Yep, a 19" gives about 18" of glass.
As far as I know, the problem with flat screens is that they can't multi-synch. Tell me if I'm out of date on this one. I like to be able to do a lot of work at 1024...in fact most of it. Pix and CAD I'll likely push up to 1280.
I always found higher resolutions very tedious to use, but for some, needs must.
Anyway, is there a flat screen that does not have a "native resolution"? So fine that it can be changed without a major degrading of quality ?