Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1: A value tablet for business

It’s affordable and a solid performer, but the design raises questions.

- MARK HACHMAN

The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 is Lenovo’s answer to the very good Microsoft Surface Pro 7+. Both are tablets with detachable keyboards and a business bent. While the Surface Pro 7+ has high-end cachet, the ThinkPad X12, on the other hand, is more about value.

BASIC FEATURES

Of the seven different configuration options of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 on Lenovo’s website (go.pcworld.com/lnwb), our review unit (the 20UW0012US, $2,229 on Lenovo.com [go.pcworld.com/lnwb]) seems to be popular, going in and out of stock as we wrote this review. The tablet has sold out on Amazon as well. Lenovo offers other basic configurations of the X12 Detachable that start with 8GB of RAM, but we’d consider that setup a bit skimpy if other options are available.

It’s very much worth noting that unlike the rival Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ (go.pcworld. com/7prp), Lenovo bundles a keyboard rather than making you pay extra for it. A pen is extra cost (the keyboard comes with a pen loop). A Lenovo pen with 2,048 levels of ink sensitivity (go.pcworld.com/lacp) is the cheaper option; a separate Lenovo pen with 4,096 levels of ink sensitivity (go.pcworld. com/lap2) is about the double the price.

Here are the rest of the main specifications. Where there are many options (such as with CPU, RAM, and so on), the features on our specific model are indicated by the words “as tested” in parentheses after the item.

Processor: Intel Core i3-1110G4, Core i5-1130G7 (as tested), Core i5-1140G7, Core i7-1160G7, Core i7-1180G7

Display: 12.3-inch (1920x1280 touch, anti-reflective)

Memory: 8GB-16GB LPDDR4x 4267MHz (soldered) (16GB as tested)

Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB PCIe SSD