Well, just handling and carbon footprint - those are the two areas where I felt it was superior. The additional power in the xDrive35 is distinctly noticeable in straight-line accelerations where it can dip into it's available power more easily and at lower RPMs than the xDrive28.
Personally I didn't find the excessive power very usable from a
handling perspective due to two reasons:
1) the X3 (both engines) hesitate a bit to sudden throttle movement (eg:apex departures).
2) For non sudden power demands, it's the chassis that's the limiting factor more than lack of power as both engines have enough power to push the chassis to it's limits in cornering.
Apart from handling and weight, the xDrive35i has a lot more features standard, so that's a plus. I had to add them separately as packages.
Finally, I wasn't trying to make statements of superiority "A better than B". Those are distinctly my preferences across all the brands and cars I tested myself. As long as we have cars that make us happy, we're all good
