Recommendations for a powerful work laptop that supports Thunderbolt 3 external GPUs?

[thejin]

Here's the deal, I'm a gamer and vr developer, I need a powerful laptop I can bring around with me on the go but also can connect to an external GPU via Thunderbolt 3.

I've used Razer in the past but they pretty much break (or battery's begin to inflate) exactly a year after purchasing (this has happened to 3 of our work laptops). I like their small portable form-factor though
Then we switched to Alienware, which are pretty powerful but I haven't particularly liked their support and they're GINORMOUS, I can't fit it in a reasonably sized backpack. I don't want to carry around one of those ever again
I wanted to try one of the Microsoft Surface products but it looks like none of them support thunderbolt 3 for external GPUs

Just looking for a reasonable form factor, has a decent CPU & GPU, can plugin to an external GPU via TB3.
Anyone else have a similar need to me and had a lot of success with a particular laptop/ brand?

[Zando_]

XPS 13/15 laptops should work, and they're a really compact form factor, similar to current MBPs. 

[lboolaka_33]

Maybe the ThinkPad X1 Extreme/P1? It should be more reliable than an XPS or Razer laptop. 

If you're willing to carry around a bigger laptop, the P15/T15p/T15g could work as well, with better thermal performance (you then also have the option of a good GPU built in).