Dell introduces three new concepts designed to enhance our future hybrid workspaces and a repairable, upgradable and sustainable laptop

In the lead up to CES 2022 in Las Vegas this week Dell announced three new concepts that allow seamless transitions between devices, locations, and collaboration – Concept Flow, Concept Pari and Concept Stanza.

Concept Flow

Concept Flow is Dell’s vision for a “seamless transition” from one location to another as you change locations throughout the day in the modern hybrid workflow environment.

The concept aims to eliminate frustrations that come with changing workspaces by marrying devices, wireless charging technology, software applications and Wi-Fi 6E docking technology thereby creating a singular, seamless experience – the experience is the same no matter where you are situated with the transition between the two workspaces seamless.

Move to a new workspace and the laptop picks up where you left off, connecting automatically to the displays, mouse, keyboards, and other devices in that workspace. The laptop immediately begins receiving power via the wireless charging and the software picks up where it was when you left the last workspace.

Using proximity detection Concept Flow also detects when you leave a workspace, disconnecting you from there and into your next workspace when you arrive there. At this stage Concept Flow is just a concept but Dell is currently “still learning, fine-tuning, and collaborating with partners” bringing them closer to make this concept a reality.

Concept Pari

Concept Pari is all about “reducing barriers to collaboration and communication between team members” and making sure that all members of a team has an equal experience no matter where they are working from that day.

Concept Pari is a “moveable” wireless webcam that can be placed anywhere – on top of a display, on a strand, on a charging dock or held in a hand – to allow for the person to make direct eye contact with others in the same video meeting. The portability of the webcam also allows for easy sharing of offscreen material.

At this stage the webcam is just 30gm in weight and can deliver 1080P video over Wi-Fi and includes a microphone for easy video conferencing. It includes an integrated USB-C dock for wireless charging and is designed to be convenient in today’s hybrid workplaces.

Concept Stanza

Concept Stanza is a note-taking and drawing tablet designed to increase productivity and collaboration through the use of multi-display technologies. It is a thin 11-inch “companion device” and includes a stylus for note taking and illustrating with an ability to easily double tap the handwriting to convert it to text. Content is easily retrievable, searchable and shareable across devices with the concept device combining analogue note taking with digital sharing and analysis directly to your PC. The tablet’s stylus also includes a microphone to allow for transcribing of notes.

Concept Luna

The world has a lot of e-waste with more and more being created every year. Dell’s new concept laptop, Concept Luna, is designed to minimise that waste by allow it to be easily repaired or upgraded in the future thereby cutting down on discarded waste.

The ideas behind Concept Luna hope to decrease the carbon footprint of devices with Dell estimating that if all of the design ideas in Concept Luna were realised the footprint could be reduced by 50%. Some of the design ideas that could lead to this decrease in carbon footprint include:

Motherboard area will be shrunk by 75% and component count by around 20% allowing for a 50% reduction in carbon footprint of the motherboard itself.
The layout of the laptop is reimagined with the motherboard relocated closer to the surface allowing for greater cooling from the air outside the laptop. This, combined with moving it away from the battery, can eliminate the need for a fan within the laptop.
Less power would be required thanks to the above efficiencies and thus a smaller battery would be required but still be able to provide a day’s worth of power.

The Concept Luna laptop also shares a vision of “reuse, repair and recreating”.

It reduces the number of screws by 10 times, reducing the time needed for repairs.
The palm rest assembly is designed for ease of repair and reuse with the keyboard easily separated from other components to simplify recycling.
The new deep-cycle call battery maintains battery life across many years of use

Concept Luna is Dell’s first step in proving what is possible with the next step scalability of the concept in a bid to deliver more sustainable products in the future.