Last year we looked at the first generation of Vero products, Acers eco-focused laptops built with mostly recycled materials. The packaging comes with 90% recycled paper, up from 85% last year.
Design & Build
The Vero 14 we have is more compact than the 15-inch model, and the size is perfect, in my personal opinion. But this does come with a few drawbacks.
It weighs about 1.4 kg with the following dimensions (HWD) 0.7 by 12.9 by 8.8 inches. Which is much lighter than its 2 kg 15-inch cousins; this is a big difference by choosing a smaller screen.
Its charger weighs closer to 1.6 KG, but I recommend getting an aftermarket 100-watt gan charger to keep its weight just below 1.5kg.
Performance
| Processor | I7-1255u (8+2core) |
| Graphics | 128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96 EUs) |
| Ram | 16GB LPDDR4X Dual Channel(soldered) |
| Storage | 1024GB SSD( 900 GB usable) |
| Display | 14-inch, 1,920×1,080-pixel display |
| OS | Window’s 11 |
For light gaming, office work, etc., this is an excellent machine with 16 GB of ram, which can open many chrome tabs or 1 TB of storage for all your movies. On the processing side, we have a 12th gen intel core i7 with ten cores in an 8+2-core configuration. Eight cores are efficiency cores, while two performance cores.
One thing to note is that only the storage is upgradeable, not the ram. This seems counter to Acer’s focus on the Vero being an eco-friendly option; if the user wanted more memory, they would be stuck with an 8/16 GB model and be forced to buy a new laptop for more ram.
The Vero does have one major issue, the annoying fan. While idling on a charge, the machine’s fans would ramp up while doing nothing. I would recommend a big pair of headphones, preferably ones with noise canceling.
Software & security
Windows 11 is now a standard, but the Vero seems to come with a lot of junkware, such as Nortons antivirus, and some add-ons, such as Acers product registration software which did not even seem to work in our review unit.
Screen & Battery
The display is a 14-inch 1080 IPS display with 100% sRGB coverage; this would be good if you are looking to run the adobe suite for photoshop or illustrator.
Keyboard & trackpad
Last year, we criticized the trackpad, and Acer has listened and made the surface a lot smoother, almost comparable to Apple’s gold standard for trackpads. This year, Acer uses a trackpad marketed as “Oceanglass” made of ocean-bound plastics.
The keys are much more satisfying to type on than last year’s version. We lose the number pad on the right, but I dont think laptops should do full-sized keyboards on laptops anyway. It defeats the purpose of portability.The trackpad also has a very reliable fingerprint scanner too.
Speakers & webcam
The speakers, although loud, are still not the best, a slight improvement over last year’s Vero 15. But the webcam is a lot better in terms of quality. I would say that it is comparable to a standard 1080p camera in terms of image quality, which makes sense when considering this is a 1080p camera.
Ports & connectivity
On the left, we have a barrel plug, USB 4 (charging supported), HDMI, USB 3 type A, and the audio jack; on the right, we have a Kensington slot and a USB3 type A.
We also have WIFI 6E, so you should have no issues streaming movies on Netflix or amazon prime. There is no RJ-45 ethernet port, which we lose in the smaller form factor.
Conclusion
Acer’s new Vero lineup has improved versus the last year in many areas, which a higher overall score can see; however, it still maintains some redundant features, such as the barrel plug for charging. This generation is a move in the right direction; however, there is room for improvement. The pricing for this generation of Vero starts at 2699 AED.
