P.S. "taking" a look at LCD screens is a problem as well. All the computer shops I have seen with a decent range of screens feed them by a single split, poor quality, VGA signal, which doesn't exactly show them at their best

Go to an Apple store, even if you have no intent of purchasing an Apple. Since Apple LCDs have exclusively digital input, you're guaranteed that you're seeing the bits that are output by a computer over DVI without any sort of splitting. That's what sold me on LCD panels: the sharpness and clarity of the Apple displays I saw at computer stores.

In practice, I've seen similar clarity out of our much cheaper Dell 20" LCD monitors. I think the Apple has deeper blacks, but it's the same level of sharpness and color saturation.

Are desktop LCDs that much better that this is a non-issue ? If so I'll have to take a look at one when I come to buy a new display.

Yes, desktop LCDs (at least the good ones) really are that much better. I'll occasionally do Photoshop on my laptop to color-correct and e-mail out photos while I'm travelling, but the brightness changes radically as you tilt the screen. That just isn't the case at all for my desktop LCD. I can stand up and walk around the room, and it always looks the same.