Tablet / ChromeBook / laptop for tech hobby?

If it's just coding only that you are looking at then any tablet will do but you will have to redo the entire firmware for the best customer support on your hardware. Plus there is a heating issue present in tablets while performing coding-related tasks Testing code often leads to the system on a tablet hanging up for a while. If you are ok with that then there is no need for time delays to think about it. otherwise, if that is a concern then will have to consider a durable tablet. If your work involves more than codings like drawing flowcharts or schematics tools or designing new projects then you will need a more battery life for that tablet. Plus the software you use might act up so you will have to delete old firmware and remove all possible tools except the OS. So modding is also in play for your needs. Hardware and software customization is in direct need to your budgetary requirement. 
Think over it and relay me some numbers and facts and we will see how to bring you the best available product.

it wouldn't be for work, just simple little hobby bits. Anything work-like will be on my Mac.

I know I can use Arduino Cloud IDE in a browser, but I wonder how hard it would be to connect it up to the Arduino to update the sketch. Some do OTA so that might not be a big issue anymore, as long as my favourite dev boards are supported!

I just realized I have a little Motorola Android phone work bought me a few years ago... I might have to just test a few apps and things on it to get a feel for what can be done.

The Arduino Cloud IDE needs the Arduino Create Agent. The agent will recognize the Arduino boards and other supported devices connected to your computer via USB, allows you to upload sketches from your web browser to your boards via USB or through a network and read data from serial monitor, as well as write to it.

There are Arduino Create Agent versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux, you can download the code from github arduino/arduino-create-agent: The Arduino Create Agent (github.com)  I am not aware of any attempts to port the code to Android.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the Arduino Web Editor is not free. The free plan only allows 200 s/day of compilation time which is insufficient to compile code for non-Entry Level boards.

Between choosing an Android tablet or an Apple iPad, for development projects I prefer the Android. I have an iPad thanks to an award from element14 and I hate it even though I came to work at Apple in one of my first jobs and I was a Macintosh evangelist. Apple doesn't allow developer tools on iPads, or I haven't been able to find them, it's really frustrating.

mbed also works with Android : ) From memory (I think I tried it a long while back), it's fine creating, building and transferring the binary to any mbed board, no issue, from Android phones/tablets. From my perspective, Mbed is in many ways a nicer alternative to Arduino (doesn't support the same set of boards though).

Oh dang it I forgot about that Create Agent!

I am painfully aware of the subscription cost of the web editor too, and have run into that free limit before. I also had a lot of general issues with it just recently that makes it clear it’s still a work in progress. Thanks for reminding me about its limits, I had kind of glossed over it!

What you say about the iPad is exactly what I was worried about - it’s great if we’re happy playing in their safe little sandbox, but too limiting for anything beyond basic use.

I’ll have to test on my wife’s iPad if I do decide to go that route.

You know, I was just wondering about mbed just minutes ago! I also remember using it but at the time I didn’t like that it was all online - I’ve reversed my opinion on that now 

I’m not sure if I ever tried it on a tablet, but it’s worth exploring that option again.

Now I’m also wondering if Pi Pico is supported on mobile…

All of these technologies (iOS, Android, Arduino) have been around for more than a decade, haven’t they? It’s kind of disappointing they don’t all play nice together yet.

Here are some general notes, I’ll share here as I bump into things in case it’s useful or interesting for others too…

* Android 13 has virtualization support, and people were able to run Windows 11 in a virtual machine on a Google Pixel phone!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/android-13-virtualization-hack-runs-windows-and-doom-in-a-vm-on-android/?amp=1

* Apple tablets are more expensive, but they support hardware longer than any Android vendor -  for example, iOS 14 will run on the 6s that was released 7 years ago. Has this improved since my last Samsung phone that was not updatable as little as a year after I got it?

* Screen resolution is important - it looks like Apple might be ahead there too.

* Apple is more restricted than Android in general, does that impact working with hobby dev boards?

* Many Android tablets have easy access SD card support = very easy to upgrade storage. I’ve seen support up to 1TB.

* Can tablets work with hobby dev boards via other ways, such as OTA or Bluetooth?

* The Samsung DeX looks interesting - it’s essentially a docking Android tablet with the option to switch to a mouse/touchpad centric UI. Docking turns it into a full desktop computer, with large external monitor, keyboard/mouse/touchpad, external drives… it’ll be interesting to see how much hardware it will ultimately support… maybe with Android 13 running a windows VM? edit: by "docking" I mean with a USB-C connector, not some proprietary connector.

That’s all I’ve got for now  thanks for all the advice so far!

More Notes:

* Adafruit has an example for programming CircuitPython from an iOS device: https://blog.adafruit.com/2019/09/19/program-circuitpython-devices-with-iphone-ios-13/
  -> I wonder if a similar method can be used to program the Raspberry Pi Pico

* For both Android and iOS, an app is available for programming Arduino! An app developer named Anton Smirnov appears to have built it for both platforms.
     * For Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.antonsmirnov.android.arduinodroid2&hl=en  
     * For iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arduinocode-arduino-ide-compiler-uploader-serial-monitor/id1068753028 

* For just coding, not uploading to hardware, you can use something like Remote Desktop, assuming you have a main computer like I do.

Since I have an Android phone handy with a USB-OTG cable, I'll do some experimenting with that first.

Update: I was able to program an Arduino Uno from my Android phone!

I used Anton Smirnov's app ArduinoDroid, and it seems fairly straightforward to use. I haven't put it through any difficult tasks yet but the basics went without any hiccups.

Upload can be done via USB-OTG, as I did, but also via WiFi (not sure how that works yet... might be an ESP-8266/32 thing).

Here are some screenshots:

All I did was connect the usual Arduino USB cable to the USB-OTG adapter. The Arduino gets powered by the phone, but the draw doesn't seem too terrible. I didn't use it for very long, but I also imagine it would stay unplugged while doing the coding.

On this phone the code editor is tight, but not impossible. I imagine it would be much nicer on a tablet:

Nice that it supports my favourites right out of the box - the Uno and the Wemos D1 R2

Here’s a quick update - I was able to pick up a used 10.5” iPad Pro, the 2017 model, at a very reasonable price. It came with a keyboard case and an Apple Pencil, which were both accessories I was looking to get.

I very quickly tried ArduinoCode, but haven’t figured it out yet. Must run, hope everyone is keeping well