I'll add my two cents. I have a Stihl 045 that I bought over 20 years ago. It still runs great and is the saw I grab when I have any serious cutting to do. I cleared my land with it, and it has done a lot of firewood cutting. I still use it, and it does not owe me a dime. Has electronic ignition, and it always starts up on the 2nd or 3rd pull. It is powerful, but heavy. Built like the proverbial brick commode.
I had a Homelite for the same period of time, lighter and more pleasant to use on light cutting. It recently expired.
I went to the "big box" and bought a Poulan Wild Thing on sale for about $100 as a replacement for my small saw. Next to the Stihl, it feels like a disposable saw. However, it has been working fine and I have been using it on all my firewood this year except for the heavy stuff, for which I still use the 045.
The nice thing about the Poulan is the price. If you are going to be just using the saw occassionally, then it is probably OK. As someone pointed out on another post, you can buy and burn out several Poulan's for the price of one of the higher end saws.
The Poulan will definitely be better for light cutting because of its weight due to the plastic casing. But for pruning, I bought an Echo "chainsaw on a stick" that is super. It has about a 10 foot pole and is really great for pruinig limbs etc. If I need more height, I stand in the bucket of my FEL fo get another couple of feet off the ground. The bonus is that the power unit separates from the attachments. I have the mini-cultivator that snaps on, the pruning saw attachment, and I will probably buy the weed wacker attachment next spring. Echo is definitely good stuff!