Which printer is better?
I suggest you get an HP printer. It more durable and user friendly.
What printer brand is better HP or Canon?
You cant look at it that way, most inkjet printers are generally the same quality. What you need to ask, is how much is the ink some ink, can cost more then what you paid for the printer. I have a Brother printer and can find ink for under 12 dollars for all 4 cartridges, so I just love it and will never part with it. Its a MFC 290c by the way, an older model and even the newer ones use the cheap ink.
Is is better $ to get new printer than get ink refill?
The printer companies use the drug dealer method of getting you hooked on their printer then ripping you off on the ink. It's often cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy just the ink. On ebay there are dozens of posts for brand new printers without ink. Refilling is a dangerous practice. Even though it often works (or appears to) you are adding fresh ink to a cartridge which was empty. If it was empty for a while, there are clots of ink inside which will travel to the print heads and clog them. Every day there are several posts here from someone who refilled and now the printer wont work. I have found a much better solution (at least for Epson printers). There is a 2-piece cartridge where the ink is in a separate tank. When it runs out, you replace just the ink tank (the entire tank, so you are not adding ink to a dried-out cartridge which may contain clots). But you are keeping the same chip which resets itself to full. The ink tanks are less than $3 and contain 50% more ink than standard cartridges. I get them at http://ccs-digital.com