Currently, the only smartphone that is available for sale that can actually run Daydream VR (and thus use the Daydream View) is the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The Huawei Mate 9 which Huawei announced earlier this month, is also compatible, but it’s not actually available just yet. It has been said that other devices are compatible, they just aren’t officially compatible just yet. It’s unclear what Google is waiting on, but right now Daydream VR is only available on their devices. Or is it? A developer was able to get Daydream VR working on the Galaxy S7 Edge, running the beta version of Android 7.0 Nougat.
In the video below, you can see that he does have it working on the Galaxy S7 Edge, but it’s not perfect. As is usually the case when you’ve ported some software to an unsupported device. This is also the Canadian Galaxy S7 Edge (which is an Exynos variant). Since it is running on the Exynos chipset, it should work the same with the international model, but the US model may have some issues, seeing as that is a Snapdragon 820-powered device.
Now that most of the hard work is done, in regards to getting Daydream VR working on the Galaxy S7 Edge, it shouldn’t be long before it becomes a lot better to use on the device. If you do decide to give Daydream VR a go on your Galaxy S7 Edge, be sure to remember that this is not a 100% working version of Daydream VR. Additionally, it’s being run on Android 7.0 which is not finalized on the Galaxy S7 Edge. As it is just a beta at this point, and could also be pretty buggy, giving an even worse experience to users.
Daydream VR is Google’s new virtual reality platform that they debuted at Google I/O over the summer, and then released hardware for this Fall. Daydream VR is a step above what Cardboard offered, but not quite on the level of the Gear VR. So if you are a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge user, you may want to stick with the Gear VR and give that a go for your virtual reality needs.