I just recently broke down and picked up an X1 Carbon 4th gen in lieu of a new MBP w/ TouchBar. The 14" display is a sweet spot for size and resolution. I run Fedora, and everything 'just worked' besides the fingerprint scanner. I'm sure the new XPS will have good battery life, but the X1 is doing amazing with minimal powertop/tlp tweaking.

What I couldn't find when I was researching were thermal reviews on the X1 Carbon (important to me). Thankfully, I can say that it's always cool to the touch and the fan rarely spins up enough to be audible. Naturally, building from source and some video do cause the fans to engage, but they're not 'whiny'.

Please don't give Lenovo any money. They were caught 3 times already for installing spyware on their systems, why support such a company?

Considering the XPS myself, but waiting for the coil whine to be fixed. I have also been eyeing the ASUS UX305 as possible alternative.

I've had two different models of the XPS 13, and an X1 Carbon in between. I'm planning to buy the new XPS 13 to upgrade my current one.

The X1 Carbon is okay, but the build quality just isn't the same, and once you're used to typing on a 4K screen, it's hard to go back. The new X1 Carbon models also have higher resolution screens, but to get that you have to sacrifice the keyboard (the new keyboard layouts are awful).

On top of that, Dell puts a lot of active effort into making sure all the drivers work flawlessly out of the box. That's why the Developer Edition ships with a different wireless card from the Windows version - fittingly, I've never once had the WiFi drop on me using my XPS 13 from 2015. I can't say the same about the Carbon.

I chose Dell because the 13" screen fit my needs more than the 14", and they have have committed to supporting Linux while Lenovo has been sluggish to release necessary drivers (there was some backlash here and on Reddit 1-2 months ago about this). My Dell has a mild coil-whine problem, and the keyboard is probably less desirable than the Lenovo's-- you can go to a Microsoft store and try out the Dell's keyboard if you have one nearby.

I've used both over the last 3 years. The X1 Carbon is ahead in terms of build quality and you have access to Lenovo's various maintenance options. The XPS has better Linux support. Personally I found the Trackpad on the XPS 13 terrible to the point it was unusable.

If buying again would probably go for the X1 Carbon.