I keep hearing this, also for phones, and people usually associate it with certain materials.
Why? I'd rather have a light plastic laptop/phone that works well, is light, and survives a few hits than an overpriced piece of fashion. Bonus points for phones with cracked backs because glass "feels more valuable".
Of course I understand the value of e.g. good hinges, keyboards etc., but pretty sure that's not what people are generally referring to.
I drove it 54,000 miles around Africa on the worst roads in the world, using it every day in the heat, humidity, dust and sun. I drove it 30,000+ miles around North America using it heavily. I drove it 36,000 miles around Australia, using it at least 30 hours a week in the dust, heat, sun, etc.
It's had many dings and bashes and a few drops.
It still works great, and I've never repaired a thing on it. The charger has duct tape on the worn cables, and battery life is down to about 3 hours with light use and less than an hour editing HD video.
That's what I'm looking for.
My job many years ago provided me a Lenovo x220. I used to haul that thing from NJ to Arkansas with me twice a year and all over. It was not pretty but it literally took anything I could give it.
My current M1 MacBook Air goes with me on my bicycle daily, goes camping and goes everywhere with no issues.
My Starlabs linux "star lite" laptop had screws back out of it the first time I took it on my bicycle. After replacing screws over and over and eventually taping them in place to avoid the hassle the display stopped working. After fixing the cable for this eventually my keyboard began acting up and now the machine is just a desktop. Mind you this was in about 1.5 years.
The x230 onward is also extremely good.
The trick for me is key travel. I bought a new Thinkpad that had 1.3mm of travel and instantly hated it. 1.5mm feels so so much better (not to mention 1.8mm). No new thinkpads have above 1.3mm I believe (in the pursuit of thinness).
I think it's safe to say a laptop has to be pretty tough to handle what mine has been through, compared to one that sits on a desk, or commutes to/from work in a backpack.
There are exceptions like the older ThinkPads which had robust frames under their plastic, but this is not typical.
I'd suspect it is related to the thinness push. I share with the author a lack of need for my laptop to shave every last millimeter off, and I've had sturdy plastic laptops in the past... but those laptops are from many years ago now. Shaving every millimeter and still feeling solid requires non-plastic.
chazeon observes the Steam Deck feels quite solid, and I'd agree, but it is also definitely a device that isn't shaving millimeters. Compared to the Switch it is quite the chonk. But it also feels solid. So does the Switch, but the Switch does it with metal.
When people say good build quality what else do you think they are referring to?
What makes you think that? That's what I (and I assume others) are referring to. I.E. actual practical quality of the build.