The ultimate gadget girl handbag

We asked top UK gadget girl writer Charlotte Ricca-Smith to put together the ultimate gadget-filled handbag – here are her choices.

Motorola V80 Mobile phone
Creative MuVo Slim MP3 player
Pentax Optio S4i Digital camera
Veritas Unbreakable mirror
Victorinox Swiss Memory tool
Smallfry Travel Fan
Theo Fennell Panadol Case
World's smallest hairdryer

read on for all the details

Motorola V80
£150
0870 9010 555
www.motorola.com
The problem with modern mobiles is that they are so tiny they end up getting lost in the Tardis that is your handbag. Not so with the V80, which is compact enough to fit in a clutch bag, but big enough to be easily found when answering calls. The only thing is it looks so good you won’t want to keep it hidden away. To open it up you simply nudge the bottom of the cover and it automatically rotates 180 degrees, revealing a backlit, well-spaced keypad and a gorgeous, colour screen. Other features include Bluetooth for adding one of those flash headsets, a decent quality camera, picture messaging, MP3 ringtones and flashing lights. That’s right, flashing lights. See, we said it was good.

Creative MuVo Slim £149.99
00 353 1 4333200
www.creative.com
Frankly we’re tired of the iPod. Tired, that is of waiting for its baby sister the iPod mini to arrive on British shores. So we’ve been searching for other ways to keep us entertained on the go, and the MuVo Slim is proving a very suitable companion. At just 0.28-inches thick (or should that be thin?) it is no bigger than your credit card, and will cause a far smaller dent in your wallet. It has 256-megabytes of memory which will give you around four hours of MP3 music, and if that isn’t enough for longer journeys it also has an FM radio. And if you’re really desperate (is Chris Moyles still on Radio One?) you could always record your own warblings on its built-in voice recorder.

Pentax Optio S4i
£329
(01753) 792792
www.pentax.co.uk
A night out with the girls just wouldn’t be the same without a digital camera, and for one the fits in your handbag, as well as your budget, look no further than the Optio S4i. Despite its compact dimensions (3.3 x 2 x 0.81 inches if you’re interested), it has a large LCD screen, which is great for viewing your snaps on, and more features than you shake an SLR at, including auto focus and 21 different shooting modes. It is also very easy to use and everything is clearly marked out and positioned perfectly on the camera for easy access. We particularly like its ‘Quick’ button, or as we like to call it, the ‘Quite Pissed’ button, which will take you straight back to automatic mode – so even if you’re seeing double the S4i will take perfect shots every time.

Veritas Unbreakable mirror
£19.95
0870 241 4289
www.firebox.com
Every girl (and guy, but we don’t have time to go into that right now) should carry one of these in her bag. No ordinary mirror, the Veritas is made from highly polished stainless steel rather than glass, so there is absolutely no chance of you breaking it. You can sit on it, drop it, stamp on it and it will resolutely remain intact. The size and shape of a credit card, it slips easily into any wallet or purse, or if you want to carry it loose in your bag, the mirror comes with a black reindeer leather slipcase (reindeer leather - is that wrong?), which protects it from smudges and scratches. Looks like you’ll have to find something else to blame for all that bad luck you’ve been having.

Victorinox Swiss Memory
From £58
0116 234 4644
www.victorinox.ch
For some years now Victorinox has been coming up with legitimate reasons to carry a flick-knife – but the Swiss Memory has to be its best effort to date. As well as the usual handy tools, such as screwdriver (for tightening the manacles on your man’s balls), nail file (for filing nails, obviously), scissors (for emergency trimming of dead skin and stray hairs) and ball point pen (much classier than writing his number in lipstick), it has a detachable USB storage device, with up to 128-megabytes of memory. So you can carry work documents, photos or music, video files around in your handbag. Much lighter than a laptop, and far more useful.

Smallfry Travel Fan
£3.50
0845 302 1234
www.smallfry.com
We have high hopes for another scorching summer (global warming does have its plus points), which is why we are carrying this very funky little fan around in our handbags. A far cry from the usual monstrosities seen in the sweaty palms of hairy old women, the Travel Fan is aimed at an infinitely cooler market. Thanks to its hinge design, and swivel head it also makes the perfect desk-fan for those of you with bosses that think air-con is just a dodgy film starring Nicholas Cage and John Malkovich.

Theo Fennell Panadol Case
£500
020 7623 4380
www.theofennell.com
Despite women’s high tolerance to pain, we all know the importance of carrying a stash of painkillers in our handbags. But getting out a crumpled old box of paracetamol on the train just isn’t a good look. What is, however, is this silver plated box designed to hold the new Panadol booklets of painkillers. Admittedly, the price tag is enough to give you a headache, but what you are paying for is exclusivity. It has been designed by Theo Fennell (who?) – celebrity jewellery designer and bessie mate of the Beckhams. Say no more. Popping pills has never looked so good.

Travel Hairdryer
£12.95
www.girlsstuff.co.uk
And if you have any space left how about the world’s smallest hairdryer? The £12.95 Travel Hairdryer, from Opal London, which comes via Girls Stuff is tiny, yet powerful, and comes with a detachable nozzle. To keep things really tidy it can be folded away into the supplied drawstring bag.

Our experts reckon that due to the amount of heat it generates it is as good as hairdryers twice its size.

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