Hey there, 5th Horseman,
I have played violin for (calculating, calculating) over 35 years (!) and I enjoy it very much, but I always envied the sound of the cello, and so two years ago I finally decided to buy a cheap Chinese cello online and learn to play it myself. And I love it!
So while I am an experienced violinist, I'm still a novice cellist, but I know enough about both to offer some suggestions for you. (BTW, I'm also a clarinetist, although out of practice currently.)
I feel your inclination to play cello is the right way to go. I wish I had played cello as my main instrument instead of violin. I like playing the violin, but I really
love playing the cello. Of course, what I *really* recommend is that you play both!
But if I had to choose, I'd choose cello. Here are my reasons:
I feel playing a cello is
much easier than playing a violin because one's body position is more relaxed and there are fewer body position problems that can occur. I also prefer the cello's low sound because it blends into music, while a violin can sound more piercing.
While I don't think the cello actually has a wider range than the violin, it is definitely lower. The strings on a violin are (high to low) E A D G, while the cello is (several?) octaves lower and the strings are A D G C. The cello is basically like a giant violin on which you've taken away the high E string and added a lovely, low C string.
The advantage of a cello is that you *can* play high in position on the A string to get high notes if you want to the mimic the sound of a violin, but you also have those lovely low notes available. Few people frequently play very high on the violin E string in songs because it just sounds unpleasantly high, so I actually feel half of the E string is wasted on a violin. With a cello, you can enjoy the whole range of the instrument, from the lowest note to its very highest. No crystal-splitting high notes on a cello!
I also like the cello because playing it feels like holding a living, brumbling bear. You feel like you are hugging your instrument (because you really are). The violin is a little more distant from you. I prefer an instrument I can hug. You can feel the cello's vibrations through your whole body. It's a lovely, whole body experience. In case you've ever played electric bass, I have an electric bass and the feeling of fingering both instruments is similar in terms of how hard you have to press the notes and how wide apart your fingers are (it takes some time to build up strength and toughen fingertips) yet the cello feels much more alive and personal to me than an electric bass.
One issue for you to consider is how big your hands are. The sad truth for people with very wide fingertips is that this is a handicap when playing the violin, because it is impossible for them to place two fingers close together in the correct positions to play adjacent notes in tune. This means they usually can only have one finger on a string at a time, which makes playing the violin harder than it is for someone whose fingers are narrower and can hit the correct notes without needing to pull other fingers off the string. If you want to play a chord, you usually don't want one finger to simultaneously cover two strings, so having slender fingers is an advantage for playing a regular full-size violin. If you want to play a run of notes on a violin, having several fingers on the same string in the position to play the notes in tune and then removing one finger after the other makes the run easier to play. People with large fingers can't do that as easily on a violin as can people with slender fingers. Sometimes their finger might press two strings accidentally, which interferes with playing a desired note on the second string. (This can be an issue when playing electric guitar, too.)
If you are planning to teach yourself, I thought you might want to know that there are different violin "schools" that produce people who tend to play the violin in distinct ways. I assume the same is true for cello. I learned violin as a child, when learning any instrument is easier than when one is older, but I've found that switching to cello after learning the violin felt very natural and hasn't been hard at all. I learned violin with the Suzuki method, which I feel gives students very nice form: their bowing hands are relaxed with rounded fingers; their bowing arms tend to be relaxed, too (no stiff pinky fingers; no elbows sticking up in the air). I think you can't go wrong with the Suzuki method.
Comparing my experiences with the violin and the cello, I feel the cello is easier to play, as I mentioned earlier. One reason is that positioning the cello with respect to your body is easier than with the violin. You have to hold a violin using your chin and shoulder as a main support, and this can be hard for people to learn and can cause muscle fatigue. You need pads and chin rests to make holding a violin comfortable. Meanwhile, a cello is safely resting on the floor! There is less tension involved in keeping it in the correct position.
With a violin bow, you have to fight gravity more to move it and so more tension is involved. Also, with a violin you end up fighting yourself, so there is a constant tension. You support the violin with your chin/shoulder, and therefore you are fighting against your own bow arm, which is pushing down on the violin while you are using force and muscle tension to keep the violin up in the air.
With a cello, you feel that your bow is resting, relaxed, on the strings and the strings support your bow with the floor supporting the cello. You can relax your bow arm much more with a cello than a violin.
I think there is less that can go wrong when learning to play the cello compared to learning to play the violin. The one disadvantage to cello is that you end up shifting your left hand position more often than you need to with violin to play identical music passages, the reason being that the larger cello prevents you from playing as many notes with your hand in a given position on the fingerboard.
Here's a video that shows some of the many position problems that can occur when people learn violin:
Three Common Left Hand Problems with Violin:
Shows how complicated body position issues can be when learning violin
Three Common Left Hand Problems (Violin) and How to Fix Them - YouTube
I said that part of the ease of playing cello is that you don't have to fight gravity as much with your bow hand (your right hand). This is the reason the bow hold for a cello feels very natural and is easy to form: you're basically just dangling your four fingers in space in front of you and then fitting the bow up into your hand. The bow rests very easily in your hand. With the violin, I think it takes longer to figure out how to hold and maneuver the bow, and it produces more hand strain than with the cello.
You can see this man in the video below describing the cello bow hold at the end of the video by just dangling his hand out in front of him and fitting the bow "frog" up into his hand without changing the hand's position very much:
Cello bow hold
Nice and relaxed
Bow Hold Principles [Part 1] - YouTube
I hope this helps you with your decision!