Cheap all in one printers definitely don't print to the quality of a better more expensive model. The cheap printers are also a false economy in my view as the print cartridges are very expensive. HP ones for example can end up costing over £40 for one set of black and colour carts. Too expensive in my view.
I agree about laser printers. For the number of pages you can get from a single toner cartridge, the higher quality printouts and the speed of printing, they are a much better solution for general printing. You can even buy quite decent ones for £50 these days.
I still don't think colour printouts from laser printers is still as good as a decent inkjet. The colour accuracy is not good with it often hard to get decent greens and blues. I still find my old Epson Photo EX A3 printer produces much better colour prints than any of the newer injets I've seen too. I'm not talking photos though. I'm taking about colour printing of text and vector graphics. For photos I just use our Espon photo printer.