I won’t lie, I got excited when I knew about the Thinkpad X12-detachable, a tablet/laptop hybrid from Thinkpad. Knowing that Lenovo’s Thinkpads are one of the few companies that offer Linux support in their laptops + their famous durability, I completely had to get it.
So after 6 months of use with Debian(KDE and GNOME) and Ubuntu, here is my “Linux” review:
X12 Specs
- Processor: Intel i7-1160G7 with Iris Graphic.
- RAM: 16GB.
- Hard Drive: 512GB SSD.
- Screen: 12.3" FHD 1920*1280.
- What’s more: Front and Back Camera, IR front Camera, NFC. Includes stylus and keyboard.
Windows 10.
Won’t say too much about Windows 10 experience. Of course this laptop we completely designed for Windows, so everything there work smooth. It is just that Windows sucks!
The Good:
- All worked immediately
- Full use of the specs and extras
The Bad:
- Windows 10
- Windows 11 upgradable
Ubuntu and Kubuntu
My first candidates of course came from the Ubuntu family, but it was surprisingly awkward. BTW, before installing any other OS I had to change the BIOS configuration. The BIOS is packed with Windows configuration so there were a few things to change. I had to change the “Secure Boot” configuration and the “Boot Order”. But there was something that was not convincing me with Ubuntu/Kubuntu (I tried one after the other)
The Good:
- Both front cameras worked, Infrared and main front camera
- Good stylus support
The Bad:
- The finger reader didn’t work
- Screen did not rotate
- Mousepad buttons not recognized
- Back Camera did not work
- No speaker sound
- Stylus button did not work
Debian 11 with KDE and X11
So this was my first system that lasted the most, mainly because the X11 support for the stylus was great. However, it lack completely of other tablet advantages such as: No screen keyboard (fixed with Onboard) and no screen rotation, and other things did not even worked completely. I also try it for gaming and it worked great with most not high requirement games in Steam. I also used it with two screens connected and the result was good. I was pretty surprised with the performance of this little machine but still, Why getting a hybrid if it feels mainly as a laptop with a drawing tablet attached, and practically not possible to have the fun of a tablet?
The Good:
- Both front cameras worked, Infrared and main front camera
- Stylus worked great with all the button
- Linux experience (as a laptop) was super good
The Bad:
- The finger reader didn’t work
- Screen did not rotate
- Mousepad buttons not recognized
- Back Camera did not work
- No speaker sound
Debian 11 with GNOME and Wayland
I was ready to quit my X12 but just thought to try it one more time with the latest Debian build and Gnome. It looked promising at first, Wayland handles a few of the tablet perks like screen rotation, on screen keyboard, and Gnome is perfect for a tablet feeling… but it was far from perfect. Still same issues with the hardware again, the system was very unstable with a few crashes after “waking up from sleeping”, sometimes the screen rotation working sometimes don’t. The future looks promising with Gnome and Wayland but its present is not.
The Good:
- Both front cameras worked, Infrared and main front camera
- Wayland is better suited for the tablet part: on-board keyboard and screen rotation
The Bad:
- Mousepad buttons not recognized
- Back Camera did not work
- No speaker
Conclusion
Still need to think about the X12 detachable with Linux?
The good::
- Solid as a laptop
- Great battery life
- Most OS detected the Infrared camera
- Most OS detected the finger reader
The bad::
- Lame as a tablet
- Back camera was never detected
- No audio speakers
- Touch-pad buttons not working
- Unstable experience in general as a tablet
So, Is it worth to spend a few bucks on it? Definitely, NOT! Beautiful in paper but messy with Linux support, just avoid it for this time.