The Quest v51 update is out for early-access users, based on Android 12L
The Meta Quest 2 can indeed be considered a VR device that is “constantly evolving,” given the numerous significant updates it has undergone since its release in 2020, and the ever-increasing richness of its features. According to MIXED, the recently released v51 system in the public beta channel has surprised players, who have discovered that the Quest 2’s system may have undergone its largest update since its release.
Similar to Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, the Meta Quest system is actually based on the Android system, which has been extensively modified. The officially released v50 system currently running on Quest 2 and Quest Pro is still based on Android 10, which was released in 2019. The v51 system, which is still in public beta, has been upgraded to Android12L, which was also released by Google last year.
Considering that the current latest version of the Android system is 13, it appears that Meta’s system updates are not particularly frequent. However, it must be noted that the Quest series is a VR device, and Meta needs to add various VR components such as positional tracking on top of the Android system, so there is obviously much more work to be done than with regular smartphones and tablets.
Meta has not yet indicated how much performance improvement the new system will bring to the Quest series headset, and it may be necessary to wait for the official release notes to know the exact details of the update. However, at the same time, multiple players using the public beta versions have already discovered new features, such as the partition control lighting of the Quest Pro being enabled when streaming PCVR games through Quest Link or Air Link, and AVIF image format support has also been added.
It is worth mentioning that the Quest 3 will be released this autumn, and Meta’s move to update the system to Android 12L can be seen as a preparation for the new SoC-powered Quest 3.
