Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 review: Not your typical ChromeOS device

A lot of great Chromebooks and some of the best ChromeOS tablets aren’t just for personal or school use anymore. Many businesses are now using specialized Chromebooks as part of their fleet of devices. After all, ChromeOS can be easy to manage with the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade. The operating system is lightweight, simple, and less sophisticated than Windows, so it’s easy to learn.

An example of those specialized Chromebooks is the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514. This Chromebook is one of the more unique ChromeOS devices for business. It isn’t your typical-looking Chromebook since it is not made of aluminum. Rather, it puts the environment first with an eco-friendly design that uses recycled materials. Yet at the same time is also quite efficient and packs a long-lasting battery thanks to the 12th-generation Intel CPU under the hood.

If you’re considering it, this is a solid Chromebook for use in business situations, even though not everyone will like the looks of it, and it doesn’t have the best quality display.

Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514

The Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 CBV514-1HT-74P8 is a great Chromebook to consider for use in business. It has a unique eco-friendly design that incorporates recycled materials. The 12th-generation Intel CPUs also make it a powerful Chromebook for everyday tasks. Only the traditional FHD 1920 x 1080 display might hold it back for some people.

Brand

Acer

Color

Cobblestone Gray

Storage

256GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD

CPU

12th Generation Intel Core i7-1255U

Memory

16GB LPDDR4X SDRAM

Operating System

ChromeOS

Battery

56 Wh 3-cell Li-ion battery

Ports

2 x USB Type-C with USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x HDMI port, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack

Camera

FHD with privacy shutter

Display (Size, Resolution)

14-inch FHD 1920 x 1080, touch, 300 nits, anti-glare coating

Weight

3.09 pounds

GPU

Intel Iris Xe graphics

Dimension

12.1 x 8.83 x 0.80 inches

Network

Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6E AX211 dual-stream Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2

Speakers

2 stereo speakers with DTS Audio with optimizer bass response

Model

CBV514-1HT-74P8

Adaptor and Battery

56 Wh 3-cell Li-ion battery

Pros

• Unique eco-friendly design
• Speedy fast 12th-generation Intel CPU
• Great battery life
• Chrome Enterprise upgrade included

Cons

• Still a 16:9 aspect ratio display
• System gets loud, makes whirring noise under heavy loads

Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514: Price and availability

• Commercial pricing is $950, but you can find CDW and Newegg selling it for cheaper
• There are other consumer-friendly Chromebook Vero 514 models that are more affordable

The Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 that I am reviewing isn’t a consumer device. This particular CBV514-1HT-74P8 model is intended as a commercial product. It comes with the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade and has a higher asking price since it includes additional warranties and services. The model I have sells for $950, but sites like Newegg have it for $919.

If you want a consumer model of this Chromebook, you can check out the CBV514-1H-38VS variant from Best Buy which has a lower-end Intel Core i3-1215U CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD for $500. There’s also a CBV514-1H-55VP model with the Intel Core i5-1245U CPU, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $600. These models do not have touch screens, however.

Design: This isn’t your typical Chromebook

• The Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 has an eco-friendly design
• The device is a bit heavy
• There are a lot of ports on the device

Many higher-end $600-$900 Chromebooks put build quality first. Products like the Framework Chromebook or the Acer Spin 513 use aluminum in the chassis or lid to help make the device feel quite extravagant for the high asking price. The Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 is uniquely the opposite of this. Instead, it is made of recycled and recyclable materials.

Even though this Chromebook might not feel “premium” when you buy it (since it’s made of plastic), it is eco-friendly, durable, and slightly more repairable than other Chromebooks on the market right now. There’s no doubt the design of the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 is something that eco-minded businesses will love. It’s all about buying a product that can help reach sustainability goals and make the Earth a better place for everyone.

I noticed this first with the paint-free cobblestone gray colored chassis and lid. It has a rough texture and also has little yellow specs mixed in. Eliminating the use of paint here helps Acer reduce the impact of the volatile organic compact (VOCs) it releases into the environment as part of the manufacturing process of the device.

In addition, this chassis is also made of 30% post-consumer recycled plastic, and even the keycaps are using recycled materials — they are made of 50% PCR plastic. Elsewhere, the “OceanGlass” trackpad is eco-friendly, too, since it’s made of 100% ocean-bound plastics. All of these design choices help reduce waste.

On the reparability aspect, you can get into the bottom of this laptop to replace components if need be. It’s not as easy as it is with the Framework Chromebook, however. The screws are all Phillips standard, but you need to fully remove the screws and then pry the bottom cover off. From there you can replace the speakers and battery, and see the other parts of the Chromebook.

While you can swap out the SSD by removing a ribbon cable, the RAM is soldered and isn’t user replaceable, which is a bummer for those who perhaps might want a slight bump in performance post-purchase. Removable SSDs, though, are huge in the enterprise, as it means you can easily fix an issue with a system if the SSD goes bad by just propping a new one in place.

While I have already reviewed the Windows version of this device, which has a similar design, I have never quite seen and felt a Chromebook like this before. It’s a nice change from aluminum devices and doesn’t sacrifice the durability expected from an enterprise Chromebook. The device is still rated for MIL-STD-810H certification and feels strong, even when I pressed hard on the keyboard and flexed the display. It’s no wonder that it’s quite hefty, at 3.09 pounds and 0.8 inches in thickness.

Something else that’s nice about this Chromebook is the overall connectivity. There’s a lot here to avoid the use of a Chromebook docking station. You get two USB Type-C ports (USB 3.2 Gen 2), one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, one HDMI port, and a headphone jack. I say this a lot in my reviews, but I really do like it when a laptop has HDMI and USB-A. It helps with connecting to a display and a keyboard and mouse like I typically do when I put a device through my daily workflow.

Display: Not the reason to buy this Chromebook

• The touchscreen on this Chromebook is still 16:9 and only FHD resolution
• The display is quite bright and colorful

The display on this Chromebook is still Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution and sports a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s one of the pains that come with using this device. A lot of ChromeOS-powered products now (even in the budget range) use a 3:2 or 16:10 aspect ratio display with a higher resolution than what this Chromebook offers.

For multitasking and everyday use for web browsing and writing, this Chromebook’s display felt too cramped. The ugly bottom bezel cut off webpages and made them feel quite small. This is even with Acer stating that the device has an 88% screen-to-body ratio.

The display does get quite bright (Acer says that it can hit 300 nits) and it has an anti-glare coating that’s ideal for using the device outdoors or under bright lighting (like I have in my home office), but these two primary things are all that’s good about it. That is, other than the touch support, which makes using Android apps a lot more natural than controlling them with a keyboard and mouse.

I can’t verify Acer’s claims of this display covering 100% of sRGB spectrum as my colorimeter doesn’t work on ChromeOS, but I watched episodes of The Last of Us on this Chromebook for a subjective multimedia test. This is quite a dark show, but when kicking the brightness on the screen all the way up, I did notice how colorful the winter-themed scenes in episode 6 of the series looked on this Chromebook — right down to the way the lights around a Christmas tree in the village shimmered in front of a white and snow-filled background.

Atop the display is an Full HD webcam. This webcam is pretty decent for video conferencing, and I didn’t look too grainy or washed out during my weekly Google Meet calls. The privacy slider is also appreciated for an enterprise device since it means you can cover your webcam when not in use.

Keyboard and trackpad: A quiet keyboard, but a bad trackpad

• The keyboard on the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 is quite comfy and quiet
• The trackpad isn’t the best

With Chromebooks, the trackpad and keyboards aren’t always the best. On the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514, one is good, and the other is bad. In this case, the keyboard is fantastic, but the trackpad is horrible.

The backlit keyboard on this Chromebook is better than the one on the Acer Aspire Vero that runs Windows 11. It wasn’t too loud when I jammed my fingers across the keycaps, and I didn’t hear the springing action as I typed fast on it. It’s also great to see that Acer no longer has the reversed “e” and “r” typefaces on the keycaps that were distracting for many people. Instead, these keys are now just yellow.

For reference on how great this keyboard is, I easily punched my way through Bing’s typing test and got to about 80 words per minute, which is the average result that I get with a dedicated keyboard. The comfortable angle that the keyboard raises up to when you pull the screen back really helps with speed typing.

As for the trackpad, well, it’s a little off-center in location, which leaves more room for your wrists to rest when typing. The trackpad is actually plastic, but it’s smoothed to have a glass-like feel. The general smoothness is great for scrolling web pages, but once you click, it becomes annoying. The click feels way too hollow and is too loud. I found myself using a dedicated mouse a lot with this Chromebook for that reason.

Performance: The 12th-generation Intel CPU is king

• Intel’s 12th generation U-series CPU sails this Chromebook through web browsing, Android apps, and Linux apps
• The battery life is great, pushing past 7 hours

The specific Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 that I am reviewing comes with a 12th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU. The exact part is the Intel Core i7-1255U. This CPU has two performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and runs at 15 watts. It also hits a 4.70 GHz frequency. As for RAM, my unit has 16GB of RAM. Generally, this Chromebook strikes a good balance between battery and performance.

When put through my everyday tests, the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 excelled in what I wanted to do on it. The Chromebook had no issues handling a combination of about 15 tabs in Google Chrome, well beyond what most enterprise users might end up opening. Meanwhile, in gaming on Steam, a title like CS:Go ran quite smoothly at a decent 30 frames per second. And, when playing an Android game like Grand Theft Auto III, I experienced no lag or stutter. Even a Linux app like GIMP performed efficiently when I resized images and applied effects to photos. The only thing that annoyed me is that when this system was under heavy loads, the fans kicked in and the Chromebook was emitting a weird whirring noise.

Though I didn’t have access to it, I see no reason why enterprise Windows apps through Parallels Desktop for ChromeOS won’t run smoothly, either. A lot of the tasks I performed already pushed this system to its limits. You can see how powerful a Chromebook this is based on the Geekbench 5, Geekbench 6, and Speedometer testing, which bring it close to a Windows laptop and competing Chromebooks with 12th-generation Intel CPUs. The Speedometer scoring of 164 is also a testament to how good of a web browsing device this is.

Just keep in mind that this Chromebook is using a 15-watt Intel U-series chip, so it won’t come close in performance to a Chromebook with a higher-end P-series 28-watt chip like what’s in the Framework Chromebook. It’s worth noting that the 3DMark Wild Life test did not run on this PC and kept freezing.

As far as battery life, Acer told me that I should expect about 9 hours and 54 minutes or 10 hours and 13 minutes out of this Chromebook. I got a little under that, pushing closer to 7.5 or 8.5 hours with a regular day’s work of browsing in Chrome, and going through two Google Meet meetings. Acer’s test was with the screen at 50% brightness, but in mine, I had the screen closer to 75%, since it was more comfortable.

Should you buy the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514?

You should buy the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 if:

• Your business cares about the environment
• You want a Chromebook with a 12th-generation Intel CPU that’s good for everyday web browsing
• You want a Chromebook that looks different from others

You shouldn’t buy the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 if:

• You hate plastic Chromebooks
• You’re on a very tight budget
• You want a Chromebook with a high-resolution display

The Acer Chromebook Enterprise Vero 514 is a great Chromebook for the price of $900. With 12th-generation Intel CPUs, it performs great for everyday tasks and comes with the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, so you can run Windows apps with Parallels Desktop for ChromeOS. The battery life of this Chromebook is also great, but just the standard FHD display holds it back from being the perfect device.