CES 2011: Our top five must-sees

The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show officially starts on Thursday—but already, hordes of journalists are making their way to Las Vegas for preview events and pre-show press conferences. And while this show always offers lots of surprises, we know quite a bit about what we expect to see and, hopefully, be wowed by this year.

In our video, Consumer Reports Electronics Editor Paul Reynolds counts down the five products we most look forward to seeing at CES 2011. To start with, tablet computers land high on our list. Though other tablets started to appear in the market toward the end of 2010, most were disappointing compared with the Apple iPad. We're expecting the iPad to (finally) get a lot of real competition—in large part, by offering features the Apple tablet doesn't. One tablet that might fill the bill is the Toshiba Tablet, which offers cameras, a memory-card slot, and support for Flash video.

Another one of CR's anticipated product categories is 3D TVs made for viewing with light, inexpensive passive glasses, as opposed to the bulky and costly active-shutter glasses they've needed till now. Vizio, LG, and other manufacturers will be showing these TVs. And though e-readers—which we saw so much of at last year's CES—probably won't be as thick on the ground this year, we're excited to see e-book readers that utilize new color technologies, such as Mirasol.

Will Verizon announce that it's getting the Apple iPhone? We're not so sure that'll happen at the show (though possibly will soon after, according to many reports). But we do expect that Verizon, along with other carriers and manufacturers, to announce many new 4G phones: Samsung is on that list, and its phones have been doing very well in our Ratings of late. And speaking of that speedy technology, we look forward to checking out innovative car connectivity solutions, including ones that implement 4G, from manufacturers such as Ford and Audi.

Watch our video for more specifics on each of these products. And check back here often during the coming week for lots of CES photos, videos, and news from Consumer Reports' unique perspective, straight from the show floor!

—Carol Mangis