Samsung Gifts a Galaxy S7 Edge to Every Rio Olympian

Samsung wants to give Olympic athletes in Rio an edge, and the IOC is cool with that. The Korean tech firm is handing out 12,500 Samsung Galaxy S7 edge handsets it says will “help Olympians enhance their experiences” by helping them stay in touch with loved ones.

Fitted with a special metal black frame, the commemorative Galaxy S7 edge handsets are preloaded with wallpapers themed after the Rio 2016 Olympic games. The Olympic rings are baked into the phone’s home screen, lock screen, notifications bar, contacts menu and phone dialer. The special edition Galaxy S7 edge handsets also come preloaded with the company’s Rio 2016 app, which was developed in collaboration with the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee. The app will serve up coverage of the games around the clock through updates on the medal count, event results, schedules, venues and more.

Along with giving each Olympian one of the special edition smartphones, Samsung is also giving the athletes its wireless IconX earbuds.The earbuds, reminiscent of hearing aids, feature in-ear heart rate monitoring, a native music player and support for Samsung’s S Health app.

If any of this makes you a little jealous, you can still buy the Olympic Edition of the Galaxy S7 edge. Samsung made them available to consumers last month. And if want to bring your own device, you can download Samsung’s Rio 2016 app from the Play Store — it’s also available on iOS and Windows Phone.


So how will you keep track of the Olympics? Will you do it from a commemorative Galaxy S7 edge, another device, or another app?