Acer’s Vero 514 brings its “eco-conscious” concept to Chromebooks

Acer is adding the Chromebook to its Vero lineup, which is meant to offer laptop buyers an “eco-conscious” option. Whom A (more disappointing) Windows laptop According to the company, the Chromebook Vero is made from 514 recycled plastics, has a 99 percent recyclable chassis, and contains 90 percent recycled paper in its packaging. Acer’s press release even suggests that part of the Chromebook’s packaging can be turned into a “multipurpose triangular laptop stand” if you hate dropping things.

Before we look at recyclability, let’s quickly review the specifications – it weighs more than 3 pounds, which is reasonable for a laptop with a 14-inch screen, and is equipped with a 12th-generation Intel processor. With Xe graphics. You can get it with a variety of processors, including the five-core Pentium Gold 8505 (don’t let the core number fool you, only one is for performance, the rest are efficient cores), Core i3-1215U, Core i5-1235U, and Core i7-1255U. These are all relatively low-power chips, fine for an eco-minded PC, but if I were looking for a laptop, I’d probably go with either an i3 or an i5 and avoid the Pentium altogether.

Image: Steel

The 1080p display is covered in Gorilla Glass, which should feel pretty nice if you opt for the touchscreen model. Its 300-nit brightness won’t be enough if you’re constantly working in bright sunlight, but it’s still a step up from the 227-nit panel found on its Windows counterpart. The 514 should also improve the color rendering of the original Vero; While the Windows model can only display 66 percent of the sRGB gamut, Acer covers 100 percent for its Chromebook.

As for ports, the 514 has a healthy selection – two USB-C ports that can be used to fast charge the battery up to 50 percent in 30 minutes, one USB-A port, an HDMI port and a headphone jack. The computer also comes with a 1080p webcam with “flame reduction”.

As for the notebook’s environmental footprint, Acer says the trackpad’s surface is made from 100 percent “ocean-bound plastic,” while the keycaps are made from 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. 30 percent of chassis plastic is recycled. Although it’s not as impressive as, say, the $1,200 MacBook Air It has a 100 percent recycled chassis, it’s nice to see that Acer provides relatively detailed details like Apple. I couldn’t find any numbers to back up these Asus claims its Chromebook Flip CX5 has an “eco-friendly design.” thanks to “located recycled materials”.

Acer also claims that the Chromebook is easy to repair and upgrade, with standard screws giving you access to storage and memory (which you might have to do, given that the largest SSD you can get with the 514 is 256GB). Although not at this level What does the Framework do? with an almost completely repairable and upgradeable laptop, this computer is almost twice the price; The base model comes with the 514, Core i3, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, starting at $499.99.

This is another improvement over the Windows version It starts at $700and according to my colleague Monica Chi, it’s not particularly great value at this price point. review from last year. The 514 also runs on ChromeOS, which is considered less demanding than Windows – which could help the 514 stay out of the landfill for longer, which is nothing but good news from an environmental standpoint.

Overall, it looks like Acer has fixed some of the issues we had with the original Vero laptop. However, I’d like to reiterate a point Monica made when reviewing that computer: environmental responsibility is hard to come by, and if you’re going to buy something, it needs to last a long time. One option for those looking to get a slightly more eco-friendly computer is to install one ChromeOS Flex on an old Windows laptop bought from a local used computer store or taken out of the closet (doing a “reuse” step such as reduce, reuse, recycle). But if you want something with a little more modern hardware, including creature comforts like a fingerprint reader, Acer said the Vero 514 will be available at Best Buy starting in “mid-October.”