My laptop has a max res of 1280x768 and I don't use it much different from my 1920x1200 desktop screen, yeah there is more screen space but I often don't have any more than 2 active windows at a time on either. Two web pages fit nicely side-by-side on on my laptop display so I would assume if you are comfortable using 1680x1050, a small step down won't be all that bad unless you need to use your laptop for video/photo editing, screen space is important for stuff like that.