Now that the holidays are just about over, its time to reflect on just how good the gifts that you received really are. If the answer is "not very," we suggest you treat yourself with the very best mobile gear money can buy. From the ultimate smart phone to the first hard drive camcorder, we've got the gadgets you need to forget that lame fruit cake and to ring in the new year with a bang.

HP Pavilion dv1000 Entertainment Notebook PC
With so many look-alike laptops out there, the HP Pavilion dv1000 is a breath of fresh air. Its black and silver styling is sleek, its 14.1-inch BrightView display is crisp, and its remote control slips right into the PC Card slot. The remote is more than a fashionaccessory; it activates the Pavilion’s QuickPlay feature. With it, you’ll play DVDs, CDs, and MP3s without having to boot into Windows. Use the pair of headphone jacks to share the audio fun with friends, or transfer photos from virtually any digital camera with the 6-in-1 memory card reader. The included Image Zone software from HP will make editing your photos a breeze. Throw in a DVD burner, plenty-fast Pentium M processor, and 60GB hard drive, and you have a thin and light PC that’s perfect for work and play. $1,499; www.hp.com

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PalmOne Treo 650
If you want to combine a PDA and phone in a single device that can handle e-mail and Web surfing, too, this successor to the Treo 600 is the perfect choice. The 650 keeps everything that was good about the original--including the five-way navigator control for one-handed operation and the top-mounted Mute switch--and adds a zippier 312-MHz Intel XScale processor, a much crisper 65,000-color display with 320 x 320-pixel resolution, a VGA camera that’s actually usable, and a plumper keyboard for faster typing. There’s also Bluetooth for pairing a wireless headset, a removable battery, and a built-in MP3 player. The 650 even supports Microsoft Exchange via the VersaMail client. Other carriers will soon follow, but for now Sprint PCS has this baby all to itself—and is offering some pretty tempting rebates to boot.
$449; www.palmone.com

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iPod Photo
The best MP3 player has just upped the ante. The iPod Photo adds a 2-inch, 65,536-color screen to the mix, which makes your favorite digital pictures come to life while you listen to your favorite tunes. The display improves on the famous Click Wheel, making it easier to navigate through your photo and music collection. If you want to show off to friends and family, connect the dock’s included AV cable into the back of your TV. The latest version of iTunes does all the work by automatically importing your pictures from your PC. It supports album art for music you’ve purchased online, to boot. Yes, the iPod Photo is thicker than it’s non-picture playing cousins, but it’s still a manageable 6.4 ounces while supplying a whopping 15 hours of music playback on a charge.
$499 (40GB), $599 (60GB); www.apple.com

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Motorola Razr V3
Given the Razr V3’s amazing half-inch-thin profile and wee 3.6-ounce weight, it’s easy to forget it’s inside your pocket. But this is not a phone you’ll want to hide for long. The anodized aluminum case and precision-cut keypad, which glows a soft blue, make this the most gorgeously designed cell ever. Equally impressive is the number of features Motorola crammed inside this clamshell, including a surprisingly big and brilliant 260,000-color display, Bluetooth for connecting a wireless headset (you wouldn’t want to be caught dead connecting a wire to this work of art), and a pretty decent VGA camera. Because the V3 is a quad-band phone, it works all around the world. It’s available exclusively from Cingular. $499; www.motorola.com

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JVC Everio GZMC200
Tapeless camcorders are taking off because they automatically index your recordings with little thumbnails so you can play back individual scenes with the push of a button. Likewise, you can delete scenes that didn’t turn out so well on the fly, just as you would with a digital camera. The difference between the JVC Everio and its tapeless competition is that it records to a 4GB hard drive instead of a memory card, which translates to an hour of DVD-quality video, compared to a measly 10 minutes. When you want to transfer your footage to a PC, just connect the FireWire cable to your laptop and fire up the included copy of Power Producer. You’ll be able to create a DVD, complete with fancy titles and MP3 background music. Oh, and don’t worry about schlepping around a separate digital camera; the Everio takes very good 2-megapixel still shots, too. $1,100; www.jvc.com

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