I bought my mom the Samsung for Christmas and she's loved it. It was a great deal from Amazon, including a second toner cartridge at no cost!
One thing I find intriguing about the Samsung -- I've seen as Staples an identical printer to the Samsung ML-1210, with a Lexmark badge on it. (!) Now, I don't know whether Lexmark is the OEM for Samsung or if Samsung is OEM'ing for Lexmark... but if it is a Lexmark at heart, that's a sweet printer. After HP (which has always produced the best laser printers, IMHO) Lexmark is second best.
I've heard bad things about Brother's reliability in re fax machines, typewriters, etc. Never used a laser printer from them, but their reputation in other areas made me stay away.
Of course, there's also the HP low-end options -- but I don't like the LJ 1000, since I don't trust any printer that has USB only. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I like the old Centronics spec quite a bit, okay, HP? The 1200 looks like a very nice unit, with 15 ppm and 1200 dpi... but $400.00? That's twice the Samsung or brother for maybe 20% more functionality. Of course, if I had the money, I'd just buy a LJ 4100 or even a Color LaserJet, but hey, not in the cards.
Good luck!