The Exciting Future of Recycling and Upgradability in Laptops: Dell's Concept Luna

One of the things that I really enjoy about CES (Consumer Electronics Show) time is getting to see all the prototypes and concept pieces from different companies. This year, one of the exciting concepts that caught my attention was from Dell, titled "Concept Luna". If this name sounds familiar, it's because I had the opportunity to see version 1.0 of this last year, and now they're back exactly a year later with a new version of it.

So, what is Concept Luna? It's a highly recyclable laptop designed by Dell that makes it very easy for either you as a consumer or more importantly, Dell as the computer maker to take apart, separate out all the different components, and if possible, reuse some of them. This means that you would have a laptop where all parts are modular, plug-and-play, making it extremely easy to upgrade individual parts without having to replace the entire laptop. The idea is to take the parts out of the laptop when you're done with it, at the end of its useful life, and see if any of those parts can be reused in other laptops.

For example, let's say you have some speakers that are perfectly fine; they can go into another laptop as replacement parts. Or, if you have a laptop that you had hooked up to a monitor and a keyboard and mouse, but never really used the keyboard or even the screen on this laptop, you could take those parts out and reuse them somewhere else. This concept of reusing parts is what makes Concept Luna so exciting.

The second part of the new V2 Concept Luna takes it to a whole new level. You don't need a person to sit there and take the laptop apart and sort all the pieces; they have a couple of robot arms that have been programmed to recognize what every part of the laptop is, test some of them to see how worn they are, if they still work or not, and then take them out and sort them as needed. This replaces the need for a human to do it and makes it very easy to do this at scale.

But, are we going to see Concept Luna evolve into products that you're going to buy from Dell, and be able to recycle right now? Probably not, according to Dell, who say it's just a concept, so shouldn't expect it in real products anytime soon. However, I think it's a good idea of where we should be going in terms of reusing and recycling our laptops. It's exciting to see companies like Dell pushing the boundaries of innovation and sustainability.

I'm very excited to see Concept Luna for a second year in a row; it's always fascinating to learn about new technologies and ideas that are being developed, and I'm sure we'll hear more about this concept in the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enone of the things I really like about CEs time is getting to see all the prototypes and concept pieces from different companies one of them I got a chance to see ahead of CES is from Dell and it's called concept Luna and if that sounds familiar that's because I saw version 1.0 of this last year now they're back exactly a year later with a new version of it and what is concept Luna it is a highly recyclable laptop let me tell you what that means that means this concept is you would have a laptop designed by Dell that is very easy for either you as a consumer or more importantly Dell as the computer maker to take apart separate out all the different components and if possible reuse some of them recycle others throw out others even replace parts that aren't working but everything is very modular very Plug and Play So for the version of concept Luna we saw this year there was just one little tiny tool kind of like a little uh Pokey stick that goes in a hole and that unlocks basically the entire laptop you can take off the whole keyboard array the speakers the motherboard the touchpad everything and if you have a part that let's say is not working you could conceivably get a replacement and very easily put it in yourself there are a couple of other companies that are working on laptops that are very upgradable with replaceable Parts this is about taking the parts out of the laptop when you're done with it when it's at the end of its useful life and seeing if any of those parts can be reused in other laptops let's say you have some speakers that are perfectly fine those can go in another laptop as replacement parts let's say you have a laptop that you had hooked up to a monitor and a keyboard and mouse so you never really used the keyboard or even the screen on this laptop you could take those parts out and reuse them somewhere else now the second part of the new V2 concept Luna is that you don't need a person to sit there and take the laptop apart and sort all the pieces they have a couple of robot arms that have been programmed to recognize what every part of the laptop is even test some of them to see how worn they are if they still work or not and then take them out and you know sort them as needed and that replaces the need for a human to do that and it makes it very easy to do this at scale are we going to see the concept blue Luna idea evolve into products you're going to buy from down and be able to recycle right now no maybe years from now possibly but for now it's just what they call a concept piece where they have some interesting new technology or ideas and they show off a prototype they've built to you know let you see that it works and then maybe they'll incorporate it down the line it's really more forward-looking than anything else so I'm very excited to see concept Luna for a second year in a row Dell says it's just a concept so you shouldn't expect this in real products anytime soon but I think it's a good idea of where we should be going in terms of reusing and recycling our laptopsone of the things I really like about CEs time is getting to see all the prototypes and concept pieces from different companies one of them I got a chance to see ahead of CES is from Dell and it's called concept Luna and if that sounds familiar that's because I saw version 1.0 of this last year now they're back exactly a year later with a new version of it and what is concept Luna it is a highly recyclable laptop let me tell you what that means that means this concept is you would have a laptop designed by Dell that is very easy for either you as a consumer or more importantly Dell as the computer maker to take apart separate out all the different components and if possible reuse some of them recycle others throw out others even replace parts that aren't working but everything is very modular very Plug and Play So for the version of concept Luna we saw this year there was just one little tiny tool kind of like a little uh Pokey stick that goes in a hole and that unlocks basically the entire laptop you can take off the whole keyboard array the speakers the motherboard the touchpad everything and if you have a part that let's say is not working you could conceivably get a replacement and very easily put it in yourself there are a couple of other companies that are working on laptops that are very upgradable with replaceable Parts this is about taking the parts out of the laptop when you're done with it when it's at the end of its useful life and seeing if any of those parts can be reused in other laptops let's say you have some speakers that are perfectly fine those can go in another laptop as replacement parts let's say you have a laptop that you had hooked up to a monitor and a keyboard and mouse so you never really used the keyboard or even the screen on this laptop you could take those parts out and reuse them somewhere else now the second part of the new V2 concept Luna is that you don't need a person to sit there and take the laptop apart and sort all the pieces they have a couple of robot arms that have been programmed to recognize what every part of the laptop is even test some of them to see how worn they are if they still work or not and then take them out and you know sort them as needed and that replaces the need for a human to do that and it makes it very easy to do this at scale are we going to see the concept blue Luna idea evolve into products you're going to buy from down and be able to recycle right now no maybe years from now possibly but for now it's just what they call a concept piece where they have some interesting new technology or ideas and they show off a prototype they've built to you know let you see that it works and then maybe they'll incorporate it down the line it's really more forward-looking than anything else so I'm very excited to see concept Luna for a second year in a row Dell says it's just a concept so you shouldn't expect this in real products anytime soon but I think it's a good idea of where we should be going in terms of reusing and recycling our laptops\n"