Hmm, I suspect some of us have widely differing notions of 'SHTF'. I'm not sure kids freaking out due to a lack of entertainment is quite a valid SHTF situation.

In my view, a true SHTF situation would involve something like a large-scale natural disaster, war, major civil disturbance or some other situation posing an immediate existential threat.

Smartphones and tablets are useful in everyday life, and no doubt also in some emergency situations. But I don't think the vast majority of current consumer-grade electronics is robust, reliable and foolproof enough for serious field and/or emergency use.

If you really need a computer on the go, a professional ruggedized laptop will offer far more reliability, computing power and battery life than some tablet gizmo.

Smartphones, well - they are no doubt fun toys to play with but an inadequate susbtitute for a proper computer. Lots of functions and useful and useless Android apps, but which ones are truly essential? As in - essential to keep you alive?

As far as basic communication, your smartphone is dependent entirely on the phone network. How long do you think that is going to be available in a serious emergency? Radio would seem to be a much more reliable option in that regard.

GPS... I would take my old Garmin eTrex any day over the latest smartphone. A), because I know it works under highly adverse conditions whereas all my cellphones so far have tended to crash, perform bizarrely or die unexpectedly. And B), battery life (on a couple of easily replaceable, rechargeable AA's) is far better.

Either way, GPS is NO substitute for a compass and digital maps CANNOT replace paper maps. That may sound old fashioned, but it's the hard, simple truth. Ignore it at your own peril. Do keep in mind though that experience is a hard teacher and there's no reset button in real life.

For emergency data storage a separate portable hard disk or USB drive strikes me as a safer alternative to keeping all your stuff aboard that smartphone. Remember that adage about putting all eggs in one basket?

I seriously doubt wrapping your smartphone in aluminum foil will make any difference in the event of an actual EMP. As far as EMP though, if that is your main concern - it would imply the use of nuclear weapons. In the event of a nuclear war I'm pretty sure smartphones, tablets and Playstation (to keep the kids happy) are going to be very low on most folks' priority list.

All in all, Haertig and Hikermor have made some excellent points earlier. As much as I love electronics and modern gadgets, when it comes to emergency preparedness - the simpler, the better. Anything relying on electricity and/or network connection is going to take some effort to keep running in a real emergency. Effort that might be better spent elsewhere for some more "essential" purpose.

Frankly, I don't believe electronic devices are anywhere near as indispensable to our well-being as we tend to assume. 20 years ago a whole lot of people didn't even own a computer and cellphones were pretty much sci-fi but we managed to get by just fine. And so did countless generations before the discovery of electricity.

YMMV.