[vegabook]

Well I have the previous generation "Precision" M3800 which is supposed to be the top of the range "serious" line from Dell, and I can vouch for that generation's coil whine too (It's fully loaded including the Nvidia quadro card). That said, I cannot find any fault with the build quality as per this review. Mine is rock solid, nothing squeaks, nothing feels loose. It's rock solid. So other than minor coil whine I am very happy with this (older) machine. The only issue is the perennial problem under Linux with graphics card switching (optimus), and also scaling is terrible under all window managers in Linux, and under Windows, with the built in 4k screen versus the external monitor. Nobody gets this right except Apple.

[Noseshine]

I have some "coil whine" on my XPS 13 ultrabook only when the LED keyboard background light is on. Just another aspect, every laptop is different - maybe even within the exact same product line (I'm sure they don't use the exact same electronic components throughout).

On the overall thread topic: One reason I don't consider a Mac is that I can't (or don't want to) live without a touch screen any more. Yes it's "glare", but I can live with that more easily than not being able to just point at what I want with a finger, or scroll. I rarely use the touchpad.

The XPS 13 is a compromise: At home I'm equipped with 24 and 32 inch displays on a 16 GB RAM PC with SSD, I wanted something as lightweight as possible to carry around. It's heavy enough already - I'm eagerly awaiting 500 gram 17 inch display foldable mobile computers...