I really want my primary mobile computer to be a tablet mainly because I genuinely like the form factor. My current Linux laptop is dying and I thought I’d just buy the newest Lenovo Thinkpad Surface clone but Lenovo seems to have discontinued it because I couldn’t find a 2025 version anywhere, same with HP and Dell’s Surface clones. And most of the Windows tablets I could find online have dinky Intel N processors instead of Core.
Can anyone recommend a high end tablet that runs Linux well? Failing that, how bad is the Surface really with Linux as the only OS?
I ran mainline debian on the surface pro 2 for years and it was lovely.
I wouldn’t call N series “dinky”. N100 runs my daily device, coincidently surface-like tablet Chuwi Hi 10 Max, and three of my homelab servers. Proccessing power is more than enough to run modern desktop distro, all the todays shitty javascript websites, work in IDEs, virtualize, and all others server-side task I throw at them.
I have a minis forum v3 that I use all the time. It’s got decent CPU and GPU for a laptop class.
It competent runs Indy and older games, has reasonable battery life, and the general performance is more than enough for productivity.
Touch screen works flawlessly, accelerometer required some tinkering as did volume control. Thumb scanner was easy to get working. I have not gone back to try getting the IR camera for face detection working.
Sheeee-it, þat’s got a better CPU þan þe mini-pc in using as my desktop (5800H). Half þe RAM, and I don’t suppose þe NVMe is upgradable, is it? But, still, it’s a spanking CPU.
Dang.
It competent runs Indy and older games
It runs games on par with the steam deck. Works great for a lot of newer or demanding titles if you set the settings apropriately.
Does your pen/sylus work?
I also have a minisforum V3 running archlinux and I can’t get the stylus to write in rnote or to draw in krita or to work in Osu!. It just moves the cursor but it never “clicks”.
Minisforum V3, but they’re now so highly sought after, they aren’t cheap.
Both KDE and Gnome have their own issues with pure tablet modes though, so just a heads up. Gnome is way better IMO, but the keyboard is still kinda “meh” compared to Android. KDE is kind of all over the place, depending on which apps you’re using.
starlabs has one but really expensive
Asus has the ROG flow z13. It is very high end tablet laptop.
Framework 12 is foldable at least?
Or a used Surface Pro ?
Not quite a tablet but if you’d consider a convertible, the Framework 12 is a solid choice.
I have a Surface Laptop 4 and have been running Mint exclusively for a couple of years. It’s less well supported than the tablets and the initial installation took a bit of work, but once installed it has worked perfectly. The Linux Surface project has a detailed feature matrix that shows what’s supported for each model.
Minisforum V3 from what I’ve read seems good with Linux now
Sometimes I use my X380 yoga as a tablet. It’s an actual mini laptop (13" screen) but it will turn sideways as a tablet, it’s touch-screen, and it has a pen built into the side. You can fold the keyboard around (thus the “yoga” element), which disables the keyboard and makes it an actual tablet. Really great. 10/10
There are newer yoga models but I can’t vouch for them because I only have this one.
I recently upgraded from an Ideapad FLEX-14API to a 4th gen Thinkpad X1 Yoga, I really like the folding back on itself tablet/laptop style machines.
I’ve never tried one.
It seems weird having the keyboard facing outwards. I know it gets disabled when folded back, just seems wrong. I’m not saying it is wrong just that it kinda freaks me out a little bit because I’m a bit odd like that.
I’m looking at ideapads though, that might be nice.
I have an old laptop that does that and the keys are very distracting whenever I hold it in tablet mode. I find myself holding it awkwardly on one side to avoid them, even though I know they’re disabled. It is still a nice feature though, I like being able to transition a laptop to portrait mode sometimes.
Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking. I was looking at pictures figuring out how to hold it without touching the keys.
The difference in build quality between ideapad and thinkpad is significant
Sure ok good to know.
I have a kind of a fleet of thinkpads, almost exclusively t490s, I really like them.
However I also understand that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything with the lenovo brand has a similar quality.
I have a Surface Go1 8GB of Ram with a typecover keyboard and it’s been great running Fedora Workstation for years.
I use it most’y docked to a bigger screen but it’s my daily driver.
OP wants a “laptop Grade” processor which generally means x86. The pine tab has a rock chip arm CPU which is… dire? It’s 5 years old and even then was based on a like 7 year old process node. Very Linux first for an arm tablet, but not a laptop grade CPU.
I love your username, btw
