I had a couple of Toshiba laptops years ago and they were pretty good, but if people who have more recent experience with them say they're cheap, I'll be happy to retract my vague recommendation.

The problem with HP laptops these days is that some of them are HP laptops and some are Compaq laptops. The Compaq ones are shit and the HP ones are pretty good. Of course, there's not really a good way to tell which are which without looking at them.