Computer printers suck. It's almost impossible to tell if you're going to get a good one, or a big dud. Generally, the good ones are expensive, and the losers are cheap. Some brands are better than others, but the models within a brand vary more than the models across a brand. There are good Brothers, and there are crappy HPs, even though people generally think of the Brother as inferior to HP.

Best bet is to buy at the midrange, for products aimed at small offices. Products at the low end aimed at the home market won't last. Also, there are sometimes some great bargains - but that could be because of design flaws.

Example: Samsung ML-2510. Works great when new, but it seems like a design flaw cause the unit to get hot, and the rubber parts to wear out quickly, necessitating cleaning and possible refurb.

On the other hand, I had a small Panasonic laser printer that lasted for years and printed thousands of pages. I eventually gave it away because it was a Mac printer and I went to the PC and Linux. The print quality was middling, and speed was slow, but the machinery was solid.

All new printers work great. Not all printers work after three years of steady use, but some will.

The old HP 4000 series and the 4 and 5 series printers were and are awesome. They easily last a decade, and require only one or two roller repairs in that time. These were office-grade printers with few features, and priced in the $800 range. You can find them for < $100 now. Only problem is that they require parallel printer ports or an ethernet card.

HP quality is variable - it's kind of like cars. Some years, they're good, other years, not so goo. Midrange HPs sell on the used market for $200 - $400 and are easy to evaluate - read the reviews.

Epson and Canon are considered the standard inkjets. I don't like the lower-end models of either. The bottom office inkjets are okay, but the ones people want are the midrange ones that cost around $400.

Color laser printers don't look good, but are impressive when you hand out materials and there's a splash of color. The cost of toner is quite high, but less expensive than ink. Watch out for low-end printers: the toner is very expensive.