You may already be one of those people who run wearing a portable music player strapped to their arm, or a phone that can play music and take calls strapped to their arm. Or, indeed, you might use one of the several sports-related applications you can get for mobiles, or maybe a separate GPS-based sports tracking device.

Well, Samsung wants you to forget that lot. The F110 miCoach is an attempt by Samsung to make a sports specific mobile phone, and it can do the lot. It bears the Adidas brand, which must give it kudos for some athletically-minded types, and it comes with a heart rate monitor you strap around your chest, a stride sensor you strap to your shoe, and, of course, its own (huge) armband.

Data from the heart rate monitor and stride sensor are sent to the phone, which can deliver a running commentary on your performance; for example, telling you to run harder or let up. I'm not sure I want that in my ear, but if it helps you with motivation then fair enough.

There is a Web site to which you can send all your running data, and this will help you monitor progress towards whatever goals you set.

For all this cleverness the miCoach can't do some things that a runner-specific GPS-based system, like Garmin's Forerunner or Timex's Ironman setup, can. You don't get elevation measurements and have no way of setting timers for intervals training, for example. And there are lots of bits to strap onto yourself before you go running, which will be a pain for those who like to just slap on the shoes and go.

Music playback is, of course, possible and you can put songs into groups labelled ‘tempo', ‘stride', and ‘motivational' to help give you the lift you need on any particular run. There is an FM radio too, which might be suited to those long, slow runs that some people opt for. With 1GB of internal storage and no flash expansion, music storage capacity is a little limited, though.

The phone is designed to be easy to use on the move. It's a slider and the front fascia offers shortcut buttons for music management and a workout menu as well Call and End keys and softmenu buttons.

There is a 2-megapxiel camera, Web browser, calendar, alarms, voice recorder, memo maker, task manager, world clock, calculator, unit converter, timer and stopwatch, all of which mean the miCoach functions competently as a mobile phone when you are not running around with it strapped to your arm.