Dell also make laptops with far more ram, so it's not a choice of ">16GB or dell" it's just with this specific line of laptops.

The current gen XPS 15 can be upgraded to 32gb. Not sure about the 13.

I have one of these at the moment, with 32GB of ram.

Definitely the fastest machine I've ever owned/used.

How's the extra ram affect the battery life? Recent HN discussions seems to point toward a heavy battery penalty because of the type of ram needed. (NB: I am not a hardware nerd, looking for actual information here, not just an idle question)

I'm honestly not sure, good question though.

I guess it's difficult to test, would also be interested to know if somebody has tested the different versions against each other.

Good point—I guess a better question would be "hows your battery life?" :)