XPS 17-3d vs HP Envy 17 build quality

Hi,
I am trying to decide between these two machines and I would like to figure out which one is manufactured/built/constructed better.
Also any other suggestions on which one to get would be appreciated too.

Thanks.

 

I prefer the design of the envy but the features of the Dell. My 17 3D feels well built, but I'm not a fan of all the plastic surfaces. I was hoping for some sort of alloy palm rest at least. I almost went with a Macbook Pro because I'm tired of Dell's lack of build quality. Couldn't quite justify the cost increase this go-around.

 

I have had two Dell laptops in the past and had absolutely no problems with them, both are actually still in the family ("donated" to my relatives). I also had an HP desktop about 8 years ago and an HP Envy, and both of them were crash-prone during gaming. I eventually sold both on eBay with full disclosure of the problems I had.

Just my personal, honest-to-God experience. Your mileage may vary.

 

Hum? The palm rest and most of the upper interior surface is indeed alloy in the XPS 17. Not that I would have not prefered a unibody alloy case, of course.

 

I used a HP Envy 17 3D back in December thru Janurary, but I returned it when I found out about the Sandy Bridge editions and how hot it got. It had a good build quality, the LCD was about the same as this XPS 17 3D but the chasis looked way better.
It looked more cleaner, no stickers, nice rounded edges, Slot-load Bluray, almost all metal and the glass was edge to edge- not like the thick plastic bezel we have on these XPS's. So, in terms of looks- the Envy wins hands down.
The XPS however seems to have slightly better features IMHO than the Envy.
I am partial to NVDIA GPUs for gaming rather than ATI, I also like having one more USB 3.0 port than the Envy also.
Of course the Envy I used was pre-Sandy Bridge line CPU so whatever I experienced in terms of heat may be resolved by now. But that Envy got hot like in the 90s whenvever I gamed and it would crash alot. Whenever I played Fallout 3, Black Ops or Borderlands, the Envy would crash after a few minutes, maybe I had a defective unit.
Whatever the case I am loving this XPS 17 3D especially for the price I paid (see Sig) for it and I am waiting on my non 3D version to come in hopefully next week.

One more good thing about the Envy line is that the HP customer service is awesome. There is a separate Envy phone # to call and they are way more generous with discounts, credits, and upgrading the customer than Dell is. The moment you get a delayed shipment you also get a 15% off coupon and you can call in and ask for more comps like free upgrades and credits. Also, there is no restocking fee like Dell and they dont charge your credit card until the laptop actually ships to you. Dell charges you 15% restocking fee and charges your credit card the moment you place the order. Dell customer service sucks.

I would gladly buy the Envy 17 3D edition if I could get one for around $1k its totally worth it.