The Acer Aspire Vero isn’t a gaming laptop, but in use, its abilities don’t seem all that different to a PS4. That’s ample pace for any everyday task – whether you want to open all of your Office apps, loads of browser tabs or a basic photo-editing tool. On our 3D graphics benchmark, the Aspire Vero again finished second but this time behind the MSI Prestige. The Vero helps minimise landfill waste by using 40% PCR plastic in its body, plus the OceanGlass trackpad is made using plastic recovered from coastal waterways.

It lets you play Control at 720p resolution, upscaled to 1080p so it actually looks tidy, at 30-35fps with the graphics set to Low. This machine doesn’t even have paint, because that’s not very eco-friendly – instead, the Vero has an eye-catching design that combines the plastic’s grey color with yellow flecks. The first benchmark we run is PCMark 10, a test that simulates a variety of Windows programs to give an overall performance score for office workflows.

Brightness and contrast are respectable at 264cd/m2 and 1,289:1 respectively but isn’t a very colourful affair with only 57. Both models have Iris Xe integrated graphics and a 1920 x 1080 display and ship with Windows 11 Home.

The display may not be stellar and the webcam positioning is a farce but it’s still a well-made and handsome device that offers good value for money. The screen isn’t 100% stiff either, but that comes with the design: its display surface is plastic, not glass.

A 512GB SSD also offers plenty of space for all your documents, media and files without compromising on performance. The webcam is disappointing – just another rather shoddy 720p affair that deserves no further words wasted on it.

The 14 and 15-inch FHD IPS displays look brilliant, with Acer suite of technologies designed to make your experience perfect at every turn. It has no trouble running loads of browser tabs simultaneously and tackling word processors and spreadsheets while you’ve got communication and media apps running, and it handles mainstream photo-editing and programming. It’s not as annoying as these programs sometimes are — I wasn’t bombarded with annoying Norton popups and Acer Jumpstart ads — but I did still have to uninstall a bunch of junk. If you want anything slimmer or lighter without compromising on screen size, you’ll have to spend significantly more. Inside the chassis is a powerful 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1155G7 processor and 16GB of RAM, perfect for handling large documents, multitasking or even some light photo editing, all without slowing down.

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Top Ten Reviews is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. is available, as well as Wi-Fi 6E, which should provide faster wireless speeds and lower latency if you have one of the latest routers. The trackpad is roomy and even includes a fingerprint scanner to let you log in without typing your password via Windows Hello. This can lower the carbon footprint of its manufacture and offers a way to use some of the plastic waste we’re frequently told ends up in places where you hope it wouldn’t be.I always thought there were three R’s for the environment and they stood for reduce, reuse, recycle.