"I haven't used a Dell laptop for more than two weeks since 2020. Can't say much about it."
"Is this a joke?"
No. The laptop you're attempting to defend is a joke. When even APPLE, a consumer screwing over company, makes a u-turn over something and THEN Dell thinks that one of those unpopular decisions should not only be implemented, but implemented across the ENTIRE XPS lineup, well, that IS a joke.
"With all due respect, you haven't even tried the laptop, by your own admission, so I'm not sure why I am supposed to value your review/feedback on it."
Because I've used Dell laptops from 2004 to 2016, as well as an Alienware 15 R3 laptop. Dell literally has nothing left from those early days. Even their customer support seems to have dropped to the worst I've ever dealt with, when just a few years ago (2014 or so), they were great with great customer support.
"The touch row is borderline unusable for programmers" I literally do not care about the 2% of PC users who are programmers. I'm not sure why Dell needs to cater to them. Explain.
Okay, I will, because you're such a rude person to not care about the "2%" (it's probably way more) of people who are programmers when these people could have been prime users of the XPS line with its formerly good keyboards and screens.
Programmers use something called an Escape key to do various tasks, like close GUI windows that spawn when debugging code, or simply to leave a full screen video on YouTube. Having that be something that literally doesn't have any haptic feedback and something you can't feel without looking down at the keyboard is a huge mistake. Dell needs to cater to some audience, and by targeting reviewers over actual users (over 90% I've talked to do not like this laptop, and some of them actually previously had XPS laptops like I did), it hurts both Dell and reviewers like you, because now it hurts your credibility as a reviewer.
"You're forgetting the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and Razer Blade 14,"
"Bro, I literally called out the Blade 14 as an alternative, so you clearly didn't read what I wrote. Just like how I mentioned having haptics on the LED row would be better."
Fair enough. Maybe I did miss it, or maybe this review was edited, because it wasn't a 4.5/5 review when I left my original comment. It was 5/5, which should stand for a flawless, no serious compromise product, except for maybe price. Neither 4.5 or 5 stars excuse so many flaws for such an expensive product.
"The webcam is okay, but lagging behind the HP Spectre, which has moved to a 4K webcam. " We have the review for the laptop coming out next week. Its webcam is nothing to brag about. Specs aren't everything, especially with webcams.
True, but Dell literally put 720p cameras on their XPS laptops until literally this year. And they were horrible. The fact it took THIS long for them to do it is also ridiculous.
Also, I can quote reviews by Just Josh, who also did not like this laptop or the XPS 16 because they were thicker than the competition, had less performance for more money, still got hot and had loud fan noise, and he also couldn't stand the lack of an escape key. Not to mention, for the money, there are so many other laptops that can do more for less or similar price points.
Another problem? His XPS 16 also had a broken touchpad. Even if that was just his unit, the fact that the 2020/2021 XPS laptops also had similar poor QC on the touchpads is not very confidence inspiring.
Finally, to say that this is the "BeSt LaPtOp Of ThE yEaR" makes me worry for reviewers who legitimately do their job but then to get "reviewers" like you who gloss over serious problems with this laptop, like accessibility issues with the touchpad and touch row, the countless QC issues Dell's XPS line has faced since 2015 (I had a 2017 Dell XPS laptop that literally went through three replacements before they gave me a 2019 model becuase of voltage issues), and the fact that Dell has been very hostile to actually implementing anything that could help these laptops compete with devices from Asus, Lenovo, and HP is very sad to see.
I hope you take this feedback seriously, becuase it sure seems like you don't care about your audience when you try to defend boneheaded reviews like this one.