Well... it's a tough call, I admit. I did the calculation this time. We're talking about 91.4 dpi for the XGA and 125 dpi for the SXGA. That's a 30% shrinkage in individual pixels (conversely, that's 30% more screen space!).

I think I'm going to vote SXGA. I like high res that much, and since you don't use readers I bet you'll be ok. I started the near-sighted business at the same age as you, but it sounds like you've got 20 years on me, so I can't really speak to how you'll handle the smaller pixels.

My final comment is on Windows Vista -- will you be using that? If so, then I become more certain you should get the high res screen. That's because it uses more sophisticated vector-based graphics, and easily scalable text. Put simply, it means that even if you don't like things tiny (so you can fit lots on the screen), you can blow things up in very attractive ways at your screen's native resolution. The net result will be a clearer more attractive image at the same "real" image size as the lower-resolution screen (you know, that "clearer picture" business I told you to ignore in my first response ).

So... in summation... if you're getting XP, I lean moderately towards the high-res screen. If you're getting Vista, I confidently recommend the high res.