E6500 vs E6510 construction.

I'm looking to replace my long serving Latitude D620. I was heading in the direction of the E6510 until I came across some refurbished E6500's on the Dell outlet site. Looking at the specs it seems to me that the E6500 is almost entirely made from Magnesium alloy while the newer E6510 appears to be made using a "Tri-Metal" frame covered in plastic. This seems to me to be a backward step - can anyone who has owned both models give me some information on this? It is hard to get accurate information from Dell's site and there is a lot of conflicting information out there.
Which model seems tougher?
What exactly is "Tri-Metal"

I reckon the earlier model looks better, it's also 16:10 rather than 16:9, which is good I think. As far as performance goes either one would be a big step up from what I am using at the moment but mostly I just hate plastic!

 

I can't comment specifically on the E6500 / E6520 but I have owned the E6400 and the E6410. The chassis on both is very similar and is a metal alloy. The display back and the one piece base are also metal but the palm rest / keyboard surround is plastic (which means that less heat is conducted to your hands).

I would share your preference for the E6500 with its 16:10 display. The P series CPUs also run cooler than the new Core-i series.

John

 

I've used an E6510 but not the original E6500 but I've also used an E6400. It's nearly the same, but I prefer the older model as stated above, the 16:10 screen.

 

Tri-Metal is the fancy name for magnesium-alloy chassis. The chassis is made of magnesium alloy, and non-structural parts are made of plastic. All D-series and E-series laptops feature this.

As for build quality, they should be similar. However, the E6410/E6510 seem to all be made in China (at least for the NA market), whereas previous Latitudes were made in Malaysia.

 

The "made" just reflects the location for final assembly of the parts. Provided that assembly is undertaken correctly there should not be any implications for the underlying build quality. I believe that all the E series assembly is now undertaken in China but my E6400 was assembled in Ireland and the E4300 came from Poland. Lower labour costs is probably the reason.

John