My M2800 now weighs about 12 pounds. It's filled with man uice! Probably because I leave it on auto suck. Also, I can't stop it from cleaning my dishes or feeding the dog. I can't complain though as it's paid for itself since I fired the maid. Much quieter too!

I have a Latitude E6520 with the same hot airflow issue. To me it only is a problem after carrying the thing in a carry bag: it can get pretty hot there if it is not properly put to sleep or shut down. So be careful with that...
For the rest, it is not at all a showstopper: I am about to order a M2800 now.

regards, Wilfried

Please, could any one has the laptop advise me about the overheating and the hot airflow ?  is it right that it is a problem on the model or it was just few. Should I buy it or I go with the E5550 ?

I've got a 2011 Latitude 6520 as my work supplied machine, they are offering a replacement of either a Latitude E7450 or one of these M2800s, while I agree the M2800 is not exactly cutting edge design, the bigger screen (15.6" over 14") is winning me over, as is the far more powerful GPU. The E7450 is a nice looking machine but for work use I'd rather functionality over prettyness!

Thanks for the review, it has made my mind up.

Martin

Thanks and congrats on your reviews, you've done a thorough work and it's been very helpful to me.

Do you know if I could boot from an ssd installed on the msata port? I read some Dell notebooks can´t and I can´t find anything on the web. There is very little info on this model out there except for this review. Thanks in advance.

It's 2014 and this thing is so fugly.

I got this with the higher capacity battery and it came with a factory installed Ubuntu 12.04. Worked well but had some issues  identifying my Wacom Intuos Pro tablet.
I switched to Linux Mint 17 but couldn't get the wifi card working. After installation, did an update (through the ethernet port) and everything now works AOK! Slightly heavy machine but no regrets. It's really vallue-for-money.

Thanks for this detailed article.
I am still hesitating between this one and a Latitude 3540. I want my laptop to be durable, have a professional look and decent gaming capabilities.

This one looks superior but the heat issue makes me uncertain. Any other feedback about this? 60°C seems unbearable to me. How is it in practice?