I have and use both. Laptops are more expensive to repair if something happens, and you will have to spend more for the horsepower to do graphics-intensive games, but in almost all other ways laptops are king.

I have a tiny netbook I picked up for $250. No moving parts, and will run for 4-5 hours from the battery without a recharge. I still use my desktop most of the time because it is available, and I may get another desktop in the future just because it makes life easier when I need to add a TB of disk space or download video from the camera. In the scenario you describe, a laptop would be a good fit.