Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51 – Review

Acer recently announced a new line of eco-designed products called Vero, which includes this Aspire Vero AV14-51. This line is characterized by the fact that its products They try to be as eco-friendly as possible.. Not only in packaging, but in that they are easy to repair, so that they last longer and you don't have to buy another one in five years due to having deteriorated graphics or fans.

We thank Acer for giving us this product for review

Unboxing the Aspire Vero AV14-51

On this occasion, the packaging of the laptop is slightly more detailed. It's still a generic package for what we intuit is the Vero series, with details that simulate the sea to give an idea that the oceans are being taken care of with the fact that the case and keyboard are made from recycled materials.

An important factor when making ecological laptops is that their packaging complies as such. In this chaos, we see that it is pure recycled cardboard, and occupying a very small part. With this, they can send more units in the same truck or ship shipment, which, within the transport needs, can operate more units in the same shipment, and all help counts.

Design of the Aspire Vero AV14-51

This is what the Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51 looks like out of the box. From the outset, it is noticeable that they are committed to color, which is appreciated in a tide of gray and black laptops. The fact that they use recycled materials gives it that touch of speckled blue without the need for chemical paints, which is pleasing to the eye. Do not underestimate the visual and color design of a laptop that will be your companion for hours a day for several years, and that will have to stand out from the crowd.

The bottom of the lower base has additional ventilation grills so that the air flow is maintained as much as possible and thus not damage the fans and thus last longer despite continued use.

The trackpad, which also claims to be made of plastics salvaged from the ocean; It has a fingerprint reader, ideal for quickly completing security processes. It is a very appreciated addition if we do many online forms, and as added security.

It is possible to think that since the chassis and the keyboard are made of recycled plastics, they will feel uncomfortable, cheap or even of poor quality. But the reality is that there is little difference in texture or quality feel from the recycled materials of the Aspire Vero AV14-51 respect to others. It feels firm and strong enough to withstand travel. We recommend, in order not to tempt fate, to use protective covers when transporting it, as with any other laptop.

There is no lack of a reminder that we are using a laptop made mostly from recycled materials.

Acer goes a long way in this, with 50% recycled plastic in the case and another 30% in the keys. With this, they reduce carbon emissions by 21%. That seems little, but knowing that a laptop is something that hundreds of millions of people need, that ecological options become popular, can help a lot to reduce emissions.

The charging cable is a USB-C connector which technically means that it can be charged with the same cable as that of our mobile. But using that we are going to have a much less efficient load until we have a high-end USB-C connector cable capable of supplying enough power to a laptop so that it can run on its own without a battery.

A small detail that we do not like is that the integrated webcam has no native masking mechanism. Since video calls are increasingly taking place with remote work, or broadcasting on Twitch, although we do not recommend using the integrated webcams because there are better options, not having a way integrated in the laptop to cover the lens for privacy reasons, it is a point that we do not like.

Features

This Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51 model has integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. This makes it perfectly capable of playing some games, not necessarily cutting-edge, and closer to 30 fps at 1080p, than the desired 60 fps.

But in the case of a laptop designed for office automation and to last over time, they are good integrated graphics. He thinks that he can play games like Fortnite and Genshin Impact, albeit with the graphics aspect to a minimum. It's not ideal, but it makes it so that you can play games on the same system with the same laptop you get for college, remote work, or the virtual classroom.

The integrated CPU is an Intel Core I7-1255U from the 12th Gen Alder Lake line, with performance and efficiency cores. With this, we make sure that multitasking does not overwhelm a laptop, which It is appreciated even in the most basic office automation. And it is not a low-end one, being an i7.

Its configuration of two cores for performance and eight for efficiency makes it ineligible for the most demanding software or games, but as we said, it makes office multitasking easier and with some simple games it doesn't overwhelm the CPU.

We open the Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51 and see the 2 GB NVMe M.521 SSD. That amount, for office, is enough. But in the case of a laptop with some gaming capacity and the nature of the human being, it urges us to download games on the work PC, as well as many movies, series and music on a laptop because they are the best companions on public transport for consume multimedia, it is appreciated that you can change to a larger model simply by unscrewing the standard one.

Of course, when we do, we must reinstall Windows or the operating system that we use, and have made a backup.

One of the points that has disappointed us most about the Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51, especially when it is promoted as an ecological laptop that lasts through the years, is the fact that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard instead of opting for include SODIMMs for laptops. In the event that we want to improve efficiency, we will not be able to do so because the RAM is soldered.

If we're taking too many details out of it, it's because the Vero line boasts that laptops will be eco-friendly, easy to repair, and last for years. The fact of having the idea that they are ecological implies some standards that we believe they must meet, and one of them is the possibility of expanding their capabilities if we see that they may become outdated. We understand that the CPU, being an i7, can last many years, even if it is not an absolute top of the range, but 16 GB of RAM will soon start to be insufficient for home uses and it would have been great to have the option to expand it.

But on the other hand, we have noticed that opening it is easy, and with it, remove dust from the fans and the motherboard, and do maintenance. This shows the idea that they are sustainable laptops.

Specifications

• Size: 23.85 x 36.34 x 1.79 cm
• Weight: 1,67 kilograms
• Display: 15,6 inches
• Screen resolution: ‎1920x1080
• RAM: ‎16GB DDR4, soldered
• SSD: 512GB
• Integrated graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
• Connectivity: ‎Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth: 802.11a / b / g / n / ac
• Ports: 1 USB 2.0 port ‎1, 2 USB 3.0 ports
• average battery life: ‎10 hours

What makes a laptop eco-friendly?

From our own experience, we can say that laptops are almost a black hole of money as soon as they begin to deteriorate due to use, due to blows, because there is nicotine in the air... They are very compact designs, with the airflow measured so that it heat as little as possible. But as soon as there begin to be slight obstructions of dust or simple wear and tear, that's when it's time to open it and try to fine-tune it, which for a user is normally not easy.

The iFixIt portal has become especially popular for individually evaluating how easy it is to repair or even upgrade it to add more RAM, change its battery. This is what makes a laptop, be ecological, because it makes it stay useful over time and not for that reason it has to be dismissed for being obsolete. Planned obsolescence is a fact that has been seen and criticized when manufacturers design a product so that it begins to fail after the warranty date, that a better model is expected to come out, or that it is unfeasible to repair or improve it when it begins to expire. be out of date

We all remember the first Android phones, which ended up filling up quickly due to having very little internal memory space and we had to delete applications, even having to remove social networks that we use, because it turns out that WhatsApp eats up a lot of memory. In the end we end up having to buy more modern and expensive models to be able to use day-to-day applications, although this is more secondary for not having assumed that the software would become more demanding and consume more memory.

This Vero line from Acer aims to eliminate many of these factors. Some laptops that are easy to repair at home using standardized tools and being able to order parts from the manufacturer, which is a huge addition to the fact that the packaging is made entirely of recycled materials. Without a doubt, there is increasing social awareness regarding the environmental factor of the devices we use. In this case, we have noticed that opening the Aspire Vero AV14-51 is easy, so we could easily change parts to replace or improve them from home as soon as we have the spare parts and some screwdrivers that are available at any computer store, to so that the useful life is extended.

While idealistically we could get rid of laptops and cell phones, they are very useful in this society and not having them does us more harm than good. Since we have to use them, what less do they contaminate as little as possible. Thus sales of refurbished mobiles are triumphing, and more manufacturers are switching to eco-friendly packaging, which is smaller, made from recycled materials and free of plastics. It is a step, but the idea of ​​the Acer Vero is that ecology goes beyond the box, and is, as we said, easy to repair and that in a few years there will be no need to buy another laptop.

Gallery

Experience and conclusion the Acer Aspire Vero AV14-51

First of all, there is the use section. We have noticed it quite strong as soon as we have been handling the Libre Office suite with Youtube videos in the background, and it has behaved extremely well. Knowing that it is a laptop with only two performance cores of the 12th generation Intel Core, but being accompanied by eight efficiency cores, we can notice how multitasking improves with the addition of efficiency cores. Especially in a student or office laptop, having several office suites together with multimedia in the background, and not having a ballast, is something that is very noticeable compared to previous generations.

As always, we tried using it for a day without being plugged in after a full charge, and it easily gets close to ten hours watching YouTube videos, some streaming on Twitch and playing Among Us online between writing and using office automation. Nothing that is a AAA game, but it does make significant use of the CPU and RAM. With this, we confirm that it meets the Intel Evo requirement for battery life, making it another good laptop to take on a trip or for purely work use or at the university, where it is necessary for the battery to last a long time, since it does not readily available plugs.

Now comes to talk about the most technical: the components are very up to date, except that it does not have a dedicated graphics card and uses the integrated ones. Even the price may seem high, but we are paying for a laptop made to be easy to repair. We don't like that the RAM is soldered on, but at least it looks like the NMVe M.2 SSD, which is less than 1TB, can be easily replaced. It is also appreciated that it has several USB ports, one of them being type C for high-speed connections such as a SAN or an external SSD, and even one being miniHDMI to easily connect it to a second screen, something that is always needed working on House. We miss something like an SD card reader for connectivity and data transfer issues.