I'm seriously considering asking my employer for a Mac mini next. My iMac is rather old now (2011) and I need an upgrade anyway. I also have a MacBook Pro 2015

I'm seriously considering asking my employer for a Mac mini next. My iMac is rather old now (2011) and I need an upgrade anyway. I also have a MacBook Pro 2015. I'm doing lots of Java/JVM languages development including Android from time to time and using Parallels for VMs. The MBPro feels considerable slower to work with than the 2011 iMac. The big plus of a mini is that, just like you describe it, I can put it in the backpack and bring it with me pretty much anywhere and plug it in. I do travel and work remotely from time to time, so this would be of a benefit to me. Right now I have to always keep my iMac and MBPro in sync and that costs time.