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Acer Aspire Vero Review: Solid Sustainability

The consumer electronics world is obsessed with sustainability at the moment. It is one of those buzzwords that we hear at almost very notable product unveiling, but often yields mixed results, which is why we were on the fence when it came to the Acer Aspire Vero.

For those unfamiliar with the Aspire Vero, it is a notebook on the inside, but the outside is different namely as it features a chassis with 30 percent Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Plastics.

According to the Taiwanese company, this saves roughly 21 percent on CO2 emissions compared to the regular manufacturing method. It also ticks several boxes in terms of eco-friendliness and Acer has been recognised for its efforts in this regard.

That said, is it a marketing gimmick drummed up by Acer to keep it in the conversation or a genuinely solid notebook that delivers good performance while also being environmentally conscious?

We spent the past couple of weeks with the Aspire Vero to find out.

Marmite design

Let’s start where we always do on reviews, with design. Put plainly, the Aspire Vero will not be to everyone’s taste.

The chassis in particular could prove divisive, with the off-grey colourway not exactly common in the world of personal computing. As are the flecks of white and darker grey plastic seen in the chassis as a result of the aforementioned PCR design.

It reminds of the Space Hippie shoes that Nike have been releasing of late, which also feature recycled materials.

It stands in stark contrast to something like the Parley line of shoes from Adidas, which is made in part from recycled ocean plastics. The key difference here is that the Adidas sustainable products looks quite appealing in our view, whereas the Space Hippie and Aspire Vero are more akin to Marmite – either you love it or hate it.

That said, if your key consideration is sustainability, design likely takes a backseat. As such, it is by no means a dealbreaker, but rather something you’ll need to be aware of out the gate.

As is the very plastic heavy feel of the device. Where other Aspire-branded Acer notebooks come in a bevy of metallic shades with matching chassis’, the Vero simply does not feel as premium.

This is a bit misleading though, as the device still feels quite robust and the plastic design also means it is capable of taking a few more knocks and scraps than its metallic brethren, while still looking relatively unscathed.

It should be pointed out that the Aspire Vero is not lightweight either, as this 15.6″ notebook has a notable amount of heft to it. For some reason no official weight is listed online for it, but we gauge it to be close to 3kg territory.

As such, the Aspire Vero may not be made with portability in mind.

Surprise performance

What it is built to do, however, is work. In fact, we were quite surprised by the scores it registered while benchmarking, which we will touch on shortly.

As far as what components are present, there are two models of Aspire Vero available in SA, with an 11th Gen Intel i5 and i7 flavour present. Our review model is the better specced latter option (i7-1195G7) and features 16GB RAM, 1TB storage and Intel Iris Xe graphics integrated.

It is therefore quite solidly appointed given it retails locally for R18 499 (RPP) depending on where you purchase form and certainly on par with most 16″ Windows business-focused notebooks out there.

The notebook is quick and responsive, nor did it whir while we were multitasking or benchmarking it, which is always a good sign for performance down the line.

While we try not to place too much importance on benchmarking, we need to highlight the fact that it scored quite nicely, sandwiching between the Asus ZenBook Duo and Flip 15 notebooks we reviewed last year, with an average score of 5 096 on Cinebench and 3 963 on V-Ray.

This notebook may not be designed with creatives in mind, but it has the performance to handle certain creative applications when the needs arises, so it should be cope ably with work-related apps and platforms.

All the essentials

Sticking with performance, the 15.6″ display delivers FullHD visuals and is quite bright, even at the lower settings. There is no stylus or touch support, but that is not a sizeable concern given the target market of this device. In terms of clarity and crispness, it is once again solid and should in general be pleasant enough to stare at for longer working sessions.

As for the trackpad and keypad experience, things are a little more mixed here.

There is a decent amount of feedback from the keypad and the keys themselves have a satisfying click to them, but the size of the layout might take a little getting use to. We say this using a smaller mechanical keyboard or 13″ MacBook Pro as our daily drivers.

The trackpad is also fairly solid in terms of response, with an integrated fingerprint sensor for biometrics. If you plan for this notebook to be desk bound though, we suggest springing for a wired/wireless mouse, as the position and frame of the notebook might prove difficult for longer stretches in the day.

Switching to the port options and the Aspire Vero is fairly well appointed. There is a curiosity though as it features an older generation power jack port for charging despite having a USB Type-C one available. We tried slotting in a Type-C charger with no luck.

The rest of the options include a 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB 3.0 slots, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI opening and space for a LAN cable.

Final verdict

The Acer Aspire Vero is as fine a Windows work notebook as we have encountered to date. It has a generous, bright 15.6″ display, features a solid 11th Gen Intel i7 processor and generally does all the basics really well.

When you factor in the sustainability elements, it would a lot of sense to the go-to option for companies looking to kit out their workforce with new notebooks.

While we hesitant of the recycled plastics chassis, it has not proved a hindrance to the overall look and feel of the device. It will simply come down to a matter of taste.

If sustainability is an important consideration for you, the Acer Aspire Vero is well worth considering.

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