Heh, we just bought a couple new iMacs. Apple is not renowned for putting in the highest res screens, so the first thing I've personally used with 1680x1050 is a 20" screen. Good on a 17" laptop, and I know some are probably out there using it on a 15" although I think that could be pushing it for many others. My 15" screen is "only" 1440x900, but yeah looking at the links above I see those are 15" with the 1280x800, which is indeed quite low for a 15" laptop. If they were 13" screens, that wouldn't look quite so out of place, plus they would be smaller/lighter. Going up to that bigger screen with the added weight without gaining resolution is useful maybe if you have vision problems but otherwise not much good.

I wouldn't think a standard desktop screen is only 1280 across anymore. Even Apple has been putting 1440x900 in their 17" desktop screens (which they don't use anymore) for at least 3 years. I wouldn't buy a 17" desktop screen that wasn't at least 1440, and I wouldn't buy a desktop screen that wasn't at least 17" at this point. (As I sit here, though, I can see a few ancient 5-6 year old iMacs that have 15" 4:3 LCD 1024x768 screens. )