[Pxtl]

The problem is that the macbook really is the best piece of laptop hardware on the market. The only other product that comes close in terms of build-quality and design is the Chromebook Pixel, and that one is a very niche device.

For a long time the laptop makers ceded the high-quality market to Apple and kept making cheap plastic crap. Even their high-end products were still plastic crap, just plastic crap containing better electronics.

After years and years, we're seeing makers like Asus and Dell take quality design seriously in their top end. But it's very late for that and Apple has a very strong hold on that market, and plus these companies sabotage their brand by making low-quality crap as well.

I mean, look at something like an HP Elitebook - a solidly built piece of hardware, but ugly as sin and plus every time HP tries to sell something high-end they're having to overcome the customer's bad memories of some horrible Pavilion.

[textminer]

Ah, ain't that the truth. I loved my HP Pavillion, until its motherboard glue melted and internal parts detached. Twice. Shame for them, too-- circa 2007, you saw as many of those on college campuses as you did MacBooks or netbooks. No longer.

[Pxtl]

I feel like HP made a tactical error by eliminating the Compaq brand for their garbage products. It feels like car companies have the right idea - Toyata/Lexus, Honda/Acura, Chevy/Buick, and so on. If HP had used Compaq for their low-end cheap products, they might not have reaped as much profit in that space as the HP brand got them, but the HP name might still mean something. Now the HP brand is worthless.

[jdhzzz]

As I read this on my own hideous Pavilion. It has a keyboard designed by catbert.