Laptop or desktop for a demanding office environment?

For speed and storage and size of monitor, you can’t beat a desktop.

If you are going to be mobile, then consider a laptop.

If you have a need to take your work home, have it in meetings, or travel; you have office resources you need available to you then a laptop should be the choice for many reasons. Security, mobility, convenience.
Most users do not need the power that a desktop is capable of. Power users like DBA, Engineers, developers, etc will need the power that a desktop device can offer.
Many organizations will allow these power users or executives to have both a desktop and a laptop to be able to handle both situations.

I have both a desktop and a laptop. I love having a laptop so I can have a computer when I visit my mum, on the train, and other travel events. But you get more computer for your money with a desktop.

Before I bought my desktop, I used my laptop as my only computer for a few years. Now, a laptop keyboard and touchpad aren’t so comfortable to use. So I used an external USB keyboard and mouse with it, and it was as easy to use as a desktop, even though the screen was a little small.

Laptop with a docking station. You get the best of both worlds.

Processing powere is basically a red herring these days. As long as your laptop has a CPU capable of running your OS without being too laggy, as long as you are not doing something like high end 3D rendering, huge compute intensive theoretical modeling, or compiling huge chunks of source, most laptops are quite capable of doing anything you need them to for all but the high end power users among us. The down side is a smaller screen, the integrated keyboard, and no large hard drive to back up large data files on.

This is where the docking station comes in. You can attach a large monitor to the docking station as well as a regular keyboard/mouse. You can also plug in an additional hard drive if you want, plus you can plug a hard wired network cable to it for higher bandwidth when you are at your desk.

So… when you are at your desk you have not one, but two monitors to use, the big one plus the laptop screen as that alternate scratch pad area, a real keyboard and mouse, and the high bandwidth connection. And when you need to be on the go, your entire system can come with you for that big presentation or during those times you need to do a bit of finish up work in the wee hours of the morning.

Desktop – half the price, twice the life.

Desktops are worth it is you do heavy-duty stuff like CAD/CAM.
Desktops are worth it if you feel like saving a few hundred dollars for a computer that has the same computing power.

Laptops are worthwhile if you need the mobility, and are willing to pay a premium for it.