The new Acer Chromebook Vero 514 is a Chrome OS laptop with a 14 inch full HD touchscreen display, a durable design, and up to an Intel Core i7-1255U processor.
It’s also the first Chromebook to join Acer’s Vero line of products that are designed to be a bit more eco-friendly than a typical computer. In this case, that means incorporating recycled (and recyclable) materials into the design.
Acer says the 30% of the material used to make the notebook’s chassis and screen bezel is post-consumer recycled plastic. The keycaps use 50% post-consumer recycled plastic. The glass-like surface of the notebook’s touchpad is made entirely from ocean-bound plastic. And the Acer Chromebook Vero 514 ships in packaging made from 90% recycled paper.
The company says the laptop is also designed to be long-lasting: it’s designed to meet MIL-STD-810H testing for ruggedness and you should be able to drop it from heights of about four feet without causing any damage. If and when it is time to retire the laptop, Acer says the display panel is 99% recyclable.
Acer announced the Chromebook Vero 514 during an Acer Green Day event, where the company also noted that it’s been working with manufacturing partners including Compal and Quanta to reduce use of plastic bags and security tape in pallet packaging to help cut down on unnecessary waste.
Acer says it also plans to shift its own operations to 100% renewable energy by 2035. The company notes that Acer office in 30 countries are already running entirely on renewable energy, but that only represents about 45% of the company’s total energy use.
The efforts of one PC maker to use recycled materials and cut down on materials used in the production process are just a tiny drop in the bucket when it comes to the environmental impact of personal computer manufacturing and distribution. But I suppose Acer is hoping that given the choice between buying a computer that’s a little more eco-friendly than the competition, some customers might pick up a Vero-branded model rather than a different PC with similar specs?
Speaking of specs, here’s a run-down:
| Acer Chromebook Vero 514 specs | |
| Display | 14 inches, 1920 x 1080 pixels IPS LCD 100% sRGB color gamut Touch and non-touch options Corning Gorilla Glass |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-1255U Intel Core i5-1235U Intel Core i3-1215U Intel Pentium Gold 8505 |
| RAM | Up to 16GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | Up to 256GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD |
| Battery & Charging | 56 Wh 65W USB Type-C power adapter |
| Wireless | WiFi 6E |
| Ports | 2 x USB Type-C 1 x USB 3.2 Type-A 1 x HDMI |
| Audio & video | Stereo upward-facing speakers Dual microphones HD webcam |
| Security | Fingerprint reader |
| Dimensions | 313 x 224 x 21mm 12.3″ x 8.8″ x 0.8″ |
| Weight | 1.4 kg 3.1 pounds |
The Acer Chromebook Vero 514 will be available in the US starting in October when Best Buy is expected to begin selling a $500 model featuring an Intel Core i3-1215U processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. Additional configurations should be available later.
Acer says the Chromebook Vero 514 will hit other markets including the Europe, Middle East, and Africa in November with prices starting at 599 Euros.
I haven’t thought about chromebooks for a while. Since when do they need so much processing power?
You might want to know…you know, do a little research.
Since people started running virtual machines on them.
Since people started running linux and android and windows applications on them.
Since Valve released a steam client for it.
And I guess someone must have figured out how to create horrifically bloated programs using macros for whatever office suite.
There are now adults who grew up on ChromeOS, learned how to use it to it’s full extents, and won’t imagine using anything else until ChromeOS changes to sufficiently offend them, but if they’re okay with google tracking everything they do and moreover all the power that gives google (someone who knows how to do all that stuff can’t simply be ignorant like most smartphone users), I can’t imagine what would be. I also can’t imagine getting along very well with such a person, because voicing your concerns to someone like that just leads them to religiously accuse you of being some kind of monster.
Sounds less like a chromebook and more like a windows laptop.
People have been confused about this since day one: Chrome OS is a fully functional operating system that can run on a wide range of devices including budget, mid-range, and premium machines, just like Windows, Linux, and even macOS (even though Apple doesn’t really sell anything I’d consider “budget”).
It’s just that the first Chromebooks to hit the streets were relatively inexpensive and Chrome OS wasn’t particularly mature at that point… but it did run reasonably well on cheap hardware. So many folks got the idea that this was the whole point. It’s not.
A budget Chromebook works fairly well for web surfing and light multitasking. Models with faster processors, more memory, and additional storage can not only handle more browser tabs, but also more demanding tasks like games, Android or Linux apps, and other tasks.
Chromebooks are computers. So it makes sense that there are high-end models as well as cheap ones.
I can’t see how Acer could sell enough volume to cover their costs for this development.
Simple. Acer, HP, Asus and Lenovo issue chromeOS versions of their Windows and Android devices. For example the HP 11a was the HP Stream with the Intel Celeron CPU replaced with a MediaTek one. And the Lenovo Duet 3 was one of their midrange Android tablets except with 4 GB RAM instead of 2 GB. So, this Vero is merely the chromeOS version of the Windows 11 Vero released