I would never buy a consumer line product from Dell like the XPS but I would buy a Buisness line computer again like the Dell Precision 4800/6800,3800 that has everything the XPS 15 has but with 3 years of Free Technical support and next day in home service . All support for this model is handled by agents in the state of Florida.
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Why would anyone buy a Retina Macbook Pro vs Dell XPS 15?
- Thread starter Starfyre
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You must be an investor... very convincing.
Red herring. RMBP could do good with an IGZO display to complement the software. It could help save even MORE power!
Oftentimes upgrading a hard drive for no more than a hundred bucks is much better than replacing. No need to spend 2k 3k just to get storage upgraded or RAM upgraded.
The top of the line rMBP maxed out had imo horrible resale values. A $2799 2012 machine sold for 1300..... that is ridiculous.
1TB Hard drives are out there. There are hybrid harddrives, and oh so many SSDs that anyone has access to and can easily upgrade on their own, without paying ridiculous prices for proprietary SSD.
How many laptops sell for 3K? Now if your saying assuming with a maxed out model that the additional $1,500 is worth the additional battery life and the machine... thats something else. There is an Apple premium, they are certainly not the least expensive class for class.
In the long run, whenver someone runs out of storage, they upgrade the hard drive. RAM failure, upgrade the RAM. How many third party companies make SSDs compatible with the Retina Macbook Pro? At this moment for Haswell MBP, none. With the 2012, OWC only had ~500GB drive, thats it. Even that isnt usable anymore by the current Haswell MBP. Assuming you had a 2012 retina macbook pro and wanted 768GB, go to ebay and pay $700+ for someone elses? thats gonna save a lot of money in the long run all right....
Red herring. RMBP could do good with an IGZO display to complement the software. It could help save even MORE power!
Oftentimes upgrading a hard drive for no more than a hundred bucks is much better than replacing. No need to spend 2k 3k just to get storage upgraded or RAM upgraded.
The top of the line rMBP maxed out had imo horrible resale values. A $2799 2012 machine sold for 1300..... that is ridiculous.
1TB Hard drives are out there. There are hybrid harddrives, and oh so many SSDs that anyone has access to and can easily upgrade on their own, without paying ridiculous prices for proprietary SSD.
How many laptops sell for 3K? Now if your saying assuming with a maxed out model that the additional $1,500 is worth the additional battery life and the machine... thats something else. There is an Apple premium, they are certainly not the least expensive class for class.
In the long run, whenver someone runs out of storage, they upgrade the hard drive. RAM failure, upgrade the RAM. How many third party companies make SSDs compatible with the Retina Macbook Pro? At this moment for Haswell MBP, none. With the 2012, OWC only had ~500GB drive, thats it. Even that isnt usable anymore by the current Haswell MBP. Assuming you had a 2012 retina macbook pro and wanted 768GB, go to ebay and pay $700+ for someone elses? thats gonna save a lot of money in the long run all right....
So basically you've just come here to convince us all that Dells > Apples, is that it Starfyre? I don't think you'll win. I love my OC'd gaming PC, and I love my Apples, but you wouldn't catch me recommending a Dell to anyone I actually cared about.
I browse both Windows and OSX forums and I find that Mac users are way more insecure about their choices and can be easily offended.
I don't own an XPS but I did sell my 2012 13" MacBook Air back in July for a Dell Inspiron 15 laptop. I wanted something cheaper since all I do is browse the internet and do schoolwork which mostly requires Windows. After a few months, I'm going back to Mac. Windows 8 is horrible. Sure the speed of the OS has increased slightly but the interface is garbage. The Metro UI is completely useless and since my laptop isn't a touchscreen there isn't a need for it. I do have a Start menu app installed but there are some things where using Metro is necessary. Not to mention I miss the build quality of my MacBook's and I think they are worth the extra cost.
I own both machines, and browse both forums as well. I've found that Mac users can be insecure and pretty myopic, but PC enthusiasts are much more dogmatic and "intolerant" if you will. PC enthusiasts are the religious extremists of the electronics world.
I've been debating between the 2 myself and ultimately bought a MBP for 5 reasons:
1. I have OS X programs I'd miss and Apple generously installs iWork, iLife for free on new computers.
2. The MBP has a 1 TB PCIE SSD option. I'm already using almost my entire 256 gb SSD and have felt restrained. The Dell maxes out at 512gb and that SSD is actually way slower (~500 mb/s r/w vs ~800) although it's possible that it isn't noticeable in normal use scenarios. Future SSDs won't really improve on this though because the problem is SATA itself.
3. The MBP has a quite faster CPU option in the 4960HQ (just released last month).
4. Support tends to be with fewer headaches for Apple and they're a more proven horse as fas laptops go.
5. Price is actually very similar. With an educational discount, you actually don't even pay more for a similarly configured MBP and the MBP will have slightly faster components.
However, I ended up canceling my MBP order while I figure out some throttling and TDP questions. It's no use having a faster CPU if it can't run at max performance due to insufficient power.
1. I have OS X programs I'd miss and Apple generously installs iWork, iLife for free on new computers.
2. The MBP has a 1 TB PCIE SSD option. I'm already using almost my entire 256 gb SSD and have felt restrained. The Dell maxes out at 512gb and that SSD is actually way slower (~500 mb/s r/w vs ~800) although it's possible that it isn't noticeable in normal use scenarios. Future SSDs won't really improve on this though because the problem is SATA itself.
3. The MBP has a quite faster CPU option in the 4960HQ (just released last month).
4. Support tends to be with fewer headaches for Apple and they're a more proven horse as fas laptops go.
5. Price is actually very similar. With an educational discount, you actually don't even pay more for a similarly configured MBP and the MBP will have slightly faster components.
However, I ended up canceling my MBP order while I figure out some throttling and TDP questions. It's no use having a faster CPU if it can't run at max performance due to insufficient power.
I consider it a win if I get a Retina Macbook Pro, which like I said before, I am leaning towards. Its just that the Dell XPS 15 is giving me second thoughts, hence the hopes for me to be convinced otherwise.
I faced the same dilemma a few weeks ago when I read the first Dell XPS review for the new models. As I'm sure I said earlier, I chose a refurbished rMBP. After 25 years with PCs and finding the computers physically failing to hold up (my esteemed Lenovo ThinkPad T500 developed hairline cracks in both palm rests), plus seeing the super build qualities of my iPhone 4s and iPad 3, I decided to make the change. Having several months with Windows 8 only aided the decision.
After almost a month with my MacBook, I'll be surprised to find myself back with a PC.
If you're not super tightly constrained by budget, go with whichever is more enjoyable to use. Personally, the UX of OS X and (for me) the design of the machine are worth a certain premium. My experience with Macs has been that while they don't necessarily beat every PC in the price/performance game, they do beat nearly everything in UX and reliability - including my handbuilt PC's, which I trust infinitely more than one assembled be Dell. Not that Dell is awful in general, their monitors can be nice.
Lots of reasons not to choose the Dell
Con
1. Its a dell. it will be worth less than the Mac 3 years from now.
2. Windows 8 is simply horrible. It scales the display inconsistently. It multitasks worse than OSX. It has a bi-polar user interface.
3. I've never used a PC laptop with a trackpad that works well, and none that work as well as Apple's
4. Windows power management is poor compared to a Mac
5. VMware costs $249 vs $70 on a Mac
Pros
1. upgradeable RAM and SSD, possibly more than 1 SSD, slight price savings.
Overall, I'd prefer the m3800 workstation laptop. What I really want is a 13" laptop with a 2560x1440 or better screen with a quad core haswell with Iris 5200 graphics, at least 16GB RAM, and dual SSD interfaces. NO ONE MAKES SUCH A BEAST.
Con
1. Its a dell. it will be worth less than the Mac 3 years from now.
2. Windows 8 is simply horrible. It scales the display inconsistently. It multitasks worse than OSX. It has a bi-polar user interface.
3. I've never used a PC laptop with a trackpad that works well, and none that work as well as Apple's
4. Windows power management is poor compared to a Mac
5. VMware costs $249 vs $70 on a Mac
Pros
1. upgradeable RAM and SSD, possibly more than 1 SSD, slight price savings.
Overall, I'd prefer the m3800 workstation laptop. What I really want is a 13" laptop with a 2560x1440 or better screen with a quad core haswell with Iris 5200 graphics, at least 16GB RAM, and dual SSD interfaces. NO ONE MAKES SUCH A BEAST.
Interesting that your Lenovo developed hairline cracks along the palm rests. My MacBook Air developed hairline cracks at the entire panel in front of my eyes.
That's a straw man argument. The proper metric is total cost of ownership (TCO). Ignoring the upfront cost makes no sense.
Those are subjective opinions. There are plenty of people who love it.
Apple trackpads are quite good, but that doesn't mean that others aren't adequate.
Anand disagrees with you. His review of the XPS15 noted that Apple's batteries are higher capacity, but that, "Since the XPS 15 is designed to run Windows from the ground up, there isnt a problem with lack of power optimizations, and the result is competitive battery life."
This is another straw man argument, since the #1 reason people buy virtualization on Macs is to run Windows. The segment of people who need additional/supplemental Windows or Linux VMs is actually quite small, and again, if you factor in the upfront cost difference, this price difference still makes the TCO numbers not competitive.
Enough kool-aid, people. (It's no coincidence to me that auto-correct keeps turning that into "kook-aid.)
I'm actually a product designer...
But that doesn't matter we're comparing two real computers not a theoretical computer against a real one. Apple will probably start using IGZO technology in the next 1-3 refreshes based on rumors. The whole point of IGZO technology is that it improves certain aspects of a computer, if those aspects are inferior in the end than it's irrelevant what technology you use It's the results that matter. That was my point.
You're not going to upgrade the hard drive for a hundred bucks. Those times are long in the past and completely ridiculous.
Dell's Hybrid SSD is also a joke as per their own marketing graphs:
That's only twice as fast. A regular SSD is around 10 times as fast and a PCI-E SSD is around 17 times as fast as an HDD.
If you want a computer that is anything but ridiculously slow you need an SSD. No hybrid solution works well, even with Apple's fusion drive which is the best there is for a hybrid solution I get better results by splitting up the volumes and managing it manually.
SSD upgrades cost several hundred bucks and it will be cheaper just to sell your computer and buy a different one.
I have no idea where you found that info out but you didn't do your research. No maxed out rMBP has ever sold for $1,300 in good working condition from a seller who isn't an obvious scammer or fake listing. I would know because I carefully researched the market before selling mine.
Again stop trying to upgrade your computer, you're not going to be able to upgrade the Dell XPS 15 either, it doesn't have enough hard drive bays to keep a full SSD as your primary drive, and get an extra HDD with decent space.
You will get to pick between having a horribly slow computer and paying a few hundred for a large SSD, or nothing.
It will be much cheaper to Buy a $2800 MacBook Pro Retina 15 with 512GB of Storage then in 1.5 years sell it for $2000 and buy another one off eBay for $2300 with 1TB of storage when that model depreciates.
Otherwise what you will do is buy a Dell XPS 15" Sell the 512GB SSD for $190 and spend $650 to get a 1TB SSD.
$460 is more than $300.
The markup on refurbished Blade SSD's is also really low, only $100 over a regular SSD for the same size. Considering the much better resale value of the Mac you will be much better off in the end.
They are the least expensive machines to own over time. That was the entire point of my argument there. Think about it, if you spend $2200 now and then sell it for $1500 in 2 years, it cost you $700. If you buy for $2000 and sell for $600, it cost you $1,400. The COST of something is it's total price, (buying - selling) / time.
You don't seem to understand that if you sell a used computer you can buy a used computer with a better warranty in better condition for a similar price. The last gen 768GB Retina is selling for only $200 more than the 512GB one on average.
If you find you need 768GB down the line just sell and buy.
I've done this literally dozens of times, in fact I get a new iMac, a new Retina Macbook and a new Macbook Air every single refresh and I only spend $600 per year on 3 computers. I usually get the mid spec model for both the iMac, MacBook Air and MacBook Retina 15" but I've gone from low to mid to high spec in one year (first year of the Retina) just to upgrade to see what it was like. Often it cost me only $100 to flip from one used computer to another.
I've restored my current 3 versions of OS X operating system countless times onto new or used computers to the point where i've got it set up to only take 8 minutes.
You seem to be stuck in this insane concept that it is infinitely more expensive to own a non-upgradeable computer than an upgradeable one. This is not true in any sense of the word, with Apple computers. I've built countess computers and NOT upgrading Apple ones costs me a fraction of what it costs me to upgrade computers from any other brand.
So why don't you do this, get a Dell XPS 15, and let's see how much you spend over the long run and how satisfied you are.
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I see we're deep in "there can be only one" territory here. Isn't it time for the internet to grow up a little? (editor's note: wait, am I successfully growing up if I'm making those kinds of comments?)
The XPS 15 is clearly a solid rMBP competitor. It's definitely ahead in some areas (IGZO, touch screen). This is not a debate; these things are true.
Don't make your purchase decisions based on the group consensus of the "best" piece of hardware. More importantly, don't take to the internet trying to convince others that your choice was "better."
Assess your needs vs. the features of the devices in question.
-Do you want a touch screen (contrary to popular opinion here, this is not stupid)?
-Do you prefer Windows, and more importantly does the software you need for productivity work on Windows or Linux? Again contrary to common local beliefs, Windows has been a very solid OS since Win 7. Some.. questionable choices were made with the UI in 8, but I can promise you the days of "game over, reinstall" and the BSOD ended with 7.
-Do you prefer 16:9 (for video, gaming, or working in two windows side-by-side)?
-Are battery life and screen brightness top priorities?
If this describes you, take a serious look at the XPS 15. Personally I'd wait for it to launch and some reviews to appear (especially Anandtech) since it's essentially 1st gen (like the rMBP was last year), but everything I've seen so far makes it look like a great machine.
I think Dell is going to be a company to watch in the laptop market from now own, with its founder taking the company private. This is honestly a great thing; the Windows laptop market has been defined by poor quality cheap machines for as long as I can remember and it'd be great to see a premium Windows laptop manufacturer step up and give Apple some serious competition.
On the other hand:
-Do you prefer OS X or have OS X only software you need to run?
-Do you prefer 16:10 (for more physical vertical space in single-window work)?
-Is Apple's in-store support valuable to you? There's no question this is a big selling point for many users.
-Do you have concerns about being an early adopter (of IGZO, or Dell's first attempt at Apple-quality build)?
-Is PCIe SSD valuable to your productivity (this is a very specific set of users but I'm certain there are some here who feel this is true)?
-Are you an every year upgrader? Resale value on Apple laptops can be quite good if you avoid too many high end BTO options.
I could probably continue adding things to both lists, but I think the point is made. Look at your needs. Look at the options. Discuss. Make a decision. Stop trying to convince others your decision is "better."
I picked the rMBP. I'm a 16:10 holdout, I've become fond of OS X since I got my 17" MBP in 2010, and I may sell and upgrade next year if I can get a decent price (again to whatever suits my needs best at the time). I have also generally had very good experiences dealing with Apple, while I have no experience dealing with Dell. If Dell's new rMBP-like XPS line proves itself this year, it may be a difficult decision next year (though it'd still be hard to let go of 16:10).
I am very interested to see Anandtech's take on both machines, since you clearly can't review one without comparing it to the other this year.
The XPS 15 is clearly a solid rMBP competitor. It's definitely ahead in some areas (IGZO, touch screen). This is not a debate; these things are true.
Don't make your purchase decisions based on the group consensus of the "best" piece of hardware. More importantly, don't take to the internet trying to convince others that your choice was "better."
Assess your needs vs. the features of the devices in question.
-Do you want a touch screen (contrary to popular opinion here, this is not stupid)?
-Do you prefer Windows, and more importantly does the software you need for productivity work on Windows or Linux? Again contrary to common local beliefs, Windows has been a very solid OS since Win 7. Some.. questionable choices were made with the UI in 8, but I can promise you the days of "game over, reinstall" and the BSOD ended with 7.
-Do you prefer 16:9 (for video, gaming, or working in two windows side-by-side)?
-Are battery life and screen brightness top priorities?
If this describes you, take a serious look at the XPS 15. Personally I'd wait for it to launch and some reviews to appear (especially Anandtech) since it's essentially 1st gen (like the rMBP was last year), but everything I've seen so far makes it look like a great machine.
I think Dell is going to be a company to watch in the laptop market from now own, with its founder taking the company private. This is honestly a great thing; the Windows laptop market has been defined by poor quality cheap machines for as long as I can remember and it'd be great to see a premium Windows laptop manufacturer step up and give Apple some serious competition.
On the other hand:
-Do you prefer OS X or have OS X only software you need to run?
-Do you prefer 16:10 (for more physical vertical space in single-window work)?
-Is Apple's in-store support valuable to you? There's no question this is a big selling point for many users.
-Do you have concerns about being an early adopter (of IGZO, or Dell's first attempt at Apple-quality build)?
-Is PCIe SSD valuable to your productivity (this is a very specific set of users but I'm certain there are some here who feel this is true)?
-Are you an every year upgrader? Resale value on Apple laptops can be quite good if you avoid too many high end BTO options.
I could probably continue adding things to both lists, but I think the point is made. Look at your needs. Look at the options. Discuss. Make a decision. Stop trying to convince others your decision is "better."
I picked the rMBP. I'm a 16:10 holdout, I've become fond of OS X since I got my 17" MBP in 2010, and I may sell and upgrade next year if I can get a decent price (again to whatever suits my needs best at the time). I have also generally had very good experiences dealing with Apple, while I have no experience dealing with Dell. If Dell's new rMBP-like XPS line proves itself this year, it may be a difficult decision next year (though it'd still be hard to let go of 16:10).
I am very interested to see Anandtech's take on both machines, since you clearly can't review one without comparing it to the other this year.
Added in important information (in Red)
Believe me, I have had multiple dell products and the results have been disturbing
Inspiron core 2 duo 6400 series- Still running good though limited with 1 GB RAM (ton of programs installed makes it slow).
XPS 15 (LX502)-Overheating turd with fraying power cord (could literally see the copper wire had to duct tape it), poor battery (55% health after a year despite putting only a few cycles on it). Dell locks you to their drivers so 3 years down the road you are going to be using the release driver or a refresh driver (6 mo after launch) for the lifetime of the device. Latest driver for the LX502 is from march 2012.
Inspiron 15 SE - Random problems (slow, glitchy, boots with all user settings gone-fixed with reboot). Battery died and had to be replaced under warranty. AMD drivers with dell's restricted bios are a nightmare.
The newer XPS 15 (2013) had horrible throttling and wifi issues.
This newer model may change things but I'm going to have to see a lot of reviews for it to convince me.
Believe me, I have had multiple dell products and the results have been disturbing
Inspiron core 2 duo 6400 series- Still running good though limited with 1 GB RAM (ton of programs installed makes it slow).
XPS 15 (LX502)-Overheating turd with fraying power cord (could literally see the copper wire had to duct tape it), poor battery (55% health after a year despite putting only a few cycles on it). Dell locks you to their drivers so 3 years down the road you are going to be using the release driver or a refresh driver (6 mo after launch) for the lifetime of the device. Latest driver for the LX502 is from march 2012.
Inspiron 15 SE - Random problems (slow, glitchy, boots with all user settings gone-fixed with reboot). Battery died and had to be replaced under warranty. AMD drivers with dell's restricted bios are a nightmare.
The newer XPS 15 (2013) had horrible throttling and wifi issues.
This newer model may change things but I'm going to have to see a lot of reviews for it to convince me.
This right here is probably a big point for a lot of people who are on the fence. Dell's going to have to prove they're serious about matching Apple on build quality and support. I believe their intentions are to really back up the claims, but I'd like to see it in effect before I'd take a chance.
This is an awesome thread. I would request an improvement to make this thread even more useful -
Can everyone posting their Dell/Apple stories also qualify their post by mentioning which model, year they owned?
Thank you.
Can everyone posting their Dell/Apple stories also qualify their post by mentioning which model, year they owned?
Thank you.
I wanted to chime in specifically on this point. Like you, I am a serial flipper. It can be extremely cost economical. It's also a bit time intensive and a pain if you don't enjoy it (I personally do, but a lot of people don't).
Anyway, the best bang for your buck is almost always sticking with base models, as the depreciation curve is flatter for them. I think it's a bit speculative to suggest getting $2000 for a 512GB model 18 months down the road, even assuming it has AppleCare on it. That's not to say it's not possible, but since one could buy the previous model with 16GB/512GB today for $2300 as a close-out, brand new in the box, the odds ain't great. That said, there is a sucker born every minute, and they all make their way to Craiglist eventually, so your mileage may vary.
Give me any reference to back this up. How do you know the new XPS15/M3800 has powdered aluminum. Big statement there. You even invoked hotwheels. Give me anything to factcheck that.
Also, the Carbon Fiber on the XPS15/M3800 is not cut out of sheets. It is 3D formed with reinforcements all over it. Carbon fiber protects from heat in notebooks just like it does in motorcycle mufflers. It is not some kind of gimmick or sticker. It is a very strong material that keeps heat away from users.
While you are at it, how about telling me why Apple has not issued a recall of HDD connectors in MacBook Pros. They are failing all over the place. Yet Apple won't recall or fix it.
Really? You are saying that MBPs come fully calibrated from Foxconn? You are saying Windows systems can't be calibrated?
The panel on XPS 15/M3800 is very good out of the box. It calibrates with an average Delta of 1. One. And it has more pixels that the rMBP.
You are misleading people here. They will believe you because you change your text all over the place.
Also, the IGZO panel on the M3800 is not bad even without calibration. It uses 35% less power and has at least as wide of a gamut, contrast ratio, and 25% more brightness.
Where are you getting these battery life numbers? From reviews of the OLD XPS 15? You do realize that the new XPS 15/M3800 is not out yet. The only reviews are from people like me that got access to early release machines.
You say that battery life is a complete and utter lie. Guess what, even with the 6 cell battery, I get over 5 hours of real world battery life. I can't wait to see what the 9 cell batteries do.
Meanwhile other people are paying $150 for high quality RAM.
You are lying to people. The MBP does not come calibrated from the factory.
You do not need $5000 in calibration tools to improve Windows or Mac screens. You need a sub $500 Spyder 4 Elite system.
The IGZO panel in the XPS 15/M3800 is probably closer to calibrated that the eRMB panel. Will actually test them in the next few days. Get your excuses ready.
Got lost there. I have compared rMBP notebooks sitting on a solid surface with the XPS 15/M3800. Guess which one is thicker - feet and all. Neither, they are the same 1.8 CM.
Then you go back to RAM costing $200 from Apple when it should cost $150.
No mention of price.
The Dell can do 1.5tb of storage.
Really? Buy a new COMPUTER when you run out of storage? Just upgrade the drive.
- No matter how many SSDs you change on the XPS you will always have inferior performance than rMBP because XPS is limited by the SATA controller. Although as my friend mentioned above, for smaller files might be the same.
- It doesn't matter if XPS is a tiny bit thinner because rMBP is WAY smaller in width.
- The screen doesn't make a difference. If someone thinks it does than he/she is a marketing victim. MacOSX re-scales sizes by default. If you don't rescale the fonts and the widgets you just can't work. OK, that might not be true for some people with.. "hawk-eyes"
- If you need more than 16GB then u are doing something wrong. Get a desktop.
- I will not comment on the operating system. MacOSX is of course inferior to Linux. But you can install whatever OS you want on rMBP.
Having said that, I just bought my first apple product ever. I am an "apple-hater" but rMBP was the only option in my case.
edit: and of course rMBP's price is ridiculous
- It doesn't matter if XPS is a tiny bit thinner because rMBP is WAY smaller in width.
- The screen doesn't make a difference. If someone thinks it does than he/she is a marketing victim. MacOSX re-scales sizes by default. If you don't rescale the fonts and the widgets you just can't work. OK, that might not be true for some people with.. "hawk-eyes"
- If you need more than 16GB then u are doing something wrong. Get a desktop.
- I will not comment on the operating system. MacOSX is of course inferior to Linux. But you can install whatever OS you want on rMBP.
Having said that, I just bought my first apple product ever. I am an "apple-hater" but rMBP was the only option in my case.
edit: and of course rMBP's price is ridiculous
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Here's how I see it:
Biggest rMBP advantages:
Higher maximum configuration performance (with a hefty price tag to match)
OS X programs are better optimised for scaling at the moment
PCIe Storage is faster
Biggest XPS 15 advantages:
Better screen (resolution, touch, probably brightness)
Much more repairable by the user
Cheaper
We will have to wait and see about the battery life. Dell advertises 11 hours under the follow test conditions: 150 nits of screen brightness, surfing with wifi. The 2012 rMBP was tested under these conditions by notebookcheck (with one potential difference being how often pages are refreshed). The rMBP got 6 hours of battery life, while the advertised battery life was 7 hours. We'll have to wait and see how they both deliver under identical circumstances by an unbiased and competent reviewer, but it seems like it will either be close or in the Dell's favour.
Biggest rMBP advantages:
Higher maximum configuration performance (with a hefty price tag to match)
OS X programs are better optimised for scaling at the moment
PCIe Storage is faster
Biggest XPS 15 advantages:
Better screen (resolution, touch, probably brightness)
Much more repairable by the user
Cheaper
We will have to wait and see about the battery life. Dell advertises 11 hours under the follow test conditions: 150 nits of screen brightness, surfing with wifi. The 2012 rMBP was tested under these conditions by notebookcheck (with one potential difference being how often pages are refreshed). The rMBP got 6 hours of battery life, while the advertised battery life was 7 hours. We'll have to wait and see how they both deliver under identical circumstances by an unbiased and competent reviewer, but it seems like it will either be close or in the Dell's favour.
The M3800 (an XPS 15 with a Quadro card) has already been tested by Bokeh. The last generation of rMBPs could reach a CPU temperature of around 100 degrees Celsius. There is little reason to expect improvements on this front. The max TDP has been increased from 45W to 47W without any apparent changes to the cooling. In the M3800 the CPU temperature maxes out in the 80s. Not surprising that cooling would be improved by completely changing the chassis, and adding an extra fan. The XPS 15 also uses a CPU with a max TDP of 37W. We'll see how this affects performance, especially if there is throttling on the rMBP's front.
Also, last years rMBP was throttled by the fact that the power supply wasn't powerful enough.