Possible 'desktop-to-laptop' switcharoo

Question

Time's-a-comin' when I'll need to think about upgrading my Mac -- currently one of the early G5 towers (2GHz x2, 2GB RAM) and now approaching its 4th birthday.
It's stood me in good stead and is still going strong, but 4 years is 4 years, a reasonably long amount of time when it's your professional equipment.
Now, my natural first instinct was to get a Mac Pro. But I'd /also/ quite like a laptop, probably a 15" Macbook Pro, for client meetings and presentations. And I suddenly wondered if I could do away with the desktop machine altogether and just get away with owning a Macbook Pro.
So here're the questions:
1. My G5, with a Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card, is connected to 2 good sized monitors -- an Apple Cinema Display 23" (1920 x 1200) and a Formac flatscreen (1600 x 1200). Would the Macbook Pro be able to drive both those monitors simultaneously at full resolution?
(Side question: I've never owned a laptop... does the lid have to be open in order to use it in this way -- ie. treating it like a desktop machine connected to external monitors? Sorry if that sounds incredibly ignorant but, like I say, I've always been desktop-bound)
2. I know that machines have sped up a lot since I got the G5, but laptops are never as quick as their desktop equivalents, so I wondered if anyone could provide any information about how the current Macbook Pros stand up in performance terms alongside the G5? I've looked at the reviews in MacUser etc but the benchmark tests never compare the new machines with anything like mine, as mine is so old now.
I'd hate to fork out for a Laptop solution over a desktop one only to find that it's no faster (or even, horrors, SLOWER) than my current machine, even if I can take it to the garden.
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Rick,
I, too, migrated to a Macbook Pro from a multiple-monitor desktop setup (last G4 DP iteration, 9800 pro). For me, the speed jump was even more dramatic than yours would be.
I can tell you that, for me, the loss of some Desktop space was by far outweighed by the portability factor, which might go much deeper than you think. "Going portable" can be a radical paradigm shift, a completely different way of life. In fact, I still have the desktop station, but it is never used (sadly). I even have the ability to connect one of my external monitors to the Macbook Pro, but I have never felt the desire to do so. The idea of being tied down to one location is just not attractive anymore.
Internal disk space, copious on the desktop system, has been compensated for by external drives. I found that this becomes a non-issue. And, I find it much more convenient to add storage to "my world" by simply going out and purchasing a new, and usually larger and less expensive, drive.
Obviously, the biggest issue is the loss of Desktop real estate. How this will affect you has everything to do with what you do on a regular basis, whether the extra room you currently have truly makes your workflow more efficient. It is likely that the soon-to-be-available "Spaces" will close the gap a bit on this score, as you would be able to use it to effectively compensate for the loss in Desktop area represented by a portable. Hmmm.
Scott
EDIT: I do think that the concept of a "removable desktop system" is not really that useful or valid, not the way you were originally thinking. Rather, a Macbook Pro (or any portable) represents a change in lifestyle, and it is much more useful to think of it this way. If this lifestyle/workstyle change is attractive to you, you might not regret the trade-off inherent in the change.