The XPS are pretty decent machines, I just wish they didn't get so damn hot. This is probably Intel's fault? Can't have the laptop on your lap because it will burn through your legs and it's loud af since the fans spin at a million RPM trying to cool it down.
Aiming to sell my 13" XPS and replace it with an M2 Macbook Air, after work gave me an M1 16" Pro and it's just so unbelievably efficient and never gets hot, plus the battery last all day under heavy load.
It's Dell's fault. They are the ones designing the internals of the laptop and choosing the power levels.
I use a top of the line XPS for several years, and there were two common user-fixes that really improved this heat issue: adding a thermal transfer pad between a couple of the power-related chips and the case, and running a CPU voltage tool to reduce the voltage a bit. Undervolting really made a huge difference, including making the laptop overall faster. The stupid thing, even in a good environment, would go into heat-reduction mode after a few seconds of heavy load, cutting the clock speeds in half. But just by reducing the CPU voltage a few tenths of a volt, the heat was much lower and the CPU almost never throttled. Even so, the fans were loud and usually on.
On paper it looked like a phenomenal laptop. In actual use, it was very unpleasant.
In contrast, my M1 Air has been a dream. I'm trying to think of a negative about it, but honestly I can't think of anything. I've been using it most of every day for a year, on a desk with a big monitor as well as in several places around the world. Even the 16GB RAM limitation has rarely been an issue (except occasionally with my last client that was deeply in love with Docker... 8 running containers plus JetBrains IDEs and of course Firefox with a couple dozen tabs does eventually slow the laptop a bit, but only occasonally).
The new M2 with 24GB will be perfect, especially with the slightly brighter screen for those beachside moments ;)
Aiming to sell my 13" XPS and replace it with an M2 Macbook Air, after work gave me an M1 16" Pro and it's just so unbelievably efficient and never gets hot, plus the battery last all day under heavy load.