Not a parent commenter, but I have some examples of upgradeability/repairability. Dell XPS line of laptops has upgradeable storage and screwed-in batteries. 15"

Not a parent commenter, but I have some examples of upgradeability/repairability. Dell XPS line of laptops has upgradeable storage and screwed-in batteries. 15" variant has upgradeable RAM and wireless card. The keyboard is attached with screws instead of being permanently fixed to chassis and costs significantly less to order and replace yourself should you find a need for it. Similarly in the worst case scenario, there are replacement motherboards on eBay for $550 or sometimes less which you could again order and replace yourself (or upgrade your base CPU option with). And both 13" and 15" Dells have a fingerprint sensor which is as snappy as Touch ID without being bundled with a thin strip of touchscreen and a $200 price hike. That's because these laptops are designed to be serviced on-site by repairmen who are not always so bright. So I imagine, similar HP offerings are as robust. Dell's and HP's phone support and warranty support are super awful, though, so this may be a factor for you. For me, the difference between a drink spill costing $600 (and I do it myself) on a $2500 Dell versus $1500 (and I have to lose my files/get a new system) on a $1600 MBP (both true stories) is significant and I'm not rich enough to go for latter.