MacBook with 16:9 external display

Of course it will be fine. The macbooks screen is 16:9. Im using my macbook on a 22' 16:9 monitor and it looks perfect!

 

It won't be squashed. You're thinking of the desktop UI as an image. It fact it's not. Your wallpaper will look squashed when using certain settings, but the toolbar, dock, etc will automatically adjust itself. Hard to describe, but let go of the idea that the desktop is a flat image. With that being said, I'd recommend using a regular 6:9 display.

 

The macbook screen is 16:10, actually.

As for the OP, to run that resolution, you can't. If you can run 1920x1080, that will maintain the 16:9 ratio you're looking for. Otherwise, look into more "conventional" 16:10 computer monitors, perhaps the last version of the Dell 24" model?

 

Warning: Those cheap Dell displays use bargain-bin "TN" type LCD displays. I've seen lots of complaints about poor text legibility on cheap Dell panels, let alone poor viewing angles and bad colour accuracy.

The Macbook AFAIK supports a maximum of 1920 horizontal pixels, regardless of vertical resolution. Using a display with a slightly higher resolution will result in very blurry scaling of the image.

Don't buy the monitor. You will only end up wanting your money back. It's going to look like absolute crap when you combine a poor quality TN panel with a blurry, upscaled image.

 

What cave have you been living in? The MacBook screen was/is always 16:10 widescreen.

 

mac book / viewsonic display is squashed

ok so i have a 13 in mac book, its a few years old...
ive been using a Viewsonic display for a 2nd bigger moniter...
the image was quashed no mater what ratio i choose in syst prefs and
when i called apple care their only suggestion was to buy an apple display
so a friend of mine suggested a software called DisplayConfigX to help translate the inompatibility issue and it worked!
untill i upgraded to the new OSX (10.5.7) now i cant get my 2nd display to work, it squashes the image... any tips? suggestions?

 

I have no personal experience of this, but there are plenty of people out there running 2048x1152 monitors at native resolution on macbooks.

For one example, see this thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=700942

 

Did you try to check "Show all resolutions" in the Display preferences and then choose the monitor's native resolution?