For a year, Dell has been working on a modular and scalable laptop PC, where each of the parts, screen included, could be changed by the user. This Concept Luna is improving this year with the possibility of dismantling the entire device in less than a minute.
While France has just set up a repair bonus, and that the repairability index has become a real purchasing argument, Dell is playing the right students with the Concept Luna. Announced in 2021, this laptop project takes a bit of the same principle of the Fairphone or Framework smartphone with the promise of creating a device solely composed of modular and scalable components, such as memory, hard drive or processor.
For season 2 of this concept, Dell has improved its ergonomics with a clever process to remove the upper part of the keyboard, located above the keys. Simply insert a paperclip or other sharp object to lift the case. Then, like a surgeon who would have the innards of the laptop revealed before his eyes, you start by removing the keyboard, and then the rest becomes child’s play since no part is soldered to the motherboard.
The end of welding with the Concept Luna. © Dell
Modular is the future of laptops
The PC can be broken down in less than a minute, and to prove that it is within everyone’s reach, the manufacturer demonstrated it with a robot. Even the screen slab can be removed, and therefore replaced; chassis, and all components are accessible. It is then a sort of digital puzzle to put everything back in place.
For now, the Concept Luna remains a prototype and Dell does not give any release date. But the ambition is clearly to launch a modular portable PC, where each part could be changed, either in the event of a problem, or to improve the power of the device. To facilitate these modifications, each part would have its own QR code, and it would suffice to scan this code to receive the corresponding component.
