Linux on the Tinkpad X13s

The Thinkpad X13s is still an unusual Linux laptop in that it uses an ARM Snapdragon 8cx processor. It came out in 2022 and is discontinued by Lenovo so ebay or alternatives are your friend. Mine was around £400. Since then the Snapdragon X Plus and Elite processors where released and it seems the Elite version is catching up with Apple Silicone in performance. The Snapdragon 8cx in the Thinkpad X13s is not as fast, but compared to almost all other ARM laptops or SBCs it feels snappy. Linux support for the new processors is also not that great yet.

The frame of the X13s is made of magnesium and has a nice feel to it. It is a bit smaller than a Pinebook Pro which has a 14 inch display and still a little bit smaller than a Macbook Air. It's also a bit lighter than both, although that probably does not make that much of a difference.

You cannot extend the memory, but you can change the SSD drive, although Lenovo uses a less common SSD size. You can also unscrew the back for repairs. In the manual is some guidance of what you can repair yourself and what could be done by an expert.

Display

The display is great. Sharp and without reflection. What you would call a matt display. It has a 16:10 form factor. This makes is a bit more square shaped than the 16:9 form that is quite common. This feels good. The brightness is 300 nit, not the brightest, but ok.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Keyboard feeling is of course very subjective. I like the keyboard. It feels tight, has a certain hub, a bit more than a Macbook Air or HP Elitebook for example. In the end it's probably a normal Thinkpad keyboard.

I like that the cursor keys are relatively big for a laptop and there are dedicated PageUp and PageDown keys. Home and End key are there but on the top of the keyboard and more difficult to reach, I use Fn-Left/Right instead.

The trackpad has a good size and feels smooth. There is also the usual Thinkpad TrackPoint stick and it works, I just don't use it that much.

Battery

The battery of this pre-loved Thinkpad charges quickly. It lasts no where near the advertised 25 hours, more like 8-9 hours. My understanding is that sleep mode is currently not completely implemented in the most efficient way.

Performance

I think the performance is good for an ARM laptop. It is below Apple Silicone or the new Snapdragon X Elite, but quite fast compared to any other ARM SBC or ARM laptop that I know. Significantly faster than the Raspberry Pi 5, for example.

Here are a few Geekbench figures:

The published Geekbench figures are not always consistent and vary but it gives a ballpark where the performance is.

I can say the Thinkpad X13s is fast enough, for me. I come from a Pinebook Pro, the Thinkpad X13s feels fast. In the end it depends on your requirements.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is the first distro, starting with the 24.10 release, that includes X13s support in their normal ARM install ISO file and it works out of the box. Download, burn on a flash-drive, boot, works. Great job, here.

What works ?

• Wifi
• Grafik 3D acceleration works, checked with glxgears. Vulkan graphic drivers work with the editor zed. Did not try games.
• Bluetooth works fine. My headphones connected without a problem.
• Some special keys for brightness and volume, keyboard light
• Ubuntu comes with Gnome and works smoothly out of the box. I later installed KDE Plasma and that also works just fine.
• As a game I tried 0AD. It works very well, you do feel though how the processor gets hot in the top left corner of the keyboard.
• Camera / Webcam: There are several discussions how to get things to work, for me qcam worked after a bit of configuration (see discussion below) and I did not try more.
• The fingerprint scanner could be set up in Gnome. It does show up in lsusb and there is a menu option in KDE Plasma 6 -> settings -> users. In KDE the fingerprint scanner works with the lock screen. Additional config is needed to get it working with SDDM for the login screen. It has to be said that the fingerprint scanner is maybe not the best. Sometimes several tries are required.

What is still work in progress ?

• Video acceleration (apparently)
• Audio speaker volume is low. This is mostly about how the speakers are designed. To function properly they need some DSP support driver that is not provided (yet?) in Linux. This seems to happen with more and more laptops.

See this discussion for the Ubuntu support status. The later comments are more relevant.

openSuse

openSuse supports the Thinkpad X13s quite well with its rolling release Tumbleweed. However the initial installation is not out of the box like the Ubuntu one.

With the specific instruction in the openSuse Thinkpad X13s wiki it is not difficult to set up. You will need the updated .dbt file as described. Follow the procedure for the reboot issue. To install I used the full .iso. Otherwise the installer guides you through all steps and you end up with the GUI of your choice, in my case KDE Plasma 6.

What works: (Kernel 6.15)

• Wifi, Grafik, and all the basic functions work.
• The finger print sensor worked in KDE Plasma 6. Standard setup is only for the lock screen, like Ubuntu.
• Bluetooth needs a workaround to be configured.
• 3D acceleration works, checked with glxgears.

What does not work

• Internal loudspeaker have the same issue as in Ubuntu, volume maxes out quite quickly.
• Vulkan graphics drivers do not work out of the box. The LLVMPIPE emulation works with zed, though. For me, the speed was ok. (Kernel 6.13.5)

Overall you get a very nice distro with openSuse that supports most functions and is based on a stable rolling release Tumbleweed.

Other Linux distributions for the X13s

Quite a lot of Linux distributions support the Thinkpad X13s by now, in varying levels.

• Archlinux, not tried yet

• EndevourOS ARM (Archlinux based), not tried yet

• Void It works, but the installation process is not that straightforward explained. It boots and after a lot of reading I got wifi to work again. This is somehow left out from the install instructions. I installed the KDE Plasma packages, but SDDM only shows a black display so far. More to investigate. The installation works, but it makes clear how much more comfort an out of the box installer like Ubuntu gives. I'll write a separate post with the steps that I needed o get Voidlinux up.

• Debian, not tried yet

• Fedora, not tried yet

• Gentoo, not tried yet

• PostmarketOS not tried yet

How to install Linux on the Thinkpad in the first place

I had to do with SBCs and SD-cards so long, I was not completely sure anymore how it would work with a USB stick. It is currently recommended to keep Windows on the laptop as the BIOS update is otherwise difficult. Before or during the installation you have to make space for the Linux partition.

Here is a list of steps:

• get a USB-C memory stick.
• update the BIOS in Windows, currently version 1.63
• Check in which partition you want to install your Linux. Windows probably uses all the disk space with most of the space in C: . You can shrink the C: partition in Windows or Linux. In Windows I had errors that unmovable files prevented the shrinking. During the Ubuntu installation there was no problem and Windows worked after that just fine with less space in C: . Depending on the distro that you want to install this requires attention though.
• BIOS: Turn on Linux support
• BIOS: Turn off Secure Boot
• Download the ISO or image
• use Rufus to burn the ISO to the USB stick, this will erase the data on the USB stick
• power off
• insert USB stick and turn on
• on boot press F12
• choose the USB stick as start medium
• follow the individual instructions for the distro

Summary

The Thinkpad X13s is a ARM laptop that has good support for Linux already. Ubuntu and openSuse work well and several other distros provide support as well. Most drivers work and for me it is suitable as a daily driver. Compared to other Linux ARM laptops the X13s is quite fast and is pleasant to work with. The upcoming Snapdragon X Elite laptops look also promising, but until their price falls significantly and Linux support is improved the Thinkpad X13s is a good option as a ARM Linux laptop.