Last evening, a new Dell store outlet opened at the recently renovated Funan Mall. It’s located on the third floor next to Courts. This is the third exclusive Dell outlet to open in Singapore. The other two outlets are at Plaza Singapura and NEX.
The event kicked off with a quick media tour around the store. It’s a clean space with all the Dell products on display, like the latest XPS, Inspiron, G Series and Alienware brands. Not only that, you can find a full range of Dell’s commercial product portfolio that includes the Latitude and Precision brands, and Vostro for small businesses.
Speaking of small businesses, the store also provides a working space for anyone to use. What’s cool is that you can use the docking stations, the latest Dell desktops and monitors as well as the free high-speed Wi-Fi. Perfect for a quick email check or an on-the-go work catch-up! Unlike a cafe where there’s no available computers, the Dell store makes for a more enticing option now.
“We’re constantly listening to what consumers want and need from their PCs to fit their lifestyles. Whether you’re looking for a powerful workstation that can support intensive workloads such as video or photo editing, or a laptop that boasts great cinematic experience, you’ll find one here that fits your needs and budgets,” said Jarebb Chua, Country Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Singapore and Malaysia, Dell Technologies.
To put the power of Dell to the test, the team collaborated with artist Eugene Soh, founder of Dude Studios. During his presentation, Soh spoke about his recent project Mind Palace that he built using a Dell XPS 15 laptop during an artist retreat in Bali. The retreat was supposed to last for 3 months but Soh could only manage to join for 2 weeks, yet he made the best of it with quite an impressive creation.
Mind Palace is a Virtual Reality project that Soh created for dementia patients to immerse themselves in familiar places like an old home or an iconic place in Singapore that no longer exists.
“I started out using Virtual Reality for elderly in nursing homes. In this example, we let them watch Hawker Chan. Hawker Chan is downstairs but we filmed him in Hanoi cooking chicken rice for the Vietnamese people. I got him to talk on the camera as if he was talking to the nursing home. So as they’re watching Hawker Chan cook the chicken rice, we are sneakily putting the chicken rice in front of them at the nursing home. So after they’ve finished the experience of Hawker Chan preparing the food for them, they take off the goggles and the chicken rice is in front of them. This experience is kindly sponsored by Hawker Chan.”
He proceeded to give us a demonstration of Mind Palace with a volunteer from the crowd to try it out. The controls are simple; raise and point your hands in the direction you want to go. E.g. To go forward, point both hands forward (like you’re Superman!), and to go right, raise your right hand.
Soh is still adding new features to Mind Palace so even though it wasn’t fully finished, it gave a very insightful look at the Dell laptop’s video and speed capabilities to build the virtual world.
Next, we were brought to the other side of the store where the much awaited Alienware gaming products are displayed. The Alienware products are set up in the corner like a special gaming zone, just calling us over to try out. With the plush Alienware rolling chair, the sleek and curvy display monitor and the smooth black keyboard and mouse, it was a truly inviting sight.
After a moment’s hesitation like the typical Singaporean that I am, I eventually gave in to give it a try and sat down. The second I did, I leaned back in the seat and sighed with silent joy. The chair was super comfortable and the keys and mouse were so smooth that I felt like I was right at home, just loading up the PC and planning to play games the rest of the day. We all can dream, right?
For the full experience, the Dell team even put on a SplitGate game and welcomed us to play. Truth be told, I’m terrible at first person shooters so I basically died twice and my team lost the campaign. But I didn’t care because it was fun experiencing the beautiful Alienware products.
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Chua stands at the store entrance and is joined by Kshitij Aggarwal (Finance Consultant), Nigel Yip (Store Manager), Sandeep Mishra (Director of Consumer & Small Business Field Marketing) and Satoshi Shirato (Director, Product Cycle Planning, APJ Dell Technologies).
By this time, some members of the public have gathered outside the store too to watch. And with a big 321-countdown, the Dell team cut the ribbon to major applause and lots of camera flashes.
The event ended with a lucky draw winners announcement. Sadly, I didn’t win anything. But I did get to play SplitGate using Alienware products and bring home a nice black Dell mug so everything’s good.
All in all, it was a fun store launch event. Big thanks to the Dell team for the invite!
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