Then when your technogeek cousin sends you a picture taken with his new high-resolution camera, you will only see about a quarter of the picture at a time. The more pixels you can capture with your camera, the less of the overall photograph can be shown on your monitor. The simple answer is that higher resolution means higher quality pictures. And you can always create a lower resolution version of a high-resolution photograph file, so the higher the resolution, the more versatile your camera. The more pixels available to capture an image the greater the detail of the final product and consequently it will look better on screen and in print.
Higher resolution does make a difference in the quality of the photo and in the cost of the camera.
Computer magazines like PC Magazine or Macworld periodically do comparison reviews of current offerings. Quality and price can vary widely, and the prices are constantly dropping as the resolution increases. When you e-mail a picture to a friend, the largest resolution that you want to send is probably 640x480. Even more important to realize is the more pixels you have in your file, the larger the size. Apart from e-mailing the picture of your dog with his new chewy toy to your colleagues at work, you might want to print the picture for your scrapbook.