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Screens can scale down in resolution
SXGA resolution (1280x1024) is sort of anomalous. For some odd reason, it became very popular, but the aspect ratio is off. The actual proper step up in resolution to maintain the 4:3 ratio is 1280x960, but it's fairly uncommon for people to run screens at that resolution, and notebook screens almost never appear with it.
The widescreen resolutions are a real chore. They're usually cited as 16:10 to bring them in line with the 16:9 that the home theatre enthusiast is familiar with, but true 16:9 would be 1280x720, and that's a pretty odd resolution. So your DVDs are STILL going to get letterboxed, but it'll be much more negligible.
Also, one major pain is that ultraportable notebooks will sometimes use a resolution of 1280x768 instead of 1280x800, and that's even weirder. (But it sure looks nice on that tiny screen.)
Note that any of these screens can scale down in resolution. Because notebook screens have a fixed number of pixels (while desktop CRT monitors do not), pixels are essentially "blended" to achieve the intended resolution. In older screens this tended to look pretty awful, but newer ones blend very well and produce a fairly good picture. Still, it won't look as good as the screen's native resolution. The reason that I mention any of this is because I've seen people ask if their screen can run at a lower resolution, and yes, it can. But you probably won't want to.
Gamers will actually probably want to stick to lower resolution screens so the games can run at native resolution, while multimedia enthusiasts (digital image manipulation, video editing) will want to get as high a resolution as they can.
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