By virtue of their large LCD, 17-inch laptops tend to be, well, portly.  In an effort to buck the trend, Averatec is introducing what they claim to be the industry’s lightest 17-inch widescreen notebook.  The new 7100 Series weighs in at 7.2 pounds, features a super-bright 17-inch WXGA+ LCD with a crystal-clear screen, and is powered by either an AMD Sempron or Turion depending on model choice.  Averatec is also quick to point out that the 7100 Series is Windows Vista-capable, which is Microsoft’s way of reminding customers that they should feel free to buy a notebook now, and pay to upgrade to Vista when it’s released next year.

A brief rundown of the main specifications is as follows:

• AMD Turion™ 64 and Mobile Sempron™ Processors
• 17” WXGA+ Display Supporting up to 1440x900 Hi-def Resolution
• 512MB or 1GB System RAM Upgradeable to 2GB
• 80GB or 100GB Hard Drives
• ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M Graphics
• Dual Layer DVD Burner
• 802.11 b/g Wireless LAN
• 5-in-1 Media Card Reader (MMC/MS/MSPRO/SD/xD)
• PCMCIA and PC Express Expansion Slots
• Full Size Keyboard and Numeric Keypad

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