People have been left stunned by tech firm Acer's new look keyboard on one of its products. One customer thought the new feature was a design flaw and returned it for a replacement while others branded it as "stupid".

The firm has added mirrored R and E keys on the keyboard of its Acer Vero Notebooks. But the move, aimed to remind people about being environmentally friendly, has left many unhappy. And one poster on social media site X, formerly Twitter, deemed the design 'horrible".

One man thought the design was actually a mistake and returned it only to be sent an identical replacement. Tim wrote on Facebook : "Looks like @Costco bought a batch of @Acer laptops with keyboards that aren’t quite right. Took 3 weeks to get this replacement and it’s exactly the same mirror issue as the first one. So much for quality control. Not sure my OCD can handle this. Look at the reversed E & R."

But he had to come back to update his post after it was pointed out it was not a mistake but a deliberate design feature. Thanking those who had pointed out his mistake he said: "Bl***y stupid in my opinion. Now I have to convince my OCD."

Adrian took to X after buying the replacement device when his laptop broke. he said: "Laptop died today so bought a new one. Opened it to see this. What a stupid thing to do to a keyboard & wonder how this affects those with accessibility issues? Whoever came up with this branding b******s should not have their contract ER-newed."

Others agreed. Nigel joked: "I'd like to erturn this and get a erplacement please. Go on, write the email." While Dave commented: "Simply install a small mirror just above your keyboard when you need to look at those keys."

And posting on X Caspar wrote: "That’s horrible! Really messes with my head. Why not just make the R green?"

Acer has given an explanation for the design. It said on its website: "Acer Vero products were designed with sustainability in mind.

"The R and E keys represent the 'Re' in Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. To help reinforce this message, the Vero products feature a keyboard with mirrored R and E keys that are yellow instead of white."

But Tim was still not convinced. He said: "It still doesn’t make any sense to me, as to why this seems an appropriate way to send their message."