Laptop Batteries, Chargers and AC Adapters

The Acer Aspire Vero has admirable green credentials, modest price, everyday performance and decent battery life. However, its display, keyboard and build quality are lacking

The Acer Aspire Vero takes a markedly different approach to most other laptops on the market – because it focusses on its environmental credentials ahead of other factors, like price or performance.

Acer makes a big deal about the Vero’s (the AV15-51) recycled materials, for instance, and the firm claims that the box works as a laptop stand after you’ve removed the machine.

Sustainability is a big subject that’ll inevitably become bigger, so we won’t be surprised if more laptops make more noise in this area – but Acer is one of the first to take the initiative.

The model we’ve reviewed is the more affordable Core i5 specification, and it costs £649 in the UK and $699 in the US – so it’s not particularly expensive. Is the Vero a good laptop and good for the environment, though, or does this green machine suffer in real-world use?

Design & Build
Impressive green credentials
Divisive, paint-free aesthetic
Good connectivity, but relatively thick and heavy
Much of the Acer Aspire Vero’s body uses PCR, or Post-Consumer Recycled material, and Acer is quick to boast about the amount of second-hand stuff inside this notebook. The chassis and screen bezel use 30% recycled hardware, and the screen and keycaps use 99% and 50% recycled material respectively.

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Now that Thunderbolt 4 is here and starting to ship on premium laptops, it’s important that your docking station is certified to this latest connection standard.

OWC’s Thunderbolt Dock is fully certified for Thunderbolt 4 and its close cousin USB4, and boasts 11 extra ports for your connected computer.

Specs and features

One Thunderbolt 4 upstream port (40Gbps, 90W)
Three Thunderbolt 4 downstream ports (40Gbps, 15W)
Up to two external displays (4K at 60Hz)
Three USB-A ports (10Gbps, 4.5W)
One USB-A port (480Mbps, 7.5W)
SD Card Reader (SD 4.0 UHS-II)
Gigabit Ethernet port
Front-facing 3.5mm Audio In & Out port
135W power supply
The OWC Thunderbolt Dock loves Thunderbolt 4 so much that it includes four 40Gbps TB4 ports; one upstream port to connect to the host computer and three downstream ports to connect to other USB-C/TB3/TB4 devices and displays.

This is the maximum number of TB4 ports any one device can support. Thunderbolt 3 was limited to just two, so even TB3 users will prefer the new connector if they require multiple Thunderbolt or USB-C devices.

Unlike with USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 docks, there are no DisplayPort or HDMI ports on the Thunderbolt Dock. Instead, OWC gives you the choice of display connector. USB-C monitors can be connected directly, but you’ll need a USB-C-to-HDMI or USB-C-to-DisplayPort adapter for non-USB-C displays.

This could mean extra expense, but it does give you more flexibility than having to find a docking station with whichever DisplayPort/HDMI port your monitor has, and is actually better if you have two screens each with its own display type.

An alternative approach is seen with the Anker Apex Thunderbolt 4 Dock, which has just one downstream TB4 port but two HDMI 2.0 ports for direct display connections.

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Samsung returns with a budget-friendly Chromebook. Will the Galaxy Chromebook Go have enough to disrupt the opposition?

Samsung pulled out of the laptop market in Europe a little while back, which was a shame as I often found their products to be very good. Now, the Korean company is back in the UK (and USA) with a brand new affordable Chromebook.

So, is it a triumphant return? Here’s the full Tech Advisor review of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go.

Design & Build
While the name might be a little too close to Google’s Pixelbook Go, the price and reduced specs show that Samsung isn’t quite taking aim at that particular model, but rather offering a simple and affordable Chromebook that should appeal to most people.

The plastic casing means that the device is reasonably lightweight (coming in at 1.45kg/3.2lbs), but you wouldn’t want to drop it too many times. Although, Samsung does state that the device has passed several MIL-STD-810G tests, so it could be tougher than it looks.

Silver is the livery of choice here, with the colourful Chrome logo adorning the top corner of the lid, which I have to say is a little more cheery than the monochrome version that’s becoming the norm across Chromebooks in the past year.

Turning the device over reveals twin speakers, while the flanks are home to a range of ports that include two USB-C, one USB-A (3.2), microSD card reader, a Nano Security Slot (think Kensington Lock), headphone jack and a SIM card tray. The latter is probably one of the main reasons for the ‘Go’ part of the name.

Opening up the laptop reveals the 14in display with a webcam sitting above it. The display is surrounded by a textured plastic casing that looks a little cheap, and this motif continues to the keyboard & trackpad surround and keys themselves.

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The Samsung Galaxy Book Go sounds good on paper, but lots of ports and 4G connectivity can’t make up for a dim screen and dismal performance

The Galaxy Book Go is a lightweight, affordable laptop from Samsung that’s powered by a Qualcomm chip – instead of Intel – and offers the option of 4G connectivity.

On paper that sounds great, but in practice this laptop is abominably slow, with Windows still refusing to play nicely with Qualcomm’s Arm architecture. The result is a laptop that’s difficult to recommend, and undeniably outclassed by most Chromebooks at the same price.

Design and build
Slim and lightweight build
Made of plastic
Only available in silver
While I have my complaints about the Galaxy Book Go’s performance, I can’t really fault the way it looks.

Only available in silver, this is a pretty sleek and attractive laptop for the price. Samsung has kept it slim (just 14.9mm thick) and relatively light (only 1.38kg), which is impressive bearing in mind that it comes with a fairly expansive 14in display.

It’s partly that light because the body is plastic, which is pretty inevitable at this price. That does make the laptop feel a bit cheap – but hey, it is cheap. So you can’t really complain too much about that.

Display and audio
14in HD display
Quite dim
No touchscreen
The 14in display here is large for a laptop of this price, but it comes with drawbacks.

It’s Full HD, at 1920 x 1080, so at least Samsung hasn’t taken any shortcuts there as we’ve sometimes seen in other budget laptops.

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ExpressVPN bills itself as the premium choice, and its prices reflect that. But is it the best choice? Read our review to find out.

ExpressVPN positions itself as a premium VPN service, and that’s why it costs more than a lot of its rivals. You won’t see any crazy deals offering 80% off as you will elsewhere, and the longest subscription is 12 months, not five years.

But is ExpressVPN worth $99.95 (around £75) per year when you can get two, three or even five years of use from rival VPN services for less? Keep reading to find out.

Features
ExpressVPN – as with all consumer VPN services – grants an extra layer of privacy online, extra security on public Wi-Fi networks (such as in cafes and hotels) and the ability to unblock region-locked content, such as videos and websites.

In fact, unblocking it one of its biggest strengths: it claims to reliably unblock over 200 streaming service and also gives you a backup option – the MediaStreamer proxy service – if you find that the VPN isn’t unblocking DAZN, say, at the exact moment you want to watch a live sports event.

ExpressVPN also has its own encryption protocol, Lightway. This offers fast connection times and good speeds. This is important if you have a fast internet connection and don’t want your VPN slowing it down.

If you have any problems, live chat is available round the clock, too.

Apps
One of ExpressVPN’s other strengths is the range of apps it offers: Windows, macOS, iPhone, Android, iPad, Linux and Amazon Fire TV. But it doesn’t stop there. There are browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. And unlike virtually all other VPN services, whose extensions are merely proxies masquerading as VPNs, ExpressVPN’s extensions are more akin to a remote control for the main VPN app, so when you use them, you’re getting the full protection of a VPN rather than simply changing your IP address.

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