Peripherals: Looking for Color Laser - but shopping is an IMPOSSIBILITY.

Looking for Color Laser - but shopping is an IMPOSSIBILITY.

I've had lots of experience in using various printing technologies in color and b/w over the years and with several brands. The issues with clogging on inkjets and the print sensitivity to moisture as well as ink costs have decided it for me: color laser is the way to go. For the best photographic prints, injet on glossy is still the way to go -no doubt, but I'm not printing photos, I'm printing borchures, maps, graphics, CD/DVD labels, reports.

I need it to use at home - so low volume and low speed are OK, but I've found you just cannot shop and read reviews that help much. Checking cnet vs pcworld vs others, I get conflicting results. Example: some say the Xerox Phaser 6200DP prints mediocre color, others say its great. The ones that say the 6200DP is mediocre rate the HP 4550 much higher in color quality but that printer is only 600dpi and has its own issues. One of the problems in making any sense from the reviews is one has NO IDEA what the reviewer is looking for in quality.

Why not have a standard color image photo/chart/text combo page that is printed from all printers and then the printout scanned in. That scan can be included with the review so we can compare reviews - not only accross reviewers but printer generations. I'd love to buy a used HP 4550, which is a generation older than the Xerox 6200, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out which of the two prints better color photos?

I like the one-pas design and smaller footprint of the 6200 but for home use, I can live with the slower 4 pass design. THe quality of the output is key. UGH!