Acer TravelMate Vero: 15.6-inch IPS screen, Core i5 or i7 processor, integrated Iris Xe graphics card, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage. The chassis incorporates significant amounts of recycled plastic. Image: Cliff Joseph/ZDNet.
Tech companies have a mixed record when it comes to addressing climate change and sustainability issues. But with its recently launched Vero line of “green PCs”, Acer hopes to bolster its credibility in this area. The Vero range includes a number of products including laptops, desktops and monitors, but the main offering aimed at business users is the 15.6-inch TravelMate Vero running Windows 11 Pro.
In many ways this is a fairly conventional laptop, but Acer claims that the Vero’s chassis is made from 30% PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) plastic, which helps reduce CO2 emissions from the laptop. manufacturing process by about 21%. The keyboard keys are also made of PCR, and the packaging materials are fully recyclable. And, to let your customers know how cool your business is, Vero’s BIOS lets you customize the logo that appears on startup.
The keyboard, which also uses recycled plastic, features a separate number pad. A fingerprint reader is integrated into the large touchpad. Image: Cliff Joseph/ZDNet.
Design and features of the TravelMate Vero
Aside from the recycled plastic, the TravelMate Vero has a fairly traditional clamshell design. Its speckled black casing is sleek enough, but the massive bezel around the display looks decidedly outdated. It’s well-built though, at just 18mm thick and weighing 1.8kg, which isn’t bad for a 15.6-inch laptop. But Acer’s use of a pin-shaped power connector that protrudes from the side of the laptop could be a weak point.
The 15.6-inch screen means the chassis has room for a full-size keyboard and a separate number pad, plus a large trackpad with an integrated fingerprint reader. The keyboard panel is also firm and responsive when typing quickly. The IPS FHD (1920 x 1080) display isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s bright and clear, with good viewing angles if you need to give an impromptu presentation when you’re away from the office. Acer carefully avoids mentioning the color standards supported by the screen, so it’s not a laptop designed for creative users, even if its 11-inch Core i7 processore generation will be perfect for basic photo or video editing for presentations.
Although RJ-45 Ethernet and HDMI ports are provided, there’s only one USB-C port – the other three are USB-A (2x 3.2, 1x 2.0). Image: Cliff Joseph/ZDNet.
Connectivity is another area where the Vero seems a little behind. It only offers one USB-C port and three USB-A ports, including one USB 2.0 for some inexplicable reason. There’s an HDMI port for an external display, an RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, but no Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, or SD card reader support.
The 720p webcam isn’t great either, with a slightly grainy image that won’t be ideal for telecommuter video calls. Fortunately, the Vero includes Wi-Fi 6, as well as Bluetooth 5.0, to ensure good wireless connectivity.
TravelMate Vero prices and options
The TravelMate Vero doesn’t offer a host of options. Acer’s website clearly states that the Vero has the “processing power” of an i7 processor. The test unit provided by Acer included a quad-core Core i7-1195G7 processor clocked at 2.9 GHz (up to 5 GHz with TurboBoost), as well as 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. It’s not the first time, the pricing and sales information on Acer’s website was somewhat blurry.
At the time of writing, the Core i7 configuration is available for $999.
TravelMate Vero performance and battery life
The Core i7 in our test unit is very good, delivering quite respectable performance for a laptop in this price range.
The Geekbench 5 CPU benchmark returned scores of 1,645 (single core) and 5,525 (multi core), which is in line with more expensive Core i7 laptops like HP’s Elite Dragonfly G2.
The Vero relies on the Iris Xe graphics card integrated with the Core i7 processor, which scores 85 frames per second for graphics performance with Cinebench R15, which will be perfectly adequate for simple photo or video editing work. However, a modest 10 fps with the more demanding Unigine Valley benchmark clearly shows that the Vero is better suited to general productivity software like Microsoft Office, rather than heavy content creation work.
This impression is borne out when running the PCMark 10 productivity test suite, with the Vero registering a decidedly average score of 5,174 which puts it almost exactly halfway in PCMark’s overall performance rankings.
The same goes for battery life, which is respectable without being particularly outstanding. Acer’s VeroSense app is useful here, as it provides a number of eco-friendly power plans in addition to those already built into Windows itself. The VeroSense app offers Eco and Eco+ options, the latter reducing fan speed and disabling features such as USB charging to preserve battery life.
Acer’s website – still unhelpful – quotes battery life of “up to 9.5 hours” on one page, and “7 hours maximum” on another. In fact, we were able to get 7.5 hours of streaming video from BBC iPlayer using the VeroSense Eco+ power plan, with the brightness set to 40 per cent perfectly visible. If you don’t use Wi-Fi all day, you should be able to use the TravelMate Vero for an entire day between charges.
Conclusions on the TravelMate Vero
If you or your business are particularly environmentally conscious, the TravelMate Vero’s use of recycled plastic could be a deciding factor in your purchasing decision. However, the eco-friendly credentials of this laptop have to be weighed against its slightly outdated design and features. To be honest, the Core i7 model reviewed here offers respectable performance and battery life for a laptop in this price range, but – other than its recycled plastic design – the TravelMate Vero has few features that make it stand out. in a competitive market.
Technical characteristics
- Operating system : Windows 11 Pro
- Screen : 15.6-inch IPS LCD, FHD (1920 x 1080, 141.2 ppi)
- Processor : Intel Core i5-1155G7, Core i7-1195G7
- GPUs: Intel Iris Xe Graphics (integrated)
- RAM: 16 GB (DDR4)
- Storage : 512 GB (PCIe SSD)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5 Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) LAN Gigabit Ethernet
- Ports: USB-C (3.2), 2x USB-A (3.2), USB-A (2.0), HDMI, RJ-45, 3.5mm audio out
- Hall : backlit keyboard, multi-touch touchpad, 720p webcam
- Fingerprint reader: yes
- Battery : 3-cell Li-ion
- Battery Support: 7 to 9.5 hours
- Dimensions: 363.4mm x 238.5mm x 17.9mm
- Weight : 1.8kg
- In the box : TravelMate Vero (TMV15-51-71YY reviewed), battery, power adapter
- Price : 999 euros for the i7
Alternatives to consider
Acer’s consumer-oriented Aspire Vero is only available with Windows 11 Home, but it has similar green specs to the TravelMate Vero, and offers Core i5 and i7 configurations. And, of course, there are plenty of laptops costing around the same price available from competing manufacturers.
Source: ZDNet.com