My last laptop was an HP, and aside from a slight hiccup with a dodgy hard drive which was replaced in under 24 hours, it was a good machine. The power supply on it has only just died (the laptop is 4 years old).. and it should be noted I used the HP for high end analytical stuff so it had a hard life before I 'retired' it for my daughter to use.
I've moved onto a Macbook Pro now, and I can also agree that if they are affordable over there, once you get used to the Mac's OS it is a very nice, very stable, very functional machine. Having said that, you can even run windows on it if you feel sadistically inclined. And the Microsoft products I have for my Mac (to run in OSX) run better than their windows counterparts for me. Word is much nicer on the Mac. I won't be going back to a PC any time soon because I love the flexibility and stability and control my Mac gives me.
I've also found the Mac hardier to 'attack' because 90% of the internet nasties out there at the moment seem targeted towards the windows operating systems.
However it comes down to your personal preference. Whether you go PC or Mac is entirely your decision. You can argue the pro's and con's for both. And I've had good experiences with both.
Good luck with your decision.
