Dell’s Luna Laptop Concept is about Repairability

Dell’s announced a new design concept for a laptop that’s long lived, easy to take apart and fix, and takes a smaller toll on the climate. It’s a collection of ideas that could go a long way toward making the tech giant’s products more sustainable depending on whether, and how, Dell’s decides to implement them.

The company called it “Concept Luna,” the proof-of-concept laptop dreamed up by Dell’s design team has a number of unusual features that are intended to make repair and maintenance easy. No screwdrivers or glue solvents are needed to pry loose a broken keyboard or peel off a cracked screen; both components simply pop free after a pair of keystones holding them in place are removed.

The entire system contains far fewer screws than a typical Dell’s laptop, reducing the time needed to replace components. Users never have to worry about replacing a broken fan, because there isn’t a shrunken-down motherboard placed in the top cover that allows the laptop to passively cool itself.

Dell’s design strategist Drew Tosh described Luna as a “front end concept” intended to “solve some of the larger problems we’re trying to get ahead of in the future,” namely e-waste and climate change. A laptop that is easy to repair and upgrade is less likely to be replaced with a new one that takes yet more energy and resources to produce. When that computer does stop working, parts can be harvested to live on in other machines rather than winding up as toxic trash in landfills.