Mainlining a tablet

Back in 2013/2014 I decided to ditch my smartphone for a dumb phone (a flip phone on a paygo virgin mobile plan) and shift to a Nexus 7 (2013) tablet as my daily driver for all of my smart phone things.

This decision was made based on my main use for my smartphone (other than calls and text) was to read manga and other books, so the bigger screen made a lot of sense.

I eventually started using Text+ so I could text from the tablet and ditch the phone altogether in favor of a land line (at the time, bundling this with my internet somehow made the whole package cheaper) and for about a year I ran solely on the Nexus 7 as my mobile device.

No, it didn't have cell connection, just WiFi, but as a Cramcast subscriber I had access to all of the XFinity hot spots that everyone with a Cramcast rental router put off, so connection was actually pretty universal in my area (and when taking day trips into Boston).

It wasn't until late 2014, when attending a convention, that I needed to access my email to prove my registration. Great news, hotel WiFi isn't free, and there were no open hotspots around (because then why would you pay for hotel wifi?) so I ended up needing to borrow a friend's phone to do what I needed. That was my catalyst for moving back to smart phones, eventually picking up a Galaxy S4.

Fast forward to now. I recently picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 at a steal of a price in a thrift shop. It was going to be just for an ereader, but the more I'm using if the more I remember how much I loved the form factor of the Nexus 7 (and now the Tab A9).

So, am I going to switch back? Uncertain as of yet, more data needed. My main phone currently is a Pixel 8 Pro running GrapheneOS and I've been loving that, but there's something about the larger screen of the AI that makes it feel like I can get more done on it. The major downfall currently (other than it having 1/3 of the RAM of my phone) is that I haven't found a good alternative OS for it, at least not with official support.

Anyone here have any similar experience or ideas? There was something super nice about only using WiFi so I could be truly disconnected from my device when traveling or out in the wilderness (if ever I went outside). What's your favorite form factor for devices?

PS. I am so not about folding phones as they currently exist.