Check Out Acer's New Laptop Made Out of Oyster Shells

The latest silicon from Intel and AMD will power Acer’s laptops and desktops coming later in 2025, including the eco-friendly Aspire Vero 16.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he’s not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

Expertise Laptops | Desktops | All-in-one PCs | Streaming devices | Streaming platforms

Acer’s mainstream Aspire and Swift laptops have typically provided strong value without perhaps the most striking of designs. If you want the best performance and the most features for your dollar — and are willing to sacrifice a bit of fit and finish — you can usually find an Aspire or Swift laptop to fit the bill. 

Acer announced a new Aspire 14 laptop and a pair of Swift Go models at CES Monday that continue this trend, offering new Intel or AMD processors and OLED display options inside rather ordinary enclosures. The most interesting-looking laptop among the CES announcements is the Aspire Vero 16, which is made from recycled plastic and oyster shell material and has an unusual textured, speckled finish.

There’s also a handful of new desktops that Acer announced at CES, including the Revo Box AI mini PC.

Acer Aspire Vero 16 and Aspire 14 AI

The Aspire Vero 16 is the follow-up to the 15.6-inch Vero from a few years ago. The new 16-inch Vero has an even more sustainable design with a chassis made from more than 70% postconsumer recycled plastic and a bio-based material made from oyster shells. It’s the first laptop to use oyster shells in its construction, according to Acer, but it has a design similar to that of the original Vero — a funky look with a textured finish and speckled with tiny yellow and gray-blue flecks.

It’s not all sustainability and unusual looks for the Aspire Vero 16’s chassis. It’s MIL-STD-810H certified for durability and is pretty portable for its size, weighing just under 4 pounds, according to Acer. Acer also describes the chassis as easy to repair, which is an effort to increase its lifespan and delay its arrival in a landfill.

Inside, the Aspire Vero 16 features Core Ultra 200H series CPUs, integrated Intel Arc graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. The 16-inch LCD display with a pedestrian 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution looks to be the laptop’s weak point; I look for a 1440p resolution or higher for a 16-inch panel.

The Aspire Vero 16 will start at $800 in the US and is slated to start shipping in April.

The other Aspire laptop Acer announced has a more traditional design. The Aspire 14 AI features a plastic keyboard deck sandwiched between aluminum top and bottom covers. It’s not as eco-friendly as the Vero 16 but does offer a nod toward sustainability with a design that features an undefined percentage of PCR material. (If it’s not stated, then it’s safe to assume it’s a small fraction.) 

The Aspire 14 AI is based on a 14-inch display and weighs just over 3 pounds. The base display is a basic 1,920×1,200-pixel panel, but there’s also an OLED upgrade option. I don’t know the details on the OLED option, but I hope it also offers a bump in resolution.

It’s an Intel model with both Core Ultra 100H and 200V CPU options. The Aspire 14 AI with an Intel Core Ultra 258V was the first Lunar Lake laptop I reviewed. I liked it enough but bemoaned the lack of an OLED display option. Newer models, including those with the OLED upgrade, are expected next month. Acer lists the starting price at $800, but you can surely expect the OLED models will cost more than that.

Acer Swift Go 14 and 16 AI laptops

I’m a fan of the Acer Swift Go 14 and Acer Swift Go 16 for their mix of thin-and-light designs, good display options and affordable pricing. The latest additions to these lines introduce AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 Series CPUs and a new anodized aluminum chassis with a dual-arrow pattern. The Ryzen AI 7 350 features eight cores, 16 threads and a neural processing unit (for AI) clocked at 50 tera operations per second. The step-down Ryzen AI 7 340 has six cores and 12 threads. The thin design doesn’t allow for a dedicated GPU so you’re left with an option of integrated Radeon 860M or 840M graphics.

The display options look awesome. Both the 14- and 16-inch models give you a choice of a 2K or 3K OLED or a 2K IPS touchscreen.

The Swift Go 14 AI will be available in May starting at $900, and the Swift Go 16 AI will be available in April starting at $950.

Revo Box AI mini PC

Acer also had some desktop PC announcements at CES. It introduced the Aspire S AI and Aspire C AI all-in-one series along with a new mini PC. 

For the AIO lines, the Aspire S AI is the sleeker and more stylish of the two. Both are available with a 24- or 27-inch display. Aspire S AI models are based on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPUs, and the Aspire C AI models feature AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors.

The Revo Box looks like a nice Windows alternative to the Mac Mini. It’s a mini PC that’s just 5.2 by 5.2 inches and 1.7 inches tall, which makes it a hair larger than the Mac Mini M4, but not quite as tall. 

It offers Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPUs, up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1TB solid-state drive. I wish you could pack it with a larger storage drive, but it has a second M.2 slot to add a second SSD. For ports, the Revo Box supplies DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 4, four USB-A, two 2.5Gbps Ethernet and a headphone jack. It also has an integrated fingerprint reader for easy and secure logins.

Available in black or white, the Acer Revo Box AI is scheduled to start shipping in the second quarter of this year. Its starting price of $800 is a couple hundred more than the baseline Mac Mini M4.