Samsung F110 Adidas review: Your coach, miCoach

Samsung F110 Adidas 360-degree spin

The Samsung F110 Adidas body is entirely made of plastic and, most importantly, you can tell that right away. There's no chrome, no metal, and the design might even seem dull to some.

Design and construction

The Samsung F110 Adidas phone measures 101.5 x 45 x 14.5 mm. There's nothing ground-breaking in those dimensions but it's a rather compact fella. It would be produced in a number of colors - Dark Gray, Tech Silver, Pink Red, Cool Gray, Sapphire Blue, Misty Blue and Sweet Pink, so you have a lot of options here.

The front panel is dominated by the 2" TFT display and the large D-pad with rough surface. Now about that display - the two-incher is not small by today's feature phone standards, but it sports the somewhat low resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. We are so used to QVGA displays nowadays, that anything less than that seems like having "cheap" written all over the place.

Above the display there is an earpiece and you will also notice the Samsung and Adidas co-branding.

Two inches is fine for a display, but what's with the low resolution?

Now, below the display there is the large D-pad and a whole bunch of controls. The D-pad itself has a rough surface just so you know it's a sports gadget before anything else. Thanks to sheer size, it's rather comfortable to work with.

Around it there are two context keys, two shortcut keys - for the Music player and the miCoach menu, the C correction key and finally the red and green receiver keys (which are anything but green and red here).

The alphanumeric keys are large and comfortable, but one thing made quite a bad impression. When pressed they feel like really cheap plastic and even give out squeaking sounds.

The D-pad is large and comfy • two shortcut keys give away the F110 concept - Sports and Music

On the right-hand side of the Samsung F110 Adidas phone there is only one key and it starts the camera upon a longer press. By the way, you can use the camera with the slider both opened and closed. However, this camera key is rather inconveniently placed. While using the volume rocker on the opposite side we ended up turning on the camera more than often. Moreover, it's quite awkward to use as a shutter key when taking photos.

The camera key is inconveniently placed in upper part of the right side

On the left-hand side you will find the volume rocker and the universal connectivity port. The universal port is the usual Samsung type that they have been using in their latest handsets. This is the place where you connect the charger, the stereo headset and the optional data cable.

The volume rocker is nice to use as it has the same rough surface as the D-pad, which helps tactility a lot.

The sporty volume rocker and the universal port hidden beneath a protective cap

The bottom and top panels of the Samsung F110 Adidas are bereft of controls.

Just so you know, there's nothing interesting here

The back of the Adidas miCoach phone, as it's otherwise known, has some rough rubbery coating that provides for a non-slip grip and is pleasant to touch. The Samsung and Adidas logos again remind you that you are holding a unique handset.

In the upper part of the back panel you can see the loudspeaker, the 2-megapixel camera lens and the self-portrait mirror.

Removing the battery cover is easy - it goes away with a slide. This reveals the Samsung 800mAh Li-Ion battery. We don't have the official figures on expected standby and talk times, however we were pretty satisfied with the actual performance. With low to moderate usage it can keep the phone going for no less than four days and we suppose it is even capable of more.

The back panel has a rubbery "no-slip" surface • we are content with the battery performance too

When you see the Samsung F110 Adidas phone in hand it does strike you as a compact phone. And although we don't have the official figure on weight, it's rather light too.

The Samsung F110 is compact and light

Backlighting with the Samsung F110 was excellent. All the keys are backlit in white and they are perfectly legible in the dark.

We did have serious problems with display legibility under direct sunlight. Unless the preinstalled white theme is selected, the user interface is totally illegible when the sun hits hard. We suppose that would prove even a more serious drawback, when you are out on the track trying to see your running stats or change the current playlist.

The backlighting is excellent, but the display doesn't fare well under direct sunlight