I was sucked in by the advertising I guess. They looked very good on paper - good battery life for the time, thin, light, powerful, sleek, latest everything. I've built computer systems for most of my professional career. Looking back on it, how I could have possibly thought some fresh shiny new design first off the production line was going to be rock solid work horse is beyond me. Lack of critical thinking skills I guess.
Now, I buy something like a Dell Latitude. It's an enterprise machine. Translation: a plain, boring design with parts that have been trialed by the XPS/X1 suckers, so most of the bugs are ironed out. Enterprise tends to mean expensive. But they lose 75% of their value in 2 years, so second hand prices are very reasonable, and since Dell offers 5 years warranty on them they can effectively come with the same guarantees as a new one.
Enterprise also means well supported. It's almost night and day. Ring Dell about a Inspiron or even an XPS issue, and you are met with a wall of excuses. Contact them about an Latitude issue, you get a fast response. The one time I wasn't happy with the outcome, I said so in their "how did we go" questionnaire, and they rang me back begging me to let them have another go.