The Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The Mecca for all things tech and shiny, a name that draws a collective sigh from gadgetistas and manufacturers alike. January sees the world’s leading consumer electronics manufacturers converge on Las Vegas with their heaviest artillery that will shape tech trends for the rest of the year, and amid the blur of circuits and LCD panels, some products manage to rise above the din and make themselves heard. Here’s our handpicked list of 11 gadgets that impressed us in CES 2011.

Is the Motorola Atrix 4G a phone or a laptop? Its Tegra2 dual-core internals and the 4-in display (960x540), 1GB of RAM, and support for up to 48GB of storage pushes the boundaries of modern smartphones. What makes this device unique is that you can snap it into Motorola’s laptop dock that will transform this super phone into an 11.6-in screen netbook, with trackpad, keyboard and all!

Talk of dominating the headlines. After the Atrix, Motorola’s Xoom supertablet was launched as the first tablet to show off Google’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform. Besides its 1280 x 800-resolution 10.1-in display (higher than the iPad’s) and the 1GHz Tegra2 processor, the Xoom also features a barometer, which can be used to detect altitude and weather changes.

Gamers will know Razer, the makers of high-end gaming peripherals. But this CES, Razer stepped out of the shadowsof gaming giants and showed off the Switchblade concept — a miniature gaming notebook with a touch screen and a keyboard that changes function ... and look... depending on the game you play.

Finally, a Windows laptop that raises the beauty and performance bar for Apple. Made of aircraft-grade Duraluminand at only 0.68-in thin, the Samsung 9 series has got a brand-new Sandybridge Intel Core i5 processor and a 128GB SSD that boots Windows 7 in 20 seconds. Add in a SuperBright Plus display that’s 40 per cent brighter than the competition and a backlit keyboard, and you’ve got one heck of an exciting notebook to look forward to.

As if 8 million Kinect devices peering into our living rooms and into our gaming souls wasn’t enough, CES saw the launch of Avatar Kinect, a new Xbox 360 app that mimics your facial expressions on your avatar to create an experience similar to video chatting, except this time your avatar stands in for you.

Sony’s late on the 3D bandwagon, but it’s certainly made an entry. There’s the Sony Bloggie 3D, the world’s first affordable 3D camcorder, and the Sony HDR-TD10, the first 3D camera capable of double full HD video.

The Casio Tryx camera looks and sounds like something out of a Transformers movie, with a 360-degree swivel frame that pops out from the middle display like a stand and pivots any way you need it to, acting as a tripod, handle, and stand for playback. But it is not just fancy design. This baby sports a large 21mm lens, 12.1-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and offers features like touch-to-focus and HDR.

With the success of the Galaxy S, could a sim-card-less Galaxy Player be far behind? With the additional speaker around the back for true stereo playback, it’s designed to take on the hegemony of the iPod touch, and going by the specs — a 3.2MP camera, GPS, DivX among others — it’s got the game to make a good fight of it too!

This one romps home on originality alone, and it’s got bundles of it. A Lady Gaga endorsement I do not care much for, but the Polaroid GL20 camera glasses feature a built-in 5-megapixel digital camera to take snaps or record video, and two tiny 1.5-inch built-in OLED screens can be used to play back recorded content (or from an SD card, should you wish). Imagine the possibilities — lifeblogging for the masses? Only if you’re chic enough to pull them off in public!

Could a handsfree get any more handsfree-er? The Plantronics Voyager Pro UC version 2 is kitted out with enough sensors to detect when the unit is perched on your ear and when it is not, and the device intelligently routes your calls directly to your smartphone or to the headset. Sync it with the included PC software, and it can speak out sender names and subject lines of incoming e-mails, and automatically change your status in Skype or other communications software if you’re on a call. Or pause the music playing on your PC when you take the earpiece off. Colour me impressed.

And finally, the home team delivers. The Adam from the guys at Notion Ink in Bangalore launched amid much anticipation at CES 2010, has this year had its first public outing. It’s got the oomph and the specs to compete with the big boys in the space, if only the folks can sort out their niggling supply chain issues.