Laser Printer Recommendations

I am about to ditch my Minolta PagePro laser printer. I will be looking for a replacementI was wondering if anyone had suggestions. Every thread I have found seems to be a bit old.

Must play nice with both Mac and Windows. Printing color photos with good quality would be nice but my research suggests that's unlikely. General color printing would be nice but I am also willing to go monochrome. Networkability is a giant plus even if I have to go through the Time Capsule print server function.

In a word - Brother! I'd also recommend Oki, a very good laser printer, but I gather there are quirky issues with MacOS.

I've been hearing some good things about the Brother printers. Wife is a little nervous about them a friend of hers has had other gear (sewing machines etc) with questionable tech support. At one time I think all their tech calls,regardless of product, were being run through the same call system.

I've used many different brands of laser printers over the years, both at the office and at home. The only thing I would recommend is pay close attention to the cost of consumables. Some laser printers require a drum change after so many hours of use, others, like HP incorporate the drum in the toner cartridge. So that each time you replace the toner cartridge, you're replacing the drum.

Color lasers: Unless you really, really, need color laser printing, think twice about buying one. We had a Dell (fairly expensive unit) at our office that wound up costing more over a year and half time than the entire cost of the printer new. It used 4 color toner cartridges at the cost of $85.00 each from Dell (and that was discounted).

Look for good Mac compatibility. I'm not sure which manufacturers provide the best support for OS X, but I've generally been pleased with HP and Canon. I have no experience with Brother for OS X. Of course if you intend to also use it for a Windows machine, just about any printer will work.

Good shopping.

Regards.

Only a few Color lasers print over 600dpi. Thats ok for flyers not good for color photos. For photos a stand alone ink jet would be better. I have 3 color laser printers. A Samsung 300n,Oki c5100"windows only" and Magicolor2430. That old B&W pagepro prints up to 1200dpi, I have one too and use it for master graphic comps.

Thanks chscag and Mac5K your comments pretty much match my research. Although I would love to do photos by laser that just doesn't seem ready for prime time. Might still go w color though as I anticipate doing some color printing for some communication boards for my students.