Well, I have T61 guts and an SSD in mine. It isn't so far behind as you might expect.
I've used a 15" Retina Macbook Pro. The screen is not better. Sure, it's higher density and brighter, but the viewing angles are not better. Subjectively, I'd say the color reproduction is worse (I used them next to each other). Reflections, glare and fingerprints are significantly worse on the MBP.
Yea, I have a ten year old Toshiba P26-S2607 I still use on a daily basis.
I have a one year old MBP that I haven't used much; I'm
not sure why, but the screens seem the same?
I do know one thing about most old laptops; they were made
to last longer than 2 years.
That said--HP--as made crappy laptops for quite some time.
I bought one a few years ago and it was horrid on an
engineering basis, but it looked Slick.
I had an HP laptop that I bought around 2009. It lasted a year before the insane heat issues started; I agree with you completely regarding the engineering issues. In the end, I ended up buying a Lenovo about two years ago, and it's been perfect for me.
Getting back to the original story, I don't think I've bought a desktop since 2003. I prefer using them, but laptops are just so convenient.
Are you sure it was simple heat issues and not a defective Nvidia GPU? A bunch of them in that time period were prone to premature failure. Many HPs used them, as did a few Thinkpads.
I've used a 15" Retina Macbook Pro. The screen is not better. Sure, it's higher density and brighter, but the viewing angles are not better. Subjectively, I'd say the color reproduction is worse (I used them next to each other). Reflections, glare and fingerprints are significantly worse on the MBP.