Galaxy S7 Edge spotted running Daydream VR

A video surfaced on YouTube a couple of days ago, showing the S7 Edge (Canadian Exynos 8890 version) performing respectably well at running Google's new virtual museum app. Not much else can be gleaned from the video, however, and information is scarce at the moment, as the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are neither technically Daydream-ready devices, nor do they run Nougat officially. Samsung last week launched a beta program, allowing S7 owners to get early builds of the new OS, but a final release is probably still months away, so the user who uploaded this proof of concept video is probably enrolled in the beta program.

Although quite apt, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are technically not “Daydream-ready”, as such phones are required to not only be able to run apps for the new platform, but also meet certain performance targets. Google will likely not go out of its way to actively prevent users from running Daydream on non-supported devices, but doing so in the first place may not be a good idea to begin with.

It is currently unknown how well the Galaxy S7 Edge, or any other unsupported devices that may be able to run Daydream in some form, would perform under heavier workload for prolonged periods of time, but overheating, GPU and CPU throttling, as well serious deterioration in short-term performance, are all to be expected depending on the device.