Easy for me to speak as I seem to be surrounded by computers of both ilks. At heart I am still a desktop man, for reasons of upgradeability and maintenance and ultimate performance. The Laptop I have is powerful, sexy and discrete - but it doesn't like living away from the mains for long. Wireless all built in and with a wireless network at home, you are free to squint at your laptop in the garden, though if you do leave it out on your patio, then a word of advice might be that the keyboard and birdsh@t do not co exist well.
Some uses give a clear lead to the best type of machine. I for instance use Graphics progs a lot and with colour calibration, and a hefty RAM appetite, make a desktop (and a good one) a marked advantage to me. For surfing, Ppruning and general day to day usage, laptops are a powerful and nowadays sophisticated solution (Sorry - Buzzword alert!) Maybe a thought is to have a good think about what you really want from it and then repost. Such a post might then offer clearer and more definite advantages one way or the other.
There are bargains in both types - so prepare for some reading up - and don't trust the whitesock in your local (fill in store name here) who is probably only interested in ripping an extended warranty out of you. Their technical knowledge is too often, a great less than optimum.
Happy hunting :-)