There's not many good options. It's a genre that was built specifically for a keyboard, after all. Everything that isn't a laptop or desktop is gonna be a frustrating downgrade.

Maybe the answer is getting into adjacent genres of games. They aren't the same, obviously, but there's a lot of overlap with the adventure game genre, especially, and the visual novel genre is more distant but a lot more accessible away from a pc

Maybe I am confused why you can't play them on a smartphone?

I don't know if there are any existing implementations that work well enough yet for it to actually be relaxing, but it might be possible to set up a hands-free IF experience by hooking up speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools to the game.

OK, I'm a big text adventure fan too, as well as a programmer and hobbyist electronics tinkerer, and you gave me a great idea.

I want to take this cheap wireless home theater keyboard and see if I can replace the touchscreen with a tiny OLED display and power it all with a simple board running Linux for text adventure games. The biggest challenge might be getting everything to fit properly in the case, but if I can make it work I'd have a portable text "game boy"!

iOS or others..

Man, I miss Legend of the Green Dragon

I’ve had some fun with ‘Hosted Games’ on iOS recently and remember enjoying Lone Wolf as well if that helps

A Steam Deck or similar alternative? Modded Switch?

I've used some SSH tools to run Dwarf Fortress remotely from my phone. So I know it's doable.

I have a living room PC - a mini pc plugged into my TV that I control with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or game controller. It's so comfortable just sitting back into a sofa to game. You could also get a laptop stand/lap tray for the keyboard for more comfortable typing on your lap.

Basically it doesn't need to be either a desk or a handheld. You can have a halfway of a PC on your TV. I also dock my steam deck and play on my TV, which you could also use for IF if you have one.

Way better than a kindle would be whatever size Onyx Boox tablet that works for you. E-ink has come a,long way.