Love my Fisher and Paykel front loader. It's my first front loader and I'm really happy with the job it does. For a microwave, don't get sold on all the extra stuff if you're not going to use it. I use ours to defrost stuff, reheat meals and melt cheese so I got a basic Samsung. Go for decent wattage though.

I spent like $30 or $40 on a second hand Samsung microwave oven 3.5 years ago and I've been very happy with it, not entirely sure the pricier ones make much of a difference. Washing machines on the other hand, definitely go for quality. I was cheap and got a Beko one that's okay but it does sometimes unstick itself from the floor and get rather violent even when I haven't overloaded the thing.