Acer Aspire Vero (2023) review: everything you need to know

It’s hard to be good to the environment. When we buy a new toy, beauty product, gadget, powerful piece of hardware, or even something as simple as a water bottle, we are in some way contributing to a cycle of consuming things that are often thrown away in the wrong way. Buying a laptop is the same way. You won’t find a device that can completely erase your digital footprint, but some do try. The Acer Aspire Vero (2023) is an eco-friendly laptop from Acer that doesn’t have any paint on it and is made with 40% of post-consumer plastic waste.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Description

Not only that, but its touchpad is made from plastics that would otherwise end up in the ocean. The Vero 14 we have is smaller than the 15-inch model, and I think it’s just the right size. But there are some bad things about this. It is 0.7 inches tall, 12.9 inches wide, and 8.8 inches deep. It weighs about 1.4 kg.

Which is much lighter than its 15-inch cousins, which weigh 2 kg. Choosing a smaller screen makes a big difference in this way. The Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51 is a 14-inch office laptop whose main focus isn’t on specs or performance, though the Core i7-1255U processor (Alder Lake) inside makes sure it’s not lacking in the latter.

Instead, Acer is putting the focus on being environmentally friendly. Part of the laptop is made of recycled plastic, and its packaging is made of recycled paper. Also, the company says that the product will last, can be fixed, and can be upgraded. Devices like the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 14ITL6, the HP Envy 14, and the Dell Inspiron 14 5425 are in competition with the Vero AV14.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Pros and Cons

Specification Table

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Design

Then we talk about the Vero itself, and you’ll notice right away how different it looks and feels. We looked at the gray the last time, and that wasn’t too bad. But here we have the blue, and we have to say that this is our favorite color.

And keep in mind that this is not paint, but the color of the plastic itself. So it’s kind of different. The green effort is shown by the fact that 30% of this chassis is made from PCR materials. Acer says that would be the top and bottom covers, the screen bezel, and the surface for using the computer. The keycaps are also made of 50% PCR materials, and the OceanGlass Touchpad uses plastic that has been in the ocean for a long time.

To help you remember all of this, the bottom right corner of the operating surface will say “PCR,” and the R and E keys will have the same font backwards to remind you of the 3 R(s). Cut back, re-use, and recycle. After using the Vero for about 3 weeks, we have to say that the build quality is pretty good and doesn’t fall short compared to any other laptop that uses similar plastics. The 14-inch version is also much easier to carry around than the 15.6-inch version because it weighs only 1.5kg.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Display

The 1920×1080 matte LCD screen with a 60Hz refresh rate on the Acer Aspire Vero won’t blow you away, but it’s fine for a laptop at this price. It’s noticeably dark, so don’t use this eco-friendly laptop in the sunny outside world that you are helping to save, but it’s colorful enough to keep it from being a total disaster.

The screen showed this unique and beautiful mix of 2D backgrounds and stylized 3D animation that didn’t take away from the richness of the world. It didn’t impress me at all, but the Vero also didn’t make me look at a gray mess. On the other hand, the light never seemed bright enough. While looking out over a large kingdom lit by the soft glow of orange flames shining through window panes, it was hard to see the finer details in the darker half of the city.

The Aspire Vero’s score of 78.2% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is a few steps below our category average of 89.7%, didn’t surprise me. Still, this is better than the Inspiron 16 (69.5%), and only the MacBook Air (80.9%) is better. The Zenbook 14 (96%) beat out all of its rivals. The Aspire Vero didn’t do nearly as well in our brightness tests. It got an average of 273 nits, which is a long way behind our category average of 382 nits. This is, as expected, darker than the Inspiron 16 (307 nits), the MacBook Air (366 nits), and the Zenbook 14 (375 nits).

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Audio

The bottom-firing speakers on the Aspire Vero sound surprisingly good when listening to music or watching movies with soothing melodies or casual conversation. But when the sound changes to have a lot of bass, loud sound effects, or rough instruments, it sounds flat and blown out. As soon as we saw the trailer for Disney’s Wish, I wished that the sound could be a little louder. The dialogue was clear and crisp, but it was a little louder than the background music.

The noise in the background made it hard to hear the sound effects, but it wasn’t so bad that you couldn’t watch the movies. “The Other Side of Paradise” by Glass Animals and was enjoying the mix of synths, barking, and high-pitched electronic sounds until the song changed into its more intense ending. With a lot of synthesized instruments layered on top of each other, it was hard for the laptop’s speakers to convey how intensely the music was getting. It couldn’t help but sound dull and lifeless.

Then we listened to “The New Year” by Death Cab for Cutie, and we were blown away by how well the Aspire Vero handled the ups and downs of this powerful song. Even though the sound is still a little flat and lacks a full sound and crispness, it is still loud and clear, and the guitar strumming and percussion make me happy.

Keyboard and Trackpad

We didn’t like the trackpad last year, and Acer listened. They made the surface a lot smoother, almost as good as Apple’s trackpads. This year, Acer uses a trackpad called “Oceanglass” that is made from plastics that end up in the ocean.

The keys are much nicer to type on than the ones from last year. On the right, we lose the number pad, but I don’t think laptops should have full-sized keyboards anyway. It goes against the idea of being portable. A fingerprint scanner that works very well is also built into the trackpad.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Performance

Now, the way it works is also great, there are no problems there. The scores in Cinebench R23 are pretty good, and you can even play Valorant at 1080p high settings and get over 140 frames per second. You don’t have to worry about the weather, either. Everything is under control. Last, the battery life. When looking for a laptop to use every day, one of the most important things to think about is how long the battery will last. This is another thing that the Vero does well.

In the real world, we could use that 56Wh battery for an average of about 10 hours in Eco Mode with VeroSense. No problems at all after a day of use without the charger. It’s a laptop that does pretty much everything well and costs very little. Now, you might say, “How green can a laptop, of all things, really be?” and you’d be right, but only partly.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Battery life

The Aspire Vero’s battery life is great, and you can be sure it will last you all day at work and then some. It lasted for a total of 12 hours and 54 minutes on the battery test, which is continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. This is a few hours faster than the average in this category, which is 10:20, but it’s up against some champions.

The Inspiron 16 (13:38) and the MacBook Air (14:41) have slightly longer battery lives than the rest. The Zenbook 14 (10:52) beat the average, but it was far behind the rest. Each laptop is at least better than average.

Acer Aspire Vero (2023): Heat

During our tests, the Aspire Vero stayed pretty cool. At one point, it was just a little bit warmer than our 95-degree comfort limit. While streaming a 1080p video for 15 minutes, the bottom near the vents got as hot as 97 degrees Fahrenheit. The touchpad (75 degrees) and the G/H key (83 degrees) were nice and cool, though.

Final Words

Acer’s new Vero line is better in many ways than it was last year, as shown by a higher overall score. However, it still has some features that aren’t needed, like the barrel plug for charging. This generation is a step in the right direction, but it could still be better. This generation of Vero starts at a price of 2699 AED.

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