Since I know nothing about the relative merits of different kinds of washers, I thought I'd offer a different perspective- saving money! Have you considered buying used?

Sometimes you can find used appliance stores that sell quality items for less, with warranties. We bought our washer from such a place (the store has sadly since closed) for $100, plus a year's parts and labor. Or, you can go to places like goodwill and look. I found our dryer from a goodwill-like place (a local nonprofit thrift chain) for $35, and it works really well.

If you are trying to be "green" buying used is nearly almost always better for the environment (it is recycling, after all) because the creation and destruction of goods is the most polluting part of the process- even cars, that burn gasoline! If you are trying to save energy costs, even if you don't have a new washer you can use cold water settings and change the wash size.

If you want to buy new and don't want to spend a ton (I have no idea why washer and dryers are so expensive!) I would recommend a Sears Outlet if you have one nearby. When we bought our house we had to buy a new fridge and stove. We bought a new energy star fridge and ceramic flat-top stove (with 5 burners- one is a warmer) in the colors we needed for $900 for both with tax. The fridge has a tiny scratch on one side (it's next to a wall so you can't even see it) and the stove supposedly has a scratch (I never saw it, and you can't see the sides anyway so it doesn't matter) so we saved hundreds of dollars. Plus, since they were new they came with all the warranties, etc. I'd highly recommend visiting one if you have a store nearby!