The XPS is alright. Its touchpad hasn't been as big a transition as I'd feared -- although the loss of kinetic scrolling is certainly lamented.
My main issues with the XPS are:
- Only slightly quieter than a vacuum cleaner.
- Unless you want to use the fancy GPU in Linux, in which case it's louder than a vacuum cleaner and has a very short battery life. (I keep the GPU disabled)
- Camera is placed at the bottom of the bezel, which is an ideal location for observing your fingers on the keyboard, or if you give the screen a jaunty tilt, peering far up your nostrils. Serves no other purpose. I really can't fathom the process by which that camera got greenlit. I use an external clip-on camera instead.
A Mac would certainly be better. For the same amount of power and storage, it would also be 3x the price, and (in recent years) probaly less robust.