Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Edition will be launched on 7 July

Samsung is expected to release the Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Edition, a limited edition variant of the Galaxy S7 to commemorate the upcoming Rio 2016 Summer Olympics on 7 July. The Rio Olympics games are expected to kick off from 5 August in Brazil.

The limited edition of the device is expected to have the same specs as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but will bring along an array of customised features based on the Olympic theme including an Olympic logo at the back panel of the phone. Sometime ago the company had released an Injustice Edition Galaxy S7 featuring a batman logo and the handset had customised themes and icons baked into the phone.

As of now it is not known in which markets this limited edition handset will be available or how much it will cost. Going by Samsung's records its limited edition phones cost almost $50 (£38) to $100 more than the actual models depending on the degree of customisation the handset gets. The regular Galaxy S7 Edge currently costs $780.

Samsung's decision to bring out this edition is not purely random. It is a major sponsor of the Olympics this year and wants its customers to get exclusive privilege of watching the Rio 2016 Olympics in virtual reality. There are reports that the 2016 Summer Olympics taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil including its opening ceremony will be available on Virtual Reality exclusive to Samsung device owners.

Virtual reality coverage of sports particularly 360 video has been growing since VR headsets such as the Samsung Gear and Oculus Rift became widely available. Sports broadcasters and VR technology manufacturers are betting big on the platform being the next big game-changing way to watch sports.