I'm in the market for a new printer for the first time in a decade. What's with printer manufacturers not including a usb cable? Why not take it the whole mile and make me buy the power cable separately while I'm at it?

Yeah, and in case you don't know this yet: many of them (most?) will give you a "starter" cartridge instead of a full one. It's all about cutting corners.

A decade ago a 12ppm (this one is 30ppm) laser printer would have cost you $1200. I think you can afford the extra $4. BTW these are good solid printers.

The point of getting a network printer is to hook it up to a network .... g cat5 cable. Can't remember if mine came with a cable or not, but they can be found online for a couple of bucks. Very pleased with my Brother. For $100-$200 more, you can get a lowend color laser. If you don't use it that much, I would think it would be worth the extra $. If you use it a LOT, then stick with b/w.

I just bought this from Amazon about 2 months ago. It works great and the duplex is a blessing! Also, in cnet or something it was ranked higher then the other models in the price range. I think I paid 219.99 so seems like a good deal?

Yeah.. I have this printer too. I forget how much I paid (I want to say $250, but don't remember). Works great. In fact, I've had it for 7 months now, I print probably 40 pages per biz day day and I'm still on the starter cartridge. However, I was warned that the starter is 1/3 the size of the replacements by the guy at office depot, staples, or whereever I bought it.

Duplex is sweet and decently fast. So is the booklet feature. It prints real cleanly too. Highly recommend.

I bought this at CostCo for $270, but that included an extra paper tray. The only problem I've had is that it crinkles regular envelopes. Haven't tried fancy envelopes made for laser printing yet, but normal printing is great and the feeder works well.