I have used HP printers in the past and was happy with them. I think all inkjet printer manufacturers keep margins low on printers to lure customers in, and high on cartridges to milk them once they're committed. It's useful to try and find info on price per page printed before buying. If the durability of photo prints is not an issue, generic brand cartridges are OK, but in my experience they don't last very long so I don't know what the actual cost difference per printed page really is.
If you plan to print a lot of photos, you should consider buying a printer branded as "photo". The difference will not necessarily be immediately visible on the quality of the prints, but the inks should be more resistant. Photos printed from an ordinary deskjet printer will fade within a few months if you leave them in the sun.
It's not that hard printing on both sides of the paper, you just need to print the even or odd pages only first, then put the sheets back in the printer and print the other set of pages. Of course you have to figure out which way to put the sheets in at first. I don't print very often so it's not a big problem even if it's a bit awkward. I also try to print in "booklet" form when I can. It's easy to do with recent Windows drivers, and on Mac there are free utilities to do it.
I have an Epson printer for high quality pigment prints (archival), and I also need to buy a new one for everyday printing (which in my case is not every day at all, more like once a month plus some simple scanning and faxing ability). The old one is telling me it needs maintenance, and I never liked it anyway so it's not worth it. The old one is a Brother, and based on this one experience, I wouldn't recommend that brand, especially if you have a Mac. It was OK for the use I made of it, but it wasn't very user-friendly.
Hope some of this is helpful...
