Is your smartphone Daydream-ready? Full list of every compatible device so far

Google reveals what specs your smartphone needs to work with its VR Daydream headset.

Daydream View in slate — What makes a smartphone Daydream-ready? Google

Google has cast further light on what features a smartphone requires to make use of its Daydream virtual reality platform. As well as clearing up some of the uncertainty, Google has also welcomed a new batch of Daydream-ready devices from various smartphone makers.

While a previously released Android Nougat 7.1 update document established a number of necessary device specs for Daydream-courting smartphones, VP of Business and Operations for Google VR, Amit Singh, has further explained the magic formula seen in Google's own Pixel smartphones.

"The combination of performance needs a few things in the stack," Singh told VRHeads. "The right GPU, Android N and above, and OLED display. There are others, but you need that spec for high performance. If you don't, your latency is high enough that you'll notice it, and that immersion is broken and that's not a good experience."

The necessity of an OLED panel explains away much of the confusion surrounding Daydream's level of entry; previously it had only been noted that the display's resolution must be 1080p or above, but with no mention of a required panel type.

With a new batch of devices from the Android elite expected in 2017, it will be intriguing to see if the OLED requirement has put paid to Daydream fun for any of the manufacturers – including Samsung, LG and HTC – that loosely pledged support when the platform was announced at the last Google IO in May 2016.

Google's take on its new platform arrived in the UK last November in the form of the impressive £69 Daydream View, with the Google Pixel and Pixel XL becoming the first to adopt the mobile VR tech. Since then, however, the adoption rate has been rather slow.

Yet with a second Daydream VR headset manufactured by the Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei on the horizon, the availability of Daydream has started to grow. For those looking to nab a new phone that will operate Google's VR ecosystem, below are all the smartphones confirmed as Daydream-ready devices so far. IBTimes UK will update this list as more are announced.