Alibaba unveils Qwen smart glasses starting at $450

Alibaba’s N1 series starts at 2,999 yuan ($450) before discounts, while its Pro edition costs 3,499 yuan.[2] Some Chinese outlets reported a lower starting price of 2,899 yuan and said subsidies and launch offers could reduce the price to 2,218 yuan.[3] Pre-orders opened on September 22, and official sales were scheduled for October 13.[4] The glasses are listed for sale on Taobao, Tmall, JD.com and Douyin.[3] The differing reported prices make it worth checking the offer and edition available in a specific sales channel before comparing costs.

The glasses have 50-megapixel cameras and sensors, and Alibaba says they integrate its Qwen AI assistant more tightly and expand its functionality.[2] Wearers can speak to the AI agent through bone-conduction microphones.[2] Reported functions include translation, meeting notes, shopping, payments and voice-commanded tasks.[3] Users can look at an object to ask about it and confirm payments with an iris scan.[3] The Pro model adds eye tracking and tracks heart rate, blood oxygen and skin temperature, according to PConline.[2][3] Alibaba says the glasses are rated for 25 hours of standby or nine hours of music playback on one charge.[2]

Alibaba is positioning smart glasses as an entry point to its AI tools and agents, and Bloomberg characterized the pricing as a bid to compete on quality and features rather than price alone.[2] Its glasses are no cheaper than Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, while Meta introduced a $349 camera-free model designed primarily for interaction with its Muse AI assistant.[2] Alibaba’s new glasses therefore offer a different feature mix and price point; the evidence does not establish how the products compare in real-world performance or user demand. The N1 series and Qwen Clip earbuds were first shown at Alibaba’s Apsara conference in September.[3]

Alibaba also began selling Qwen Clip, AI earbuds priced at 1,299 yuan and co-developed with Bose.[2][4] The earbuds support face-to-face translation, AI note-taking and voice-driven task execution.[4] Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu reiterated the company’s ambition to develop AI across models, chatbot apps, chips and hardware.[2] The glasses arrived roughly a year after the first edition, according to the report.[2] Together, the glasses and earbuds give professionals two new device categories to assess for hands-free AI tasks, while the evidence does not show adoption rates or independent evaluations.