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So I actually did it...my first Linux review on a budget Chinese tablet

TLDR: bad support as a tablet, usable as a laptop

Quite a while since my last post, I created a bootable fedora USB ssd, and confimed the return policy, what missing is just choosing the actual review model, but that shouldn't be hard. I mean if I am returning the device anyway, I should just look for the popular opinions from comments, right?

But I'm getting a bit greedy. Looking at what I had, I have a

  • 13.5 inch laptop, good Linux support, not going to replace it

  • a surface go 2, this one's a bit mixed. I love its form factor, and it's probably the one with best Linux support among its category, but the performance starts falling apart. It gets laggy when swap being filled, and for a few times it turns itself off because of the heat.

so if I find something with same small, Linux support, but more performant, maybe it's a good chance to retire it.

The Candidate - Zwide SA11pro

I was capturing the moment fedora boots, but the sticker also pretty much say why I'm picking this device. Regarding the CPU, it's not really an upgrade from m3-8100y, but it has a fan and 4gb more ram than the surface go 2, which hopefully make some differences.

Some more photos before we dig into the Linux support part:

(I place things on a foam mat to make sure no scratches will be made lol)

We are Nerds

We are not here for the photos. So let's jump to the Linux part. Everything is tested on the latest fedora (a dnf update is run).

The sad news: camera and touch is not supported :( But here are all the other things tested and worked:

  • microphone

  • speaker

  • wifi

  • bluetooth

  • keyboard + touchpad

    • keyboard disabled on flipped backward

  • screen off on lid close

  • brightness

  • thermal / fan spinning

  • auto rotate

Deal Breaker for me

But not for everyone. l woudn't be suprised if someone buy the device and use it as a small laptop with no cameras and touch, especially considering the price here (~300usd).

And that's it. Repacked and shipped back. While I am waiting for the refund, I’d love to hear your thoughts:

  1. On the content: Anything I should cover more / less? I deliberately skipped specs / aesthetics as those are typically covered by other reviews, and my goal is not to compete with them, but complement with Linux support.

  2. On the tone: This is my first time writing a tech review (and English isn't my first language). Was the pacing clear? Any tips for next time?