Acer has been pushing and refining its environmentally focused Vero laptop line for more than a few years now, and its latest Vero 16 ups the eco-friendly ante, at least on paper, with a chassis that the company claims is constructed of 70% post-consumer plastic and a “bio-based oyster shell material.”
Acer aims to make the laptop carbon-neutral throughout its lifecycle and disposal by using as many recycled and eco-friendly materials as possible in the Vero 16, calculating its carbon footprint, and using “high-quality carbon credits to achieve carbon neutrality.”
Obviously, the actual carbon footprint of a laptop will vary greatly depending on how much you use it and what tasks you undertake while using it. Someone who mostly deals in email and basic documents a few hours a day and replaces the laptop in two years will have a vastly different profile than someone who edits video and games several hours every day and keeps the laptop for five or six years.
Plus, the entire concept of carbon offsets for consumer products is debatable. But it’s still nice to see a company offer a product using more recycled and innovative eco-friendly materials. The Vero’s keycaps and power adapter casing are also made of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic. Acer’s press materials further stipulate that at least 3% of the palm rest and bottom cover of the laptop are made up of oyster shell material. Unlike previous Vero laptops, the surface texture this time is noticeably smoother, closer to what you'd expect from a typical laptop.
Aside from its environmental claims and distinctive speckled exterior, the Vero 16 (AV16-71P) looks to be a fairly standard laptop. It’s powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 200H CPU with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage. Battery life is estimated at 10.5 hours, with a 1920 x 1200 display and a 1440p webcam with a privacy shutter. Acer says the chassis is MIL-STD-810H-certified and is designed to be easy to repair – both features that also sound good for its carbon footprint.
If a more sustainable laptop design is important to you and you like the look of the Vero 16, Acer says it will be available in April, starting at $799 in the US and $1,099 in Canada.
