A lot of you are recommending printers that aren't "all in ones." If it's all in one, then it's assumed he'll want color photos since that's one of the things that makes it "all" instead of "a couple" or "just three out of five." He wants color, fax, copy, scan. Probably duplex as well. The Cannon Pixma can do all that for a reasonable price. If you want a COLOR laser-jet printer, you'll be spending more than his budget and you STILL have to shell out for the toners, because laser printers don't come with full toner cartridges. They come with just enough to get you set up and test the printer to make sure it works (usually around 50 pages total).
Color toner is VERY expensive. And, with a color laser printer, you have to buy a cartridge for each color.
With an inkjet or photojet printer - you have options. Some have all the colors except for black in a single color cartridge, so you only have to buy 2 cartridges at most (black, and color). Some are refillable (such as certain Epson and Brother printers), and you just buy the tube of pigment and squeeze it into the cartridge. Messy, but less expensive.
And HP has that instant ink program, which makes it very inexpensive, and you never run out, and you never have to go to the store to buy more, and you pay per page, no matter how much or how little ink is used on the page. So if you're into a lot of color photos or color print jobs, instant ink is MUCH less expensive than any other option.
Also as an FYI - if you use generic or off-label inks or toners for your fancy new printer, your warranty is immediately void. So if the printer breaks in the first year normally covered by warranty, you're looking at buying a brand new printer.
Each printer manufacturer makes their cartridges to work exclusively with their own printers. Knock-offs don't always use the same ink. Some of them are remanufactured, which means the print heads are not new - they just refill old ones and clean off the outer shell and put new labels on them. The #1 reason why ink printers break - is because people use remanufactured ink, or try to refill cartridges that aren't meant to be refilled.
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