Acer Chromebook Vero 514 Review

The Acer Aspire Vero is a Windows laptop that emphasizes eco-friendliness, but Chromebook users care about the environment too. Acer's Chromebook Vero 514 (starts at $499.99; $949.99 as tested) shows off a chassis and screen bezel that are 30% recycled as well as keycaps and speakers that are 50% post-consumer recycled plastic, plus a touchpad Acer calls OceanGlass—recycled ocean-bound plastic. It's also a fast and well-equipped premium Chromebook, though a little too pricey and heavy to claim Editors' Choice honors among Chromebooks.

A Matter of Texture 

Acer sells four Chromebook Vero 514 models, all with 14-inch in-plane switching (IPS) screens with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution. The $499.99 starter combines a 12th Generation Intel Core i3 processor (CPU) with 8GB of memory (RAM) and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD).

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Our review unit is the $949.99 deluxe model CBV514-1HT-74P8, with a Core i7-1255U CPU (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads), 16GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, and a touch screen. Since few ChromeOS apps need the power of a Core i7 chip, I would say the best values are the two middle models: the plain and touch-screen Core i5/8GB/256GB versions priced at $599.99 and $799.99, respectively. That steep $200 surcharge for a touch panel is not a typo.

Nearly all the laptops I review are made of non-recycled plastic or aluminum, occasionally with some magnesium or glass fiber mixed in. The partly recycled Vero looks and feels different, with a bland Cobblestone Gray finish with white specks and a slightly grainy, sandy texture. It's not unpleasant to touch but definitely noticeable.

Instead of chrome or flashy colors, the Acer and Chrome logos on the lid are plain etchings, and a post consumer recycled notice decorates the palm rest. Oddly, the Chromebook's feet and two nubs on the screen hinges are a contrasting yellow.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Measuring 0.81 by 12.3 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.3 pounds, the Vero 514 is a touch bigger than Acer's less eco-friendly standard Acer Chromebook 514 (0.76 by 12.7 by 8.7 inches and 3.1 pounds). The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, which has a 13.5-inch screen with a squarer 3:2 aspect ratio, is trimmer at 0.65 by 11.6 by 8.7 inches and 2.8 pounds.

Acer's Vero is one of only a handful of Chromebooks to match many premium and business Windows laptops in passing MIL-STD 810H tests against travel hazards like shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures. It feels solid, though I've noticed some flex if you mash the keyboard and a lot of wobble if you tap the screen. The laptop's slightly thick display bezels sit under a webcam with a sliding privacy shutter.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

You'll find no flash card slot here, but otherwise the Acer wins points for ports, especially an HDMI port on the left flank so you needn't fuss with a USB-C DisplayPort adapter to connect an external monitor. Acer also includes a USB 3.2 Type-C port on each side, an audio jack on the left, and a USB 3.2 Type-A port on the right—Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6E are standard. We've seen a few Chromebooks with fingerprint readers for quicker secure logins, but the Vero lacks one. (At this price, it should come included.)

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Going Beyond the Basics 

Making up for the lack of biometric is a webcam that records in 1080p instead of the usual low-rent 720p resolution. This sensor captures impressively well-lit and colorful images with minimal static. While the camera is above average, the audio is below expectations: Its bottom-mounted speakers produce loud but harsh sound with rough, tinny overtones. You can make out overlapping tracks, but you'll hear little to no bass.

Acer's brightly backlit keyboard follows the standard Chromebook layout, with a menu/search key in place of Caps Lock and top-row brightness, volume, and browser controls. (For unknown reasons, the E and R keys are accented in yellow like the laptop's feet instead of white.) The top-row and cursor arrow keys are half-height but big enough to press accurately.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

This Chromebook's square, buttonless touchpad isn't huge but glides and taps smoothly, with a stiff but not uncomfortable click. The Vero's typing feel isn't uncomfortable, either, but I found it took a little getting used to; it's hollow and somehow loose, lacking in snappy feedback. It felt better in my lap than on the hard surface of my desk. 

I also have mixed feelings about the 14-inch screen. The IPS panel produces deep contrast and viewing angles, and its 1080p resolution makes fine details pleasingly crisp, but it's relatively dimly lit overall. Colors are muted instead of lively, and white backgrounds are a bit dingy or grayish. As with all Chromebooks, you can use a Settings tab to choose various scaled or “looks like” resolutions (the default is 1,536 by 864), giving you control over the size of icons and screen elements.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Testing the Acer Chromebook Vero 514: Five Upscale Chromebooks Clash 

It's a sign of Acer's prominence in the Chromebook market—the company sells nearly 60 models—that three of the five systems in our benchmark charts are 14-inch Acer laptops. Besides the Chromebook Vero 514 reviewed here, we have the abovementioned Core i3-powered Acer Chromebook 514 as well as our Editors' Choice pick among premium Chromebooks, the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 convertible. Both are similarly priced to the Vero.

The other two laptops in our performance comparison are more-than-$1,000 showpieces: our business Editors' Choice-winning HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook and the 13.5-inch Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition with uniquely upgradable modular construction.

Productivity Tests

We test Chromebooks with three overall performance benchmark suites—one ChromeOS, one Android, and one online. The first, CrXPRT 2 by Principled Technologies, measures how quickly a system performs tasks in six workloads such as applying photo effects, graphing a stock portfolio, analyzing DNA sequences, and generating 3D shapes using WebGL. 

The second, UL's PCMark for Android Work 3.0, performs assorted productivity operations in a smartphone-style window. Finally, Basemark Web 3.0 runs in a browser tab to combine low-level JavaScript calculations with CSS and WebGL content. All three yield numeric scores; higher numbers are better.

As the only Intel Core i7 against one Core i3 and three Core i5 chips, you'd expect the Vero to do well. Acer's eco-Chromebook edged out the Framework to win in CrXPRT 2, but landed in the middle of the pack in the other two benchmarks. Regardless, all these laptops are in the upper echelon of Chromebook performance; they're fine for even relatively demanding apps and multitasking.

Component & Battery Tests

We run another Android CPU benchmark, the multi-core version of Geekbench by Primate Labs. GFXBench 5.0, a third Android test, stress-tests the GPU with both low-level routines like texturing and high-level game-like image rendering that exercises graphics and compute shaders; results are reported in frames per second (fps). 

Finally, to test a Chromebook's battery, we loop a 720p video file with screen brightness set at 50%, volume at 100%, and Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting disabled until the system quits. Sometimes we must play the 69GB video from an external SSD plugged into a USB port, but these machines had sufficiently roomy onboard drives.

The Chromebook Vero 514 asserted itself more strongly in our processing and graphics tests, having led the other two systems that ran Geekbench (some Chromebooks balk at it), and it posted excellent frame rates in GFXBench. Like most—if not all—Chromebooks, the Vero lacks a dedicated GPU like a Windows gaming laptop, but its Iris Xe integrated graphics led the pack here, and it even outran the first wave of gaming Chromebooks we've tested. The Vero also joined its Acer siblings in showing long battery life that can last through a normal day of work and then some.

Verdict: Save the Planet, Skip the Core i7 

Acer's Chromebook Vero 514 is one of the fastest Chromebooks we've tested, complete with a sturdy build and an HDMI port we're always happy to see—especially since its dim screen will have you reaching for an external monitor. But at $949.99, our test unit is too costly for a Chromebook, and its Core i7 CPU and 16GB of RAM are arguably unnecessary for ChromeOS. The Core i5 version has the same ecological appeal for a much more earthly $599.99.