As expected, Gigabyte is showing several new netbook models at CeBIT. One of the most interesting is the new Gigabyte Touch Note M1028, which has a 10.1 inch touchscreen display that can be folded down over the keyboard for use as a tablet. Gigabyte was actually one of the first companies to release a netbook-sized convertible tablet PC.

But the Gigabyte M912 was small, with an 8.9 inch display and a small keyboard, and carried a high starting price of around $700. Now that there’s more competition from other computer makers with touchscreen tablets, it’ll be interesting to see if Gigabyte can keep the price lower.

SlashGear is reporting that the Touch Note M1028 will come in four different configurations. Two models will have 1024 x 600 pixel displays, while two will have higher resolution 1366 x 768 pixel screens. All will have 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 2GB), and hard drives up to 160GB. It loks like the netbook will have the new 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, and three models will use the Intel 945GSE integrated graphics chipset. One of the higher resolution models (the Touch Note M1028P) will have the Intel GN40 chipset which promises improved HD video performance.

The netbooks will have either a 4 cell, 4500mAh battery or a 6 cell, 7650mAh battery. All four models will come with 802.11a/b/g WiFi and Bluetooth options. At least one model will have 3.5G mobile broadband and WiMax options. And all models will run Windows XP Home Edition. Another unusual feature is that the Gigabyte netbooks will have an ExpressCard slot in addition to 3 USB ports. Very few netbooks make room for the ExpressCard slot, but it’s nice to have if you have peripherals that can take advantage of it, like an ExpressCard 3G modem or TV tuner.