Acer is no stranger to laptops, but its latest conquest is quite rare in today’s day and age. The company is adding a Chromebook to its Vero lineup, which is targeted toward the eco-conscious buyer option. The Chromebook Vero 514 is made using recycled plastics with a 99% recyclable chassis and it comes packaged in 90% recycled paper, according to the company. And if you are neck-deep into recycling, you can even use the packaging as a triangular laptop stand.
So what’s inside this eco-system? Heh. The laptop weighs about 3 pounds, sporting a FullHD 14in Gorilla Glass screen with 300 nits peak brightness. Powered by a 12th-gen Intel processor with Xe graphics, you can customize it out with a variety of processors, ranging from the five-core Pentium Gold 8505 and the Core i3-1215U to the Core i5-1235U, and a Core i7-1255U. These are all relatively less power-hungry chips, keeping in line with the eco-friendly philosophy behind the computer.
For connectivity, the laptop packs two USB-C ports, capable of fast charging the battery up to 50% in 30 minutes, one USB-A port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. The computer also comes with a 1080p webcam.
The laptop may not have fingerprint scanning yet, but hey it makes up for it with its minimal carbon footprint. So, what’s the big deal? The laptop has recycled materials everywhere you look, from the 100% ocean-bound plastic trackpad surface to the keycaps made out of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic. 30% of the chassis is recycled plastic too.
Additionally, Acer also claims that the Chromebook is easy to repair and upgrade, with standard screws giving you access to the memory and storage (which you will probably have to do at some point since the largest SSD you can get with it is 256GB). The base model equipped with the Core i3, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, starts at $499.99 (₹40,000 approx.). Indian price and availability are not announced at the time of writing.