^this

I think we have reached the point where current high end hardware in a properly equipped laptop can replace a desktop.
 
But the price point for an effective laptop solution needs to be balanced with the cost/benefit ratio.  This of course, is an individual choice.  I don't think an inexpensive, off the shelf, laptop is likely to be suitable for serious DAW use.
 
The usage case outlined above by lawajava is a good example of the benefits of a totally mobile studio PC!

All the Mac users are looking at this thread and wondering what the fuss is about - Macbooks have been excellent DAWs for years. Even the somewhat underpowered ones run stable, just with fewer plugins at the same time.

About 4 years ago I had to make a serious personal decision that involved either fishing or cutting bait
 
I had been locked out of upgrading SONAR for a long time only because my desktop was Win  XP 32 bit . Back then the last version of SONAR I had purchased was 6 PE ...I ran 6 PE until  2013 .
I missed out on Vista  , Win 7 ...SONAR 7 , 8 , X1 , X2 ...
When X3 came out I wanted to re up and get current with Windows and SONAR ...
Having another desktop built for me was out of the question because I didn't have the money and the way I saw it I still had to upgrade my SONAR and pick up a USB Audio device ...
That meant I had to leave at least $400 in my budget to solve that one
 
In 2013 I wound up picking up a brand new  Asus 15 inch i3 lap top w 6 Gigs of ram running Win 8 64 bit H.E. at a real good price ...
To some degree  my little rig is a lower end set up compared to what some folks around here consider to be acceptable . The thing is I run what I have
Once I had a current spec lap top that would run SONAR I picked up X3 and a Focusrite 2i4 ....
That put me squarely back in the Windows / SONAR game which I'm happy about ...
 
These days I'm running SPlat lifetime plus a number of other DAW's that also get a lot of Air Time in the real world .
I pretty much consider myself to be a Lap top only user these days ...2 Win 10 lap tops and an older Macbook ...
 
Most of my song projects rarely exceed 45 tracks and both my Win lap tops can pull that off easy most of the time.
My preference is to generally work inside the box and I like my personal space to be wide open and not cluttered ...
 
Working w a lap top suites me perfectly for that personal preference  ...
FWIW, a good deal of my time is still spent on learning how to use all the new features and plugs that have been added along the way ...
What that means is a lot of the times I'm not even pushing my lap top at all because it takes a lot of personal time and commitment to learn some of the deeper functions of what can be done inside the box
I was locked out of that type of learning for years and I feel it is much better to have the means to educate myself using a placeholder lap top as opposed to waiting around until I have the money to drop on a class act computer.
 
 
PS I would love to drop some serious coin and have Jim build me a lap top computer ...some day I hope ..
 
 

Sanderxpander
All the Mac users are looking at this thread and wondering what the fuss is about - Macbooks have been excellent DAWs for years. Even the somewhat underpowered ones run stable, just with fewer plugins at the same time.

 
+1000 ,  that is very true ....I feel very lucky to have that base already covered 
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny

Although I have, in a previous post, stated "I hate laptops" that is probably my old school of having been brought up working with (and on) mainframes "BPC" (Before PC's) and then desktop PC's in commercial environments when they came about.  
 
I have a laptop and it will be used for "on site" recordings (I have two coming up in September).  It has another use with my wife's embroidery machine.  Its a new Dell Inspiron 15, 5577 which is sold as a gaming laptop.  It has a 7th gen i5, and came with an M.2 SSD.  Visually, it loads and runs as fast as my desktop DAW which has an i7 6700K CPU.  Resplendence Latency Mon gives it a clean bill of health for audio.  Although I'm not a fan of keyboards on a laptop if I had to I could make this my DAW.  It only has 3 USB 3.0 ports and I use one for a mouse, but that leaves 2 and enough for my recording interface unit and either my Frontier Tranzport or Behringer X-Touch. 

Sanderxpander

Pragi
Working with a desktop in the studio ( see specs in my signature)
and a laptop (HP probook 6450 b) as a mobile device I can say
that the videomonitor of a laptop is to small and uncomfortable imo,
but a  good laptop with a external video monitor woukd do the job for
me.
On the other hand :
Ther is 1  hd and 2ssds in my desktop which keep this system
since 4,5 years very powerdul.I don´t think that it has to be renewed
within the next 2 years , don´t know if a laptop is so resistant.
A desktop also means to be able to change components easy.
regards

My laptop fits 2 M2 drives and two regular 2.5" drives internally. That's disregarding the eSata, Thunderbolt and USB3 ports it also has for external storage. It also has a 17" full HD screen, a HDMI port and two display ports. So as Jim alluded to in his very first post, there's a huge difference between off the shelf "multimedia" laptops or higher end custom builds. I would never want to rely on a generic multimedia laptop as my sole computer. With the custom build I have now, I found myself surprised that I really don't need a desktop anymore. I have one but it just sits there. It's enough of a pain to keep one system up and running with hundreds of plugins and pieces of software, let alone two. Plus it has a faster CPU than my desktop (i7 6700 vs i7 3xxx something) at the moment.

@ Sander, 
sure a good laptop can handle nowadays running a DAW like Sonar,
never negated that.
 
I think it depends  on the needs of a musician, which
choice is the best:
For me the best  custom build laptop wouldn´t fit , cause 
I don´t record or arrange in a restaurant or places like that at all.
When recording not at home
I  have to carry  guitars fx devices aso to the studio so that a laptop
would make it  exhausting .
Like to have a stational desktop in my external recording room and 
a second one at home .
And like you said , it´s enough work to keep one system 
up to date (my external recording desktop has a basic configuration -
the good old Sonar 8.5 only ).Runs perfect for recording uses .
The small laptop is rarely used ,no need.
But that´s me.
regards 
 
 
 
 

Totally behind that idea, especially if you have two fixed venues where you record. I sometimes see five different studios in a month and record live gigs and rehearsals in between, all with different hardware. In the studios I will often use the already present digital desks (e.g. A&H Qu32 or Behringer X32), during rehearsals I record from my own Behringer X18, if I play softsynths or have moderate input recording needs on location I use my Fireface UCX and if I need to multi track a gig from a Digico desk I'll borrow a Madiface. So it's not so much that I'm always tweaking in hotel rooms (I can probably count on one hand how often I've done that) as that with such a tiny package as my laptop and a little planning and using available gear, it's like I always have my own studio with me. With all my favorite plugins and all my older projects. I can premix during listening and compare to other projects, then continue at home without worrying about versioning etc.

For me, it's been a real revelation. Totally understand your situation though and to be fair, I'm not a big fan of touchpads - when I'm at home or at a familiar studio I always hook up my trackball and an extra monitor so the whole thing feels more comfortable like a desktop.

Good point , if I would see 5 or more differnt places to record aso,
a laptop is a must, even with a touchpad.
 
A good laptop is still more  expensiv as a desktop.
But anyhow , in arround 2 years I will be thinking
about bying a laptop or desktop - don´t know how much bucks 
a decent laptop will cost then .
Laptops aso are  the future of this technology and will be more 
cost effevtive the next years, but (mobile) I would miss my two 24 " screens.........
 
regards
 

I think the real "desktop replacements" will always be close to the 2000 mark, depending on what you put in. Mine was just under 1700 and I scavenged a 500GB Samsung SSD sample drive from my old laptop along with a 1TB data drive. Definitely more than what a desktop would cost. But my choice is "desktop AND laptop" vs "just a good laptop" so altogether it's not bad.

Sander , 
thanks cause it´s 
good  to know the price of a decent laptop.
Was curious about it .