Samsung’s Gear 360 camera has just hit the Australian market, but the limited compatability with Android devices is a big barrier to entry for potential customers. Thankfully an enterprising XDA-Developers member has pulled the device check requirement from the app, opening the list of devices the Gear 360 Manager app will run on right up.
The official list of compatible devices that the Samsung Gear 360 manager runs on includes the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, as well as the Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge and Galaxy S6. The forum post from Bin4ry, gives the low-down on the modified app, including that the app works for sure on an Xperia Z5:
in the last days i was working on a port of the Gear 360 Manager app.
You should be able to use the app now even with non-Galaxy devices, or older Galaxy devices which are not officially supported by Samsung. I myself use it with a Sony Xperia Z5 without problems now
It’s not quite as easy as installing the APK, there are some minimum specs, notably Android 5.0 (Lollipop), and Bin4ry also advises you will need to install the Samsung Accessory Service from Google Play to get it working.
There’s two versions, with one forcing 4K, while the other sits at the usual 2K standard. You could try both out and see which one gives quality you’re happy with.
Samsung’s Gear 360 camera is available in Australia for $499 RRP, although you can get a discount on that at the moment if you want. To find out more, check out the XDA-Developer page for more info.
