Acer’s Vero 514 brings its ‘eco-conscious’ concept to a Chromebook

Image: Acer

The addition of a Chromebooks to the Vero lineup is meant to be an eco-conscious option. Like the Windows laptop that came before it, the Chromebooks Vero 514 is made using recycled plastic and comes in packaging that is 90 percent recycled paper. If you don't want to throw anything away, the packaging of the Chromebooks can be turned into a triangular laptop stand.

It weighs in at just a hair over 3 pounds, which is reasonable for a laptop with a 14-inch screen, and is powered by a 12th-gen Intel processor. The Core i3-1215U, the Core i5-1235U, and the five-core Pentium Gold 8505 are some of the processors you can choose from. If I were looking for a laptop, I would go with the i3 or i5 instead of the Pentium.

Image: Acer

If you choose the touchscreen model, the screen will be covered in Gorilla Glass, which will make it feel nice. If you work in bright sunlight, the 300 nits of brightness won't be enough, but it's still a step up from the 227 nit panel on the Windows counterpart. The original Vero can only display 66 percent of the sRGB gamut, while the Windows model can only show 100 percent of the sRGB gamut.

Two of the 514's ports can be used to fast charge the battery up to 50 percent in 30 minutes, while one of the other ports can be used to connect an audio device. The computer has a Flare-reducingWebcam.

The keycaps are made of 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic, while the trackpad is made of 100 percent ocean bound plastic. The majority of the plastic is recycled. While that is not as impressive as a $1,200 MacBook Air which has a 100 percent recycled chassis, it is nice to see that the company is giving more detail than Apple. I wasn't able to find any numbers to back up the claims that the Chromebooks has an " eco-friendly design"

The Chromebook is easy to repair and upgrade, with standard screws allowing you to access the memory and storage, which you may need to do, given that the biggest solid state drive you can get with the 514 is 512 gigabytes. Framework has a laptop that is almost completely repairable and upgradeable, but the base model is almost double the price, at $499.99, and comes with a Core i3 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 128 gigabytes of storage.

My co-worker Monica Chin said that the Windows version doesn't provide a great value at that price point. It's good news for the environment that the 514 is running ChromeOS, which is less demanding than Windows, which could help it stay out of the landfill.

We had a lot of problems with the original Vero laptop, but it seems like the problems have been solved. It is difficult to consume your way to ecological responsibility and if you do have to buy something it should last a long time. If you want a computer that is a bit eco-friendlier, you can install ChromeOS Flex on an old Windows laptop purchased from a local used computer store or dug out of a closet. The Vero 514 will be available at Best Buy in October, if you want something with a bit more modern hardware.