Due to my SO's line of work, we always have various smartphones, tablets and notebooks to play with and test. Currently we have one iPhone, one Blackberry and two Android based phones sitting here.

I prefer Android and the new 4G Samsung Galaxy S II X is the phone I go to first. It has 16 GB of RAM and a 32 GB Micro SD card which is plenty of memory. So far the phone has survived a few drops which were both planned (testing) and unplanned in every day use. With plenty of power saving options, battery life is not much behind the iPhone.

As for a carrying case, we just use soft sided cases for everyday use and a plastic bag if we are going out on a hike and need to keep the phone dry from any inadvertent water exposure.
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock