I own 11 routers, and have 13 more at the school where I teach. Most are Porter-Cable, one Bosch, one Ryobi (before they got to be cheap junk) and a Stanley (older than I am). I would say that you want a router that is easy to adjust, one that is not terribly heavy, one that will powerful enough to spin the bits you intend to use, and one that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg.
If you are going to use it in a router table most of the time, I really like my PC 7518. It's a fixed base router (easy adjustments), 1/2" collet (1/4" and 3/8" are readily available). And 5 speeds (10K, 13K, 16K 19K, and 22k rpm)for a variety of different diameters of router bits. The place where this router lacks is in the weight, it's rather weighty at about 14 lbs and in price, about $300. But used strictly for the router table it's an excellent choice. The weight actually helps to stabilize the table. If you prefer a plunge base router instead, the same motor can be had in the 7539 configuration.
If $300+ is too much to bite off at first, then I would consider the PC 890 series, it has a wide variety of base choices (fixed/plunge/D-handle), collets (comes with 1/4 and 1/2), power I believe it is a 12 amp motor (2 1/4 hp) with soft start, and variable speed. The model 892 (fixed base version) sells for around $200.
The 690 series is also a pretty good starting point (I own 4 690s). Some of the new ones are variable speed (none of mine are, wish one of them was).
Bosch and Dewalt are both good tools as well. Recently Dewalts' owners bought Porter Cable and Delta, so we will have to see what changes to the tool lines occur, but I am guessing some models of both lines will get the axe.
Sorry to be so long, but this is a pretty important decision and I would like for you to be as well informed as possible.