Lenovo knowingly ships LaVie Z laptop with flaws, offering 5 percent discount

The latest Lenovo LaVie Z 360 laptop won't work as intended in the Tent and Stand modes, but the company ships it anyway, offering a 5 percent refund off the purchase price, says Consumer Reports.

The LaVie Z series at CES 2015.CNET

If you've been eyeing Lenovo's latest ultraportable laptop, the LaVie Z series, since it was announced at CES 2015, this may make you think twice about purchasing it.

According to Consumer Reports, computers in this series have issues that prevent them from working as intended in certain situations.

An image of another Lenovo gadget, the Yoga 2 Pro, which shows the various "modes" the hybrid laptop-tablet can be used in.Lenovo

Specifically, with the LaVie Z 360, when it's used in Tent mode -- which means it's bent back until it can be placed on a desk like an A-frame -- the screen image doesn't auto-rotate, meaning you'd see things upside down until you manually rotated the image using a Windows command. And in Stand mode -- where the keyboard is placed facedown on a desk, serving as a stand for the bent-back touchscreen -- the keyboard doesn't auto-deactivate, causing, as Lenovo put it in an email to Consumer Reports, an "unsatisfying user experience."

The LaVie Z 360 is an ultralight computer that weights just 2.04 pounds (.9kg) and is only .67-inches thick. It's a convertible, hybrid machine that's meant to work in a number of modes, including Laptop, Tablet, Tent and Stand.

Consumer Reports learned about the problems not from testing the computer but from purchasing it. The publication said that on placing its order, it received an email from Lenovo that warned of the issues and apologized for the flaws in the new product. The letter also said Lenovo had made "missteps" in its "haste to bring the product to market." The email offered Consumer Reports a 5 percent refund off the computer's price.

Source:http://www.cnet.com/