with Windows on it, then run your distro of choice on that with VMWare.
That's what I do on my home machine, because I have 2 mice, 3 monitors and generally with a setup like that, I've found X falls down on its face pretty easily if you start to ask more of it than a basic laptop configuration presents.
Running in a VM I don't have to dual boot (I hate that more than anything) and gain the stuff you may struggle with, such as that VPN connection, with a silky smooth, problem free Linux environment while retaining full support from your company.
I think most of the things you described could be serviced same-day at an Apple store. I haven't been keeping up on them too closely, but I think even the Macbook Pros have soldered RAM and SSD now which is a bummer. A T450 is a pretty good option that's why I've always leaned towards one of those for my next laptop.
I'm a gamer as well so I'm waiting to see how VR pans out before I upgrade again. May stick with upgrading the hardware in my Lian Li tower, or ditching the desktop and moving to a laptop for personal use.
Even better quick fix, install Windows on the Macbook. Then run your distro in a VM on that. :P Not sure why I didn't suggest that. No more VPN issues. When the time comes for a new work laptop, get the Thinkpad and do the same.
Completely agree that the 6S is underhyped, which is amazing because it's basically the new iPhone4.