Speaker 1: This is the Acer aspire Vero laptop. Well, not this, this is a box, uh, but this is what the box looks like, that the Acer aspire Vero comes in. And it’s part of the overall message of the laptop it’s made from 85% recycled paper and is 100% recyclable, uh, the box, not the laptop, uh, but the laptop itself is green. Uh, but not in color. Uh, but in materials anyway, [00:00:30] I’ll walk you through all of its eco friendliness and what’s inside of it. And if being green means anything for performance, it’s also one of Ace’s first laptops to run windows 11, right out of the box. And I’ll show you a bit of that too, so let’s get to it.
Speaker 1: Okay. So this, this is the Acer aspire Barrow. Uh, it’s a 15.6 inch laptop and it’s chassis is made of plastic, which normally wouldn’t be prized [00:01:00] like an aluminum Chas, for example, but the plastic used here is 30% post-consumer recycled plastic, uh, for the chassis and the screen bezel. And the key caps on the keyboard are 50% PCR, plastic. Uh, even the display panel is made with PCR in its internal structure. Uh, no paints are so surface treatments were used to color the body, but it has this sort of gray recycled paper look to it with, uh, engraved [00:01:30] labels for the Acer branding and the model name. I like the look, but I’m less thrilled about the Intel core stamp, which would normally be just a sticker. I could peel off like these here on the bottom. And while I’m talking about the bottom of the laptop here, one of its features is that Acer used standard screws so that you can easily get into the body to upgrade or repair it and also tear it down when it’s time to recycle it.
Speaker 1: Before we move forward, though, I want to go back to [00:02:00] the packing quickly since Acer went and everything recyclable. So of course, there’s the box I mentioned, and there’s also the molded protection inside that holds the laptop and the laptop bag and the keyboard sheet, the manual kit, and even the protective sleeve for the charger here, which would normally be a plastic bag it’s made out of cardboard. So all of it, it is recyclable and Acer even made this separator here so that you can fold it into a stand to lift [00:02:30] the body for video chats or watching videos. Now back to the laptop, this configuration that I’m testing is maxed out for $900. It has an Intel core. I seven processor, 16 gigs of memory, integrated graphics and a 512 gig SSD. A $700 version is expected later this month with a core I five and half the memory in storage.
Speaker 1: But since the bottom opens up, you’ll be able to add another eight gigs of [00:03:00] memory and, uh, more storage on your own performance is good for the money. And like I said earlier, this is running windows 11. So you’ll be able to take advantage of that right out of the box. Uh, it won’t let you down for everyday tasks and work and school and entertainment too, but the back life is a bit of a let down since it only reached five hours and 51 minutes on our streaming video test. And even Ace’s claims for local video playback hit a max of just nine [00:03:30] and a half hours. So that’s not ideal, but given its size, it’s sort of expected anyway, what’s also a little odd to me for a laptop with an environmental message, is that the VE doesn’t support charging through its us C port and instead the 65 wat power adapter uses a barrel connector had Acer just used a USBC charger.
Speaker 1: You’d be able to charge other devices as well as use other USBC adapters to power the lap. [00:04:00] Overall, I like the Vero Acer managed to make a plastic laptop look and feel like a premium device. And it feels solid too. And like its other aspire laptops, it performs well for the price and I like that you can upgrade it and potentially repair it yourself. And if it can help reduce the amounts of, to getting cardboard ending up in landfills. That’s great too. Uh, what do you think, would you be interested in buying a laptop made from recycled materials? Uh, let me know in the comments and [00:04:30] you can read more about the aspire Vero and windows 11 on cnet.com. I’m Josh Goldman. Thanks for watching.
