Today's laptops are more powerful than top end desktops were just a couple years ago.
My HP DV7t is 8 core, 32gig RAM, 2 hard drives - Easily powerful enough for development.
But anyone who knows me, knows I'm a screen real estate pig. No problem them thanks to a couple SIIG USB3 to HDMI adapters. Now I'm rocking a three screen laptop.



When traveling its not practical to take two big Dell 24" screens. Not to fear, I always take my iPad anyway, so thanks to the application "Air Display" I can use that as a second screen, and a portable projector the size of a passport usb drive its not unreasonable to have multiple screens even on the road.