Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Of course...I'm the model of perfectness. ;-)

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I use both, but my main "darkroom" is my 27" iMac. I really couldn't see doing serious processing with anything else.
--Bob

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I prefer a desktop as well but I just bought a Dell laptop so that if I'm away from home I can download and edit photos and video. If I never needed to edit pictures away from home, I'd just stick with my iPad when I'm away from home because I can browse, read my Kindle, get email etc. with no problems. But the iPad can't edit raw images hence the laptop computer.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

If you make large format prints you will eventually get frustrated with results you didn't anticipate or didn't see on your small screen laptop till after you've made the print. $$

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Docking station and monitor.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

I currently use an all-in-one. More a desktop for sure. Have less need for a laptop these days. A tablet seems to fill any gaps for me.

Kuzano

I have been building desktops, selling them, and selling laptops since they started making them.

My bottom line is that the Penalty Pricewise for portability (laptops) is 35 to 40% for similarly configured machines. Or turn it around. For the same price invested in a desktop, you get approximately 40% more performance with with the desktop. These figures have held up for me for many of the 25 years I have been in the biz.

Add another penalty to the laptop. No upgrade path in the laptop, whereas on a well thought out desktop, there are significantly more performance components available.

No matter how you cut it, except for RAM, once a laptop is built and purchased, it is a "dead end" computer. It will require full replacement to make it perform better..... again, except for RAM.

Portability punishes the buyer significantly. And the most portable devices, tablets and large smart phones have NO features that are significant to performance, compared to a desktop.

Smart people plan, configure and buy desktops. People on the travel circuit suffer or PAY for their devices.... a lot!

Hunter Lou 1947 Loc: Minnesota

Excuse me, but what is a Mackie Mixer?

Hunter Lou 1947 Loc: Minnesota

Excuse me, but what is a Mackie Mixer?

Althefarmer Loc: Somerset, Ky

I agree with everything David says. I just switched from a desktop to a laptop because I got tired of dragging the big CPU back and forth from Ky to Fla. I have a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse in each place. Laptop wasn't cheap but I am happy I did it. I do mostly video/still editing. I have a 500GB SS drive and 2TB hybrid in the laptop.

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I've worked in IT for over 40 years now. I have eschewed using a desktop since before the turn of the century. I've had a collection of laptop, buying a new one every 4-5 years, always a top of the line device with maxed out memory and peripherals.

I have used docking stations in the past, so I'm used to having a separate keyboard, mouse and extra monitor. My current laptop is 4 years old and it has 32GB RAM, two on-board SSDs and one 1TB HDD for a total of 2.25TB of onboard storage, a Blu-Ray device and a 17inch panel. When I'm at home/office, the laptop is on my left so as not to obstruct the view of the HDMI-connected 55inch 4K monitor. On the right, sits another 2K monitor, connected via RGB.

I use a Bluetooth full-size mouse and a Bluetooth keyboard. When I travel, which is frequently, the laptop and the keyboard & mouse come with me. I almost never use the trackpad.

Are desktop faster and cheaper than laptops? Yep, they are but they don't travel well at all. I like having all my files with me when I travel. I also have a tablet and a high-end Smartphone, and they both happen to be linked to the same Bluetooth keyboard I use for my laptop. I can switch the keyboard to any of the devices by pressing a button.

Of course, when I travel I upload the pictures I take with my DSLR to my laptop and they also get stored in the cloud.

pmaclion Loc: Atlanta, GA

I use both - iMac 27" in the office, and MacBook Pro 17" (w/ 2 TB SSD and max RAM).

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

My personal preference for intensive Photo work is my iMac 27" with 5k Retina display. I use a MacBook Pro (13") for things more portable, such as tethering and printing on-the-spot. YMMV.

therwol Loc: USA

You can put an SSD in a laptop that didn't come with one for a performance upgrade. They're cheap enough now. By they way, I've undertaken the task of capturing video from many digital tapes from an earlier time. I'm using a 10 year old laptop that has a firewire port. Try buying any stock computer with one of those these days. A desktop could be upgraded with a card. A laptop not.