Is it worth having a widescreen laptop when it's main use is excell stuff and reading circuit diagrams/procedures etc from technical software? I'm interested to know if the different aspect ratio makes a big difference i.e is it harder to read?

I've got a Dell Latitude D810 which does 1680*1050 and it's an excellent screen.

They also did a higher res version but I decided against that as it's a bit too much like an eyesight test.

I find the increased desktop area is very handy for having a couple of windows side by side , plus it's nice for watching DVDs on

Would have to agree they are great for watching DVD's on

Oh and also for spreadsheet work especially the extra wide schedules I work on, on a daily basis

The only thing to watch out for is that it actually HAS a higher resolution, there are a lot of them out there with very low horizontal resolution. No problem for DVD replay (I bought one of these in the US, some HP special for Walmart) but less than great for work.

That Latitude is an excellent bit of kit, we've got D600s (no widescreen) but it's been pretty decent considering abuse it gets

Better still though is to get a proper dual monitor setup, some laptop drivers do allow dual screen, IIRC it's mostly NV ones though, not ATI, most probably due to the drivers.