GNOME could be great for this usecase. I've never liked GNOME too much since version 2. But the latest iteration, after so many years of churn, looks fantastic both on desktop and mobile.
Small Linux tablets, such as Surface Go or Starlabs do touch and desktop pretty well on GNOME. Sadly, I don't think there is a good mobile equivalent to the S8 you used to use.
I'm using Phosh, GNOME based, on my Pinephone and its fairly good (this comment was written with a tweaked desktop Firefox install on said Pinephone). The lack of powerful, efficent, mobile(read: smartphone), linuix friendly hardware is becoming the bigger issue these days!
Small Linux tablets, such as Surface Go or Starlabs do touch and desktop pretty well on GNOME. Sadly, I don't think there is a good mobile equivalent to the S8 you used to use.