I own a .45 Service and have been very pleased with it. I haven't fired many other guns to say that the XD is the best, but from my experience and everything I've read, I think it's a hell of a gun, especially for the money.
It doesn't require a trigger pull to initiate disassembly.
Yes you do, well maybe not to initiate disassembly, but to get the slide off you do. You lock the slide back, turn the disassebly lever, release the slide, pull the trigger, and pull the slide forward to remove it from the gun. There was a thread on the XD Talk forum where a guy didn't check that there was a loaded mag in a XD subcompact, and he had his hand covering a portion of the barrel during disassembly. Fortunately no one else was hurt, but that was one ugly wound.
well its good that they will fix it for free, its bad that its gonna cost $50 to ship it to them to fix it.
They refund up to $50 for shipping on any warranty work. I've had two of the 9mm V-10s break on me (don't buy those, trust me, .40 is ok, but not 9mm). They reimbursed me for shipping on the first one, and I'm expecting the second one to come any day now. Also with certain problems, they replace the gun. This means that both times I sent them my gun, they sent me a brand new gun with the full kit, so I've gotten an extra four magazines. When replacement is required, they'll replace it with a different model within reason. Some people have gone from a 9mm to .45 on the replacement. You could probably get a 1911 from them if the price was comparable.
I have smallish hands, and the grip on the XD .45 is very comfortable for me. My hands are small enough that they fit well on a HK P2000SK comfortably. I think for 13 rounds they've done a hell of a job on the grip.