I purchased a Thinkpad x12 detachable over 3 years ago now, and while Lenovo doesn’t officially support Linux on the device, it has been a nearly flawless Linux experience straight from day 1.
Here’s a quick overview of compatibility:
- sleep works with s2idle
- sound, pen, touchscreen, autorotate all work out of the box
- front webcam works
- wifi, bluetooth, all standard wireless hardware working without issues
-
keyboard accessory controls work out of the box, including volume adjustment, brightness control, keyboard backlight control, trackpoint, etc
- if you want to swap the fn with ctrl buttons, there’s a simple systemd service you can install, found here
- IR camera works for face unlock, howdy required
- fingerprint scanner works
- autorotate works
- sound works, and volume buttons work
The hardware on this device is essentially fully functional out of the box with an unmodified Linux kernel, with the only exceptions being:
- Rear camera doesn’t work
- LTE modem doesn’t work, albeit it does look like there’s ongoing work upstream that could fix it in the future
Considering the nightmare that is Surface Linux Compatibility, it’s been great to have a device that “just works” without any additional tinkering required.
Interestingly enough, if you setup waydroid, you can also get it working like a semi-functional Android tablet too.
While I wouldn’t say the experience is as good as an actual Android tablet, I’m able to use Waydroid and F-droid to install apps like Librera (awesome ePub reader), Anki (Android version supports whiteboarding with a pen), and more. The Lenovo pen is even recognized in Waydroid, which was a pleasant surprise. I can do erase actions in apps like Anki in Waydroid.
Unfortunately there’s a very limited selection of x86 tablets, and even fewer that are compatible with Linux. But if you can get an x12 detachable for a good price, I’d say that even in 2025 this is a solid tablet option.