Linux on tablet PCs

[Soul Samurai]

Hello everybody! I've just joined the forum, this is my first post, so I apologize in advance for my ignorance.

I'm not a big fan of computers without keyboards, but I was interested in the idea of getting something for reading digital material, so a couple of years ago I bought a (relatively) cheap Dell Inspiron 11 3000 (on which the screen folds back like a Lenovo Yoga); the idea was to use it as a pseudo-tablet for reading, and as a test machine for switching to Linux. I installed Ubuntu on it, and it mostly worked. But there were a few problems, one of which was that I couldn't find a way to easily disable the keyboard and touchpad for "tablet" mode, so I couldn't really use it as a tablet. Despite that I enjoyed using Ubuntu a great deal and I intend to stick mainly with Linux for my personal computers.

However the specs on my Dell are quite low, and I've recently discovered the Thinkpad keyboard, which I like a lot. So now I'm thinking about picking up Lenovo Thinkpad, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get this one to work where the Dell didn't. Alternately, I'm considering picking up one of the older models where the screen rotated so that the keyboard and touchpad are covered in tablet mode, but those seem to be somewhat large and heavy compared to the newer hybrids. Right now I'm considering either a Yoga 260 (which seems to be the smallest model with a thinkpad keyboard and stylus?), a Thinkpad X230t (which seems to have solid stats but is a bit bulky and heavy for a tablet), or perhaps just a Thinkpad X61 tablet (which I guess is mainly on this list because it's available for so much less, making it safer to experiment with).

So I guess my questions are:
1. How well does Ubuntu run and/or what flavour of Linux would be recommended for those three models?
2. Has anyone tried Ubuntu on a Thinkpad hybrid like the Yoga 260 and were they able to get the keyboard and touchpad to turn off easily? Alternately what flavour of linux would people recommend?
3. Is there perhaps a different model of Thinkpad that people might recommend instead for someone who wants a small hybrid with a stylus?

[Dekks]

I've ran Ubuntu both on a X61 tablet and a X220 tablet fine, wouldn't expect any issues on the X230 version given it's hardware.

I'd recommend either Ubuntu, Fedora or Arch with Gnome 3 with the wacom drivers installed, adding cellwriter also allows you to use the stylus to log in.

Have you looked at the Helix?

[Soul Samurai]

I've ran Ubuntu both on a X61 tablet and a X220 tablet fine, wouldn't expect any issues on the X230 version given it's hardware.

I'd recommend either Ubuntu, Fedora or Arch with Gnome 3 with the wacom drivers installed, adding cellwriter also allows you to use the stylus to log in.

Have you looked at the Helix?

Cool, thanks! I hadn't really considered the Helix before, does it work well with Linux? For some reason the detachable keyboard makes me paranoid about compatibility.

[Dekks]

.......the detachable keyboard makes me paranoid about compatibility.

Generally everything seems to work out of the box, with the usual caveat that screen rotation needs setting up manually. The only gotcha is some are reporting that if you wake the tablet up from suspend and then reattach it to the KB the keys don't work. As of 2015 this was under investigation and i've seen no recent reports of it.

[Soul Samurai]

That makes it a very interesting alternative then. As far as I can tell the helix has a mini HDMI port. Do you happen to know if it's possible to connect it to a larger monitor, then set it so it maps pen input to the large monitor instead of it's own screen? Essentially using it as a sort of psuedo wacom? That would be very interesting with the detachable screen.