[altacc]

Personally I find that the two things that make the most difference to me are the keyboard and the screen real estate. So if you can find a shop where you can try typing on a variety of laptops. Other specs you can equalise but the hardware is fixed when you're on the move. Where I work I have a separate keyboard and monitor as full size and full travel keyboards are nicer to work with than most laptop keyboards, including the XPS.

I like the XPS 15 screen size, although for some development on Windows the high resolution means you're squinting at tiny fonts if the program doesn't scale up. Performance wise, it does what I ask it to and only really has an issue with very heavy tasks, which is expected for a laptop of this spec.

[eljbutler]

Thanks for the info.

I travel a good bit. Hours on planes where i get lots of work done. However for this i find slightly smaller screens than 15" easier to manage.

[altacc]

My other laptop is an HP Elitebook 1040 with a 14" screen. I'm also happy with that and it's what I travel with the most. It's a bit thinner and lighter than the XPS but less than an inch narrower. Compared to that size difference, the screen of the XPS feels a lot larger.

Something worth noting if you're travelling a lot: the power brick for the HP is smaller and lighter than the Dell's. Considering that you'll have to carry that with you, it should be part of the weight calculation.