Panasonic officially announced its Toughbook CF-H1, an Atom-based tablet PC. Although designed for use by medical personnel, the computer shows off some impressive specs that Panasonic would be smart to bring to a consumer-aimed tablet. With a 1.86GHz processor, 1GB of memory, and 80GB hard disk, the CF-H1 looks like a high-end netbook. It gets six hours per battery charge, and has a magnesium-alloy case to protect against drops up to three feet and provide water and dust resistance. Panasonic installs Vista on the machines, but that 1GB of RAM doesn't sound too Vista-friendly, so thankfully the company offers an XP downgrade. The tablet ships with multi-mode WiFi, with an option for EV-DO and HSPA 3G access.

The $3,000 price tag sets the CF-H1 well outside the netbook price range, but makes sense as a device priced for the medical community. Would you be interested in a cheaper, trimmed-down version, doing away with some of the hospital tech, like the CF-H1's barcode scanner? We've already seen convertible tablet netbooks, but is losing the keyboard altogether even better? Let us know what you think below.

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