@jerv Well, I’ll agree the MacBooks have a bit of price premium but not like it used to be. They do tend to be well-built.
Also ref HP. I’d concur that @FutureMemory‘s experience with an HP seems to be an anomaly (more power to ya!).
HP still run different product divisions rather separately, although not quite as separate as before. They are at heart an engineering company. But due to bottom-line motivations the personal computer division was always at the forefront of compromised quality. They just never engineered their PCs as solidly as their other products.
The calculator group is a whole different story, always a very sturdy option (and I still like RPN!). I’m still using 25-year-old models 12 and 16, and by all reports the new ones are just as good. You can drop them and spill coffee on them repeatedly over the years and they’re just ready for more.
Also separate are instrumentation for technical (o-scopes, spectrum analysers) and medical (fetal monitors…you name it),
Their electro-optical components are world class.
HP printers are a mixed bag but from what I can tell they have improved over the years, especially their drivers and software which used to be miserable.
We recently rescued an all-in-one HP from the refuse (we wanted the fax), plugged it into the LAN and all the machines in the place (including this linux box) can use all the functions on it. The printers still seem very cheaply made though, thin plastic panels etc. – but for us the price was right. I wouldn’t buy one of their laser printers.