I find the laptop generally better overall unless you need ultimate power, gaming-quality graphics, or a huge screen. True, some lappies have 17” or larger screens, but they are really defeating the purpose of a laptop at that point.
I know many people and a few companies who chose laptops because a low/medium-powered system with a 15” screen was good enough and they needed something that didn’t take up much space. A laptop onlly takes up slightly more room than a desktop’s keyboard; there is no need for a big tower and all sorts of associated cabling.
However, if you think you will ever want to do any customization then desktops are superior. Even changing the hard drive with a larger one is nearly impossible (for the average person) in many laptops whereas I can undo one clip and two plugs to rip a drive out of my desktop. Also, my desktop has a replaceable graphics card whereas most laptops are permanently stuck with integrated graphics chips.
Pricewise, they are more comparable than many people seem to think, at least for the base system. As for parts, laptop parts are more expensive, but if you never need to upgrade (and most people don’t) then you’ll be fine. Reliability is about even too unless you are the type of person who treats their equipment roughly. I have yet to see a laptop broken by people who don’t break lots of other stuff too.
So at the end of the day, I would have to say laptops are a better choice for most people, and it sounds like you are one of those people.