Will I need to clean out dust. How would I do this? How often would I need to do this? Are there any good tutorials on how this would be done?
I would think that this is the actual intake and it looks like that because you use the laptop in a place with a lot of dust.
That is indeed the case :) Imho this is superior to bottom intakes, because with those your laptop will basically vacuum up any dust that is already on the table/bed/surface you put it on.
So basically you just wipe it off from time to time. After a few years of use you can also consider opening it up, disconnecting the battery, holding the fan blades in place to prevent them from spinning and then use a vacuum or pressured air to remove any internal buildup.
EDIT: looks like it might be a top AND bottom intake actually. If there are slits on the bottom of the laptop then it is.
Thank you.
As others have mentioned, that seems normal, though you may have more dust at home than others. Nothing to worry about, you can wipe it off.
My personal recommendation would be to wipe it off when the fans are off. Otherwise you risk of loosening up the dust and just get it sucked into the computer, defeating the purpose of wiping it off. You can use a slightly damp wipe (make sure there is nothing dripping or you may cause problems) or electrostatic brush to capture most of it, but even a dry wipe will do the trick.
Thank you.