Dell XPS vs Macbook Pro

Hi, I need a new laptop for university and other general work, I'm an engineering student and do a bit of development I need to run a linux vm for working in so I was looking at getting 16GB ram for vmware or parallels plus I do quite a lot of photo editing and graphic design work which it definitely helps with.

Basically with student discount I can get a similarly spec'ed XPS or MBPr for roughly the same money. Hence I'm a bit stuck with what one to buy or if theres maybe anything else I've missed.

Depends what OS you prefer to be honest. I have had my 13" MBPR for 2 and a half years and am feeling the itch to go back to Windows.

The MBPR works great and is an awesome tool (battery life is amazing!) but in my line of work, Windows is the main OS used and I am not a fan of bootcamp/parallels.

Have you considered the surface book? It is expensive but I was considering jumping ship to that!

Surface book looks nice but it's way out of my price range, even with student discount from Microsoft it's the best part of 1k dearer for the same spec.

I think it really is more osx vs windows at the moment for me, like I haven't used osx or anything apple before but it does seem like a pretty slick ecosystem. Although I kind of feel like sticking with Windows since I know what it's like and I can just use vmware or vb to get my Linux development environment running.

I'd definitely recommend sticking with Windows - every time I have to use a Mac with OSX I feel like throwing it across the room. There's a lot to say about sticking with what you're used to and there's no denying that Windows is a much more flexible platform.

Never owned a Mac (hate OSX my sister uses them) but I do have the XPS 15 and it's a great laptop, extremely well built and the specs speak for themselves I guess.

The edge to edge screen is also pretty "nifty" haha.

I've got the same XPS15 configuration as R3v4n and it's a very nice laptop. I searched hard for a compact, well built, sleek machine that could do a bit of gaming and also had a USB-C/TB3 port and the XPS15 was the answer. It's pricey but if you have the cash you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for your replies, ended up getting the XPS 15, same spec as Doppleganger and R3v4n. I had a play around with a friends macbook this afternoon and although the hardware is really good there were just too many niggly things I couldn't get on with like the keyboard layout and arranging window frames.