Just like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day has become synonymous with flowers, frills and generally useless things. This year, spend your money wisely and buy something she’ll actually use. By Emma Chong

So she can always reach you: HTC One X (pictured above)
It doesn’t seem fair that you have a smartphone and your mother doesn’t, hey? Pick up the new HTC One X for her so she can see what the fuss is about. It’s super light and thin, has a new and improved LCD display for excellent viewing, and at its heart is a quad core 1.5GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, making it faster than any HTC that has gone before. Preload it with Angry Birds Space (and your number), and watch your mum go. (htc.com)

So she can carry the kitchen sink: Oroton Contour Tote
Speaking of handbags, real women carry large ones. Get a suitably stylish one like this Oroton tote – crafted from oil vegetable leather, capacious, and so snappily detailed that it doesn’t look anything like a mum bag. (oroton.com)

So she can show off her grandchildren wherever she is: Samsung GALAXY Tab 7.7
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that women possessed of young children, grandchildren or distant nieces and nephews will want to show the world how cute they are. With a tablet, your mum can do it in style. The Samsung GALAXY Tab 7.7 will fit neatly into nearly any handbag and with up to 32GB of memory, will hold an awful lot of photos. She can even add to the collection with the inbuilt 3 megapixel camera. (samsung.com/my)

So she can look cooler than the other mums: Marc by Marc Jacobs sunglasses
There’s a whole generation of women who squint unnecessarily in the sun because they don’t recognise the importance of sunglasses. These uncharacteristically restrained Marc by Marc Jacobs sunglasses will help to minimise squinting (and therefore wrinkles) and their structured shape will look good on nearly any face type. (marcjacobs.com)

For more Mother's Day gift ideas, see our picks of anti-ageing treatments.