I couldn't agree more, of course it's a personal opinion, just me I'm not speaking for anyone else. I've always been more than impressed with Apple's customer care, I'm not saying service because you get the impression they actually do care. Not about an individual as such, but ensuring that they deliver the best they possibly can to keep their customers happy.
I too have had the complete and utter shock of having an item (iPhone 6 Plus) replaced with a brand new device when it was out of warranty and without AppleCare. I didn't even ask for a replacement, in fact I wasn't even asking for a repair. I was in the AppleStore for something entirely unrelated and chatting away to the chap. As it was a relevant point in our conversation, I happened to mention that the mute switch on my iPhone was a little loose. That's all, not broken, not even annoying, just slightly loose.
He asked to see it and on the spot just said, I'll give you a new one. Being the honest hardworking type I tried offering money for the replacement, there was no need for it as far as I was concerned so I felt I should at least be paying something. But nope, they wouldn't take anything for doing such a thing. Amazing customer service, by far better than anything I've experienced from any other company ever and that's not my only experience of Apple's outstanding customer care, just one.
So when I decided that I would treat myself to another new shiny toy there was little doubt in the end that it was going to be the new MacBook Pro. I looked around and even tried out the competition of course, we're talking a not insubstantial amount of money, so I like to make sure I'm making the right choice. Of course I need to remain a user of macOS for work, but that doesn't mean I couldn't buy a Windows system for pleasure and other non-macOS dependent work. Or build a hackintosh, or even just run macOS in a VM. I still have my iMac anyway.
But ultimately I find the new MacBook Pro to be a good system, with lots of potential. I went for a maxed out 15" (with the exception of a 1TB SSD instead of 2TB, I'm not that stupid
) It benchmarks higher than my iMac, which admittedly is getting a bit old, 2012 27", 3.2Ghz i5, Geforce GTX 675MX 1GB and 32GB of DDR3 RAM and a 512GB SSD. But crucially the iMac can still quite easily cope with my not insignificant workload, only Fusion 360 causes a bit of slowdown when I'm working on a particularly complex 3D model.
So the combination of the MacBook's performance, Apple's customer care, my experiences of macOS and the integration of all of my Apple Devices and what I learned from trying out the Surface Book and Surface Pro (friends have them) and a couple of other laptops (a XPS 13 and some Lenovo who's model number I cant remember) all added up to cement the decision that I'd throw a silly amount of money at a new MacBook Pro, I don't regret that decision and I'm entirely certain it's the right one for me.
So all that waffling gets me to here. There are those of us for whom Apple and the MacBook range is the perfect fit, it's the device that no other can replace and I don't think anyone could argue that Apple's customer service is the best in the world.
But they are most certainly not the right choice for everyone. There exists more than one operating system and more than one manufacturer for a very good reason. We're all different, we have different needs, wants, likes and dislikes. We are all entitled to make our own choice, no-one can tell anyone else what they need or should have. So if someone decides that Apple is no longer providing what they want or need, that's fine, they aren't wrong just because they want a non-Apple device they just have a different opinion than those who do. I still have to use Windows occasionally and if I'm honest, I still don't like it, not enough to switch back to it again anyway. But it's getting pretty damn close. It's a good, robust operating system these days and if they could just do something about my few *personal* pet peeves I'd maybe switch over in the future.
So for the love of god, either help a chap by offering helpful, informed advice. Or leave them the hell alone, you won't convince them that they are wrong and should instead buy Apple, because they aren't wrong, not even a little.
Anyway, as for the OP, the Dell XPS 13 is a really nice machine, if I were buying a new Windows laptop it would either be that or the Surface Book, which I'm particularly fond of. Either would serve you well I think. I'm also rather keen on the Razer Blade Stealth, but I'd want the Razer Core and a big beefy graphics card to go along with it
(This episode of pointless ranting was brought to you today by the letter V, the number 22, 50 odd hours of sleeplessness, 360mg of morphine and about 6 gallons of Coffee
)
