While technically a Windows 11 tablet, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable offers something different, I think. It’s more of a laptop with a great detachable keyboard, though I do wish Lenovo would have done something different with the stylus.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable

8/ 10

$1439 $2399 Save $960

The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable is one of the company’s latest Windows 11-based tablets. Featuring Intel Core Ultra x86 processors, the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 delivers all-day battery life, enough power to handle daily workflow tasks, and a solid keyboard experience. Plus, the included keyboard is backlit and you’ll also get a bundled stylus.

Pros

• Solid all-day battery life
• Enough power to get you through standard office tasks
• Great keyboard
• Thunderbolt 4 connectivity
• Keyboard and stylus are included

Cons

• Stylus is not rechargeable

$1439 at Lenovo$1588 at Amazon

Price and Availability

The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 has multiple configurations with a starting retail price of $2,399 at Lenovo when not on sale. However, we’d say that the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable more regularly goes for around $1,500 from various retailers like Amazon, and when discounted at Lenovo.

Lenovo One-Ups Microsoft With an Included Keyboard and Stylus

By now, we’re all familiar with the Microsoft Surface Pro line of Windows tablets. While Microsoft continues to sell the tablet standalone and makes you buy the stylus and keyboard separately (who really gets the Surface Pro without at least a keyboard?), Lenovo includes both the stylus and keyboard in the box for the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable.

The keyboard is actually pretty solid. It’s backlit, has a built-in fingerprint reader, and also includes the iconic ThinkPad TrackPoint little red nub thingy. I don’t know what else to call it, but it’s there. Other than that, the keyboard is pretty typical outside of a few layout oddities that I always hate when companies do.

The function key is the bottom left key on the keyboard, which is where the control key belongs. Function belongs somewhere else. Whenever a company does this, I have to reprogram my body to not hit the bottom left key when doing copy or paste shortcuts, and it’s annoying.

Outside of that, you’ll find the new CoPilot key that’s shipping on many Windows 11 computers, as well as a full function row (which doubles as media keys) and even the home/end/page up/page down keys that sometimes escape being on laptops.

To the right-hand side of the keyboard there’s a little band where your stylus can be at the ready. Speaking of the stylus, this is an area I was left wanting some.

While the stylus works well for, well, stylus things, it’s not rechargeable. How are we in 2024 and companies are still shipping stylus’ with AAAA batteries. Not AAA, but AAAA. There’s plenty of opportunity for this stylus to have a USB-C port or magnetic charging or something, but nope, Lenovo decided that a hard-to-find battery was the best solution.

Honestly, my battery died about halfway through the review and I just didn’t bother replacing it. I don’t use a stylus a ton on tablets like this anyway, so it wasn’t a huge deal for me. But, sourcing an AAAA battery isn’t something that’s the easiest thing to do at the last-minute, so if you rely on the stylus, be sure to keep some on hand.

The ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Easily Lasts for an Entire Workday and Then Some

Lenovo touts the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 as having a “long battery life” but stops short of putting any actual numbers on how long it should last, at least, on their official page. In my personal experience, it always got me through at least a normal day’s work, if not more. You should be able to easily get through an eight-hour workday with the ThinkPad X12, maybe even two, depending on how heavily you use it.

Solid battery life makes it an ideal on-the-go computer. Pair that with the fact that Lenovo gives you an optional 4G LTE modem for wireless connectivity, and you have a portable workstation. Plus, the ThinkPad X12 sleeps properly (Windows 11 has really worked to improve that), so even after multiple days of not touching the tablet, it always had a solid charge for me, even if it hadn’t been plugged in in days.

This Tablet Has Plenty of Power to Handle Everyday Tasks

While the ThinkPad X12 isn’t the most powerful Windows laptop on the market, it still has more than enough power for your everyday tasks. With the Intel Core Ultra 5 134U vPro processor and 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM as a baseline, you’ll find that this laptop will handle things like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel with ease. In fact, it’ll even do light photo or video editing, and can even handle light 3D CAD work, though I wouldn’t try to make an animated movie on it.

Overall, I never found myself wanting for processing power on the ThinkPad X12. I also didn’t push it super hard, because it’s not made to do that. Trying to run the ThinkPad X12 hard would be like trying to win the Daytona 500 with a basic Honda Civic. It’s just not made for that. Use it for what it’s made for, and you’ll be pleasantly happy I think. In fact, you should even be able to do some light gaming on it. Things like Minecraft should run fine, but I wouldn’t try to load up Black Ops 6.

Plus, Lenovo does give you the ability to upgrade the ThinkPad X12 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U vPro processor and 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, adding plenty of extra horsepower to an already adequate machine.

Lenovo Holds Strong to x86 by Sticking With a Traditional Processor

With Microsoft going all-in on ARM processors with its latest Surface Pro 11, Lenovo is playing it safe by sticking to x86 here. Honestly, I think that’s a great move by Lenovo. The ThinkPad line of computers is geared toward professionals, and Windows on ARM isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet, I don’t think. There are still plenty of things that Microsoft needs to work out with Windows on ARM before it’s ready for the big leagues, and Lenovo knows that.

Now, that does mean that Lenovo is “missing out” on some of the nicer features of ARM, like even longer battery life or newer 5G mmWave modems. But, I don’t think that matters all that much to the customers Lenovo is targeting here. There’s already an option for a 4G LTE modem on the ThinkPad X12, which, for most, is more than enough when it comes to built-in networking. Anything faster can be handled by the Wi-Fi 6E networking card and your phone’s 5G mmWave network stack.

Dual Cameras Give You the Ability to Capture Almost Anything

Being a tablet computer, you might have the need to capture photos or videos of various things on the job site or when out-and-about. The ThinkPad X12 has that capability, for better or worse.

To start with, out of the box the camera app didn’t work with the built-in cameras. However, the remedy for this was quite simple: install the driver. Why the driver didn’t come installed out-of-the-box is beyond me, but it only took a few minutes to install and a reboot, then the cameras were working.

There’s a front-facing 5MP IR/RGB hybrid camera with a fixed focus distance if you want to use it for video calls with friends, family, or colleagues. The front camera also has a physical shutter that can be closed to prevent it from being accessed by any means. Honestly, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is probably one of the best laptop/tablet front-facing cameras I’ve ever used. It’s not as good as, say, a high-end webcam. But, it’s pretty fantastic for a built-in camera.

On the back of the tablet, you’ll find an 8MP RGB sensor that features autofocus, making it a better option for actually taking photos or videos. Now, your phone will take a much better picture and much higher-quality video. However, if you need to snap a picture to upload directly to Asana or Slack for your team to view, it doesn’t get much easier than just using your tablet’s built-in cameras. And, honestly, I was pretty impressed with the quality of the back camera too.

Should You Buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable isn’t for everybody. With a lofty retail price, this laptop is absolutely geared toward the professional crowd, as most of Lenovo’s ThinkPad line is. The biggest gripe that I have with the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 is the stylus. For the price, it should absolutely be rechargeable. You’d spend under $1,200 on a Surface Pro 11 with a keyboard and Surface Pen, which is rechargeable.

That being said, the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 is a solid choice for a laptop. The cameras were quite surprising how good they are, and I really enjoyed typing on the bundled keyboard. So, if you’re in the market for a Windows tablet and want to avoid Windows on ARM, then I believe the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable is a solid buy.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable

8/ 10

$1439 $2399 Save $960

The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable is one of the company’s latest Windows 11-based tablets. Featuring Intel Core Ultra x86 processors, the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 delivers all-day battery life, enough power to handle daily workflow tasks, and a solid keyboard experience. Plus, the included keyboard is backlit and you’ll also get a bundled stylus.

$1439 at Lenovo$1588 at Amazon