Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable

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The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable (starting at $1,430; $1,559.35 as tested) stands out as one of the few business-focused Windows tablets on the market. Unlike its competitors led by Microsoft, Lenovo bundles the keyboard and digital pen without charging extra, making the X12 ready to use immediately. Its 12.3-inch screen also makes it easily portable. While the Dell Latitude 7350 Detachable boasts superior performance, longer battery life, and a brighter display, this ThinkPad's lower price makes it a viable alternative, though not a category champion.

Configurations and Design: If a ThinkPad Were a Tablet

The ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable is a tablet-first device. Its fold-out kickstand and detachable keyboard are only stable on a table or desk, making it less suitable as a proper laptop replacement than a convertible with a rotating screen.

The ThinkPad X12 achieves the robust quality for which the company's flagship ThinkPad X series is known. Its metal exterior is rigid and durable, having undergone MIL-SPEC 810H durability tests to withstand conditions far beyond typical office environments. Lenovo uses post-consumer recycled content in the design, as well as 85% recycled packaging.

Our test unit features an Intel Core Ultra 5 134U processor with Intel vPro remote management, Windows 11 Pro, 16GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a one-year warranty. Lenovo gets a thumbs-up for including the keyboard and stylus instead of making them pricey extras as they are on the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Dell Latitude 7350 Detachable.

The device's 12.3-inch screen gives it a slightly smaller footprint than its 13-inch competitors. It measures 0.22 by 11 by 8 inches, whereas the Latitude 7350 is 0.35 by 11.3 by 8.2 inches and the 2024 Surface Pro is 0.37 by 11.3 by 8.2 inches. Both the Lenovo and the Dell weigh 1.76 pounds, while the Microsoft slate is slightly heavier at 1.97 pounds. With its keyboard cover attached, the ThinkPad measures 0.34 inch thick and weighs 2.24 pounds.

The tablet's left-edge port selection includes a Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C port, a 10Gbps USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. WWAN-equipped models will also have a nano SIM slot here. The power adapter plugs into either USB-C port.

The tablet's right edge holds only a volume rocker and a Kensington nano security lock slot, while the power button is on the top edge. An Intel AX211 networking card provides Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Wi-Fi 7 connectivity is not available on this tablet.

Biometric features include a fingerprint sensor integrated into the detachable keyboard and an IR webcam (with sliding privacy shutter) for password-free logins via Windows Hello. The webcam performed well, accurately exposing my face and minimizing grain in low light with ample sharpness. The Core Ultra CPU's AI engine supports Windows Studio background effects such as portrait blur. The world-facing camera records with similar quality and can capture 6-megapixel stills.

Using the ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable: An Everyday Business Companion

The detachable keyboard of this ThinkPad provides the most tactile feel of any tablet accessory I've tried. Lenovo's design is completely stable, unlike many detachable keyboard covers that wobble at the corners. I scored 114 words per minute in the MonkeyType online typing test, as quickly as I can type on a laptop keyboard. Layout-wise, the keyboard presents properly separated arrow keys and a Windows Copilot key. The two-level white backlighting can be toggled with a Fn + space bar shortcut.

I'm also impressed by the integrated touchpad, which features an anti-glare surface and a satisfying physical click. This tablet also has the iconic ThinkPad pointing stick and dedicated buttons.

The 1,920-by-1,280-pixel screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio, making it ideal for tablet use. The IPS panel delivers vibrant color and decent brightness. Office documents appear sharp, and I enjoyed the cinematics in Blade Runner: 2049. You won't find any upgrade options; an OLED screen, like the one available for the Surface Pro, would have been a better choice for creators.

The Lenovo Precision Pen operates on a single AAA battery installed by pulling (not twisting) off the end cap. It's similar in size to an ordinary ink pen and felt natural in my hand. It has dedicated side buttons and an eraser. The pen can be stored in a fabric loop on the detachable keyboard or magnetically attached to the side of the tablet.

Weak audio performance limits the tablet's entertainment potential. The speakers produce almost no bass and are barely loud enough for personal listening. Kelly Clarkson's "Catch My Breath" sounded flat and unexciting, with no noticeable difference in volume past 60%. On the bright side, Lenovo includes a headphone jack, which an increasing number of tablets omit.

Testing the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable: The Cost of the Value Play

We tested the ThinkPad X12 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 134U processor (12 total cores, up to 4.4GHz turbo), integrated Intel Graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, Windows 11 Pro, and a 512GB SSD. The only difference from the base model is that ours doubles the storage capacity. Optional upgrades include a Core Ultra 7 164U, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB drive. All processor options include Intel vPro IT management tech.

The Core Ultra U-class CPUs in this tablet have a base power of 9 watts (W), compared with the 15W commonly found in laptops. This helps manage heat generation, albeit at the cost of some performance, especially in long-term CPU-intense workloads. Regardless, this device has sufficient responsiveness for everyday tasks.

Pricing for business models varies significantly, particularly for bulk purchasers. However, Lenovo’s single-unit prices are more than competitive since the detachable keyboard and pen are included in its starting price of $1,430. The Dell Latitude 7350 Detachable with similar specifications—though half as much storage as the Lenovo—costs $1,739 without the keyboard and pen, $1,999 with them.

The Latitude 7350 Detachable and 2024 Microsoft Surface Pro are the only Windows detachables we've tested lately, so we filled out our performance charts with 2-in-1 laptops, namely the Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 9. The 15W U-series chips in the Latitude 9450 and the ThinkPad X1 ran away with leading scores in these tests. The Dell 7350 also has a 9W U-series chip like our ThinkPad X12. The Surface Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon machine able to run only a few of our benchmark tests via software emulation.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

At last, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The ThinkPad X12 trailed the other units in all these tests, especially the CPU-intensive HandBrake, Cinebench, Geekbench, and Photoshop benchmarks. The Latitude 7350 Detachable showed markedly superior performance, suggesting it may have beefier cooling. The X12 relies on a single tiny cooling fan, which is practically silent. The tablet gets warm after extended use but not too hot to touch.

Even under the thin emulation layer that Microsoft has achieved with its Prism tech in Windows 11, the Surface Pro outperformed many of the devices here in Cinebench and Geekbench. While pricier in its tested configuration, it shows what Intel-equipped devices are now up against with Snapdragon on the scene. Regardless, you can expect reliable and decent, though not class-leading, performance from the ThinkPad X12.

Graphics Tests

We test the graphics inside all mobile computers and desktops with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).

To further measure GPUs, we also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.

The ThinkPad X12 also fell short in these tests, once again falling significantly behind the Dell detachable. It has sufficient 3D performance for basic tasks and pen drawing, but that's all.

Battery and Display Tests

We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Battery life was another drawback for the ThinkPad X12, falling nearly four hours short of the Latitude 7350 Detachable despite a considerably dimmer display at the 50% setting we use for testing. Its screen quality was status quo in this class, producing reasonably broad color coverage but not matching the Latitude 7350's brightness.

Verdict: Well-Priced at the Cost of Performance

The ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 Detachable will satisfy businesses seeking a highly portable Windows tablet to replace a laptop. Its detachable keyboard and digital pen are top-notch, and its 12.3-inch screen provides ample working space. Additionally, the tablet includes business-friendly features such as Intel vPro and WWAN connectivity. While the Dell Latitude 7350 Detachable remains our top recommendation due to its superior performance and exceptionally long battery life, the ThinkPad’s lower price, especially with included accessories, makes it a worthy alternative.