I'm posting this from a four year old Thinkpad T43, with 15" display, at 1400x1050.
I'm also posting for a T43 and the common models of our laptop had a 14.1" screen, which is even higher DPI (and what your probably running). I always thought that higher DPI was better for screens and this laptop has proven it for me, with sharper smother edges on fronts you read faster and more easily. When viewing images the extra sharpness is incredible compared to normal screens. I do all my browsing, writing and coding on this just because of the DPI.
Finding a new screen for myself is now quite a problem. Everything looks CRAP.
My desktop has a 20" Sun CRT that runs at 1600x1200 (Sony Trinitron tube) and it's colour is fantastic, it's really really good for gaming with. A 24" TFT is bigger but try running Baldurs Gate, which runs at 600x400, the rescaling artefacts would be terrible. Even my spare screen is a 19" 1600x1200 CRT, another Trinitron - it looks great but the extra inch is good when gaming, still I'd probably use this for the DPI if I did anything else on my desktop.
So when it comes to getting new screens I really don't know what I'm going to do. All desktop TFTs look crap. Compared to BOTH of my CRTs they are going to have crap DPI and rubbish colour, and artefacts when resizing resolution. And all for a little extra desk space, my desk is a 12 foot by 4 foot dining table so that's not something I'm exactly short of...