Dell XPS 13 vs E5450
Dell makes some of the best bang for the buck laptops, especially if you buy refurbished or used. Whereas a 2013 Apple laptop will still be very highly priced for the specs, Dell laptops depreciate rapidly. Thus, for $400-$800 you can get a very nice Dell. Likewise, Dell maintenance and upgradeability is also very good. SSD, RAM and WiFi upgrades are generally a piece of cake.
I understand that Apple makes a premium product and that they have very high demand, however, I greatly respect Dell’s decisions to tailor their products to their market (especially in the Dell business line of laptop).
With all that said, here are a couple nice Dell laptops side-by-side for comparison purposes. The Dell XPS 13 and the Dell E5450:
Both machines are great choices!
Both laptops are sleek in black
Matte LCDs and backlit keyboard are available
Top Down Size Comparison
Both nice screens, but I prefer the XPS 13