Samsung Adidas miCoach F110 review

Samsung Adidas miCoach F110 Review

Reviewed by: Frank Lewis

Reviewed on: 28 March 2008

We found that the personalised workouts and vocal instructions were a real help as they give us a structured way to gradually improve our fitness levels. Rather than simply going for a run, you really feel like you're being helped to train in a more professional way. Being able to view graphs of your workouts keeps you motivated to stick with your personalised training regime. It's certainly a big improvement over previous digital training systems we've used.

You might've forgotten that this handset also makes phone calls. The F110 is good rather than outstanding. It's relatively small and light, and the slider action feels smooth and solid. The menu system is also easy to use and day-to-day tasks like texting are a breeze. The 2-megapixel camera takes decent shots, but unfortunately it lacks a flash for low light shooting. Call quality is good and you'll get around two and a half hours of talk time from the battery.

Weaknesses
The biggest issue we have with the F110 is that it's a phone. That may sound weird, but think about it: do you really want to go running with your phone? Apart from training to get fit or losing weight, one of the reasons most people go running is to get away from it all. With the F100 you're never really free: someone could call you, interrupt your rhythm. What are they going to think when you answer the phone completely out of breath because you've just been pushing hard into your Power Zone?

There are some other niggles, too. On a few occasions we went for a run, got home and synchronised the running data only to find that the pedometer hadn't been registering our foot falls. The result is a bunch of pretty useless heart rate data with no distance data to put it in context. Surely Samsung could have programmed the phone to know that when it's registering a higher heart rate but no strides, something is wrong with the pedometer. You could then get a notification so you can reposition the device on your running shoe.

Conclusion
We're not completely convinced that a mobile is the best training partner and we'd love to see Samsung offer an MP3 player with similar technology. For now the F110's miCoach training system is way ahead of competitors like the Nike+. Add in the fact that the F110 is also a pretty decent handset and you've got a winning combination.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday