- The xps 17 "feels" more solid and less creaky. It's probably less survivable, but it feels like a higher-quality machine
- The wifi seems great, but lately I've been having problems with the microphone. It just stopped working in Windows a week ago, presumably after an update?
- The keyboard isn't quite as good as the thinkpad, but the thinkpad extreme's keyboard isn't nearly as good as the keyboard in my old thinkpad t520. Lenovo are hell-bent on gimping their keyboards until they're no better than anyone else's, and reviews suggest that they've finally succeeded with the x1 extreme gen 4. The xps 17 keyboard is nice, but I notice a squeaking noise from the enter and right shift keys when I type.
- The xps 17's battery life is a lot better. My thinkpad's battery life was puzzlingly bad, even under windows.