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Viliv’s new S10 Blade 10 inch tablet should begin shipping soon, and it’s expected to be available in the US through online retailers and some bricks and mortar stores. There’s no word on pricing yet, so it’s a bit early to say how the S10 Blade will stack up against similar models from Asus, Haier, and others. But while touchscreen tablets are everywhere at CES this year, netbook-style that can be used in either tablet or notebook mode are a bit less common. And while the available specs give me the impression that the S10 Blade will be one of the more expensive tablets to launch this year, it does have some premium features.

I got a chance to check out the Viliv S10 Blade in person, and it seems like a reasonably good solution. The high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel 10.1 inch display helps set it apart from the crowd, as does the decision to go with a 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB SSD instead of a hard drive. The laptop also ships with Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Starter Edition.

Unfortunately, it also comes with an Intel Atom Z530 or Z550 processor. While that makes some sense since the GMA 500 integrated graphics will do a better job of pumping out 720p video to that high resolution display, I’ve found that the Z-series Atom processors tend to feel more sluggish than the N-series. That said, the Atom Z550 does clock in at 2GHz, which might give it enough of a performance boost to compete with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 or N450 chip. I haven’t tested a netbook with a Z550 processor yet, so I can’t say for certain. If you’ve used one, let us know about your experiences in the comments.

You can find more photos after the break, including a few shots of the Viliv S10 Blade’s kid brother, the N5 mini-laptop with a 4.8 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display.