We may have a new contender for the best Chromebooks crown. Acer's new Chromebook Vero 514 comes with £100 off the RRP, a free accessory pack and some impressive environmental credentials.
Let's start with the green stuff. There's 30% post-consumer recycled plastic in the chassis, 50% in the keycaps and 100% ocean-bound plastics on the touchpad surface, and the packaging is 90% recycled paper. And in a nice touch the inner packaging can be folded into a laptop stand.
That's impressive, and so is the specification.
Acer Chromebook Vero 514: price and specifications
The Verso 514 is powered by 12th generation Intel Core processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics on all but the very cheapest model. Battery life is up to 10 hours with a 50% charge from flat in just half an hour.
The cheapest configuration here is £399.99, and that bags you a 14" full HD IPS display, 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB SSD storage and an Intel® Core™ i3-1215U processor at 1.2GHz.
For £799.99 you can get the same screen with Xe graphics, a 1.7Hz deca-core Intel® Core™ i7-1255U processor and 256GB of SSD storage, although I think the sweet spot for Chromebooks is further down the price range: when you're dropping nearly £800 you should seriously consider some of the best laptops as well as Chromebooks. It's worth checking our 5 Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Bought a Chromebook feature for some quick insights.
I like these Chromebooks, though: they're solid performers and the recycled materials give the Verso 514 a tough-looking image (and they are tough, with MIL-STD-810H verification for its dust, shock and moisture resistance) that makes the 514 stand out from rivals.
