The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable is more sensible than the X1 Tablet

In the year 2016, Lenovo tried to compete with the Microsoft Surface Pro with its then new ThinkPad X1 Tablet. As an extension of Lenovo's flagship series ThinkPad X1, it was not enough to simply copy the Surface. For that reason, Lenovo brought out its detachable ThinkPad with an interesting, modular concept.

Unfortunately for Lenovo, neither the X1 Tablet Gen 1 nor the X1 Tablet Gen 2 were a success. Lenovo did not want to give up, so in 2018, they released the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 3 with a new design. The modules were history. Instead, Lenovo upgraded the X1 Tablet with a bigger LCD, higher resolution and much faster Kaby Lake Refresh CPUs with four cores - the first X1 Tablets ran with Intel Core m.

Despite the upgrades, the X1 Tablet 2018 seemingly was not a success either, as this model was discontinued without a successor, which means Lenovo temporarily gave up on the business tablet market. A problem of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen 3: It was much more expensive than the Microsoft Surface Pro 6.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable does not have this problem anymore. Free from the flagship status, the ThinkPad laptop can compromise in certain areas. For example, in terms of the screen resolution, which dropped to 1,920 x 1,280 compared with the 3,000 x 2,000 resolution of the X1 Tablet Gen 3 - a less expensive and less power hungry solution.

With that in mind, it is no surprise that the ThinkPad X12 Detachable manages a better battery life than the X1 Tablet Gen 3 in our review. The smaller size is also better for a tablet, and the Tiger Lake UP4 CPUs are simply better suited for such a device than the less efficient chips of the X1 Tablet. Different from the recent X1 ThinkPads, the X12 Detachable does not have premium features like Dolby Atmos speakers, a 5G option or a glass touchpad - in return, the X12 Detachable is much more competitive with its lower pricing.