Alibaba Launches $500 Quark AI Glasses With Qwen To Challenge Meta

Alibaba just launched Quark AI Glasses, a new series of smart glasses.

The China-based e-commerce and technology giant’s new series consists of two options, the flagship dual-display S1 and the lifestyle-focused camera-first G1, which are available in multiple frame colors and lens options.

Both these smart glasses are currently available in China only and are priced at ¥3,799 ($536) and G1 at ¥1,899 ($268). They can be purchased on major Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin, as well as in 604 partner optical stores across 82 cities nationwide in China.

Alibaba had begun with pre-sales in China starting on October 24.

The S1 features bright, clear dual micro-OLED displays, powerful dual chips, advanced voice pickup, bone conduction technology, powerful photo capture, 3K video capture, AI-enhanced 4K output, and an industry-first swappable dual-battery system delivering up to 24 hours of battery life.

The G1 sports the same features as the S1, other than the dual display, and weighs just 40 grams.

All models are powered by Alibaba’s advanced AI model Qwen and its newly launched AI application Qwen App, which allows users to instantly access AI assistance using voice phrases such as “Hello Qwen” or via touch controls.

The Qwen integration enables real-time AI interactions, spanning capabilities such as instant price recognition, information gathering, instant translations, near-eye navigation, AI-generated meeting notes, smart reminders, live teleprompter, schedule management, and location and content-aware support.

Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses are also deeply integrated with its ecosystem of apps, including Alipay, Amap, Taobao, and Fliggy, along with music streaming platforms QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and more, delivering a comprehensive and unified experience across shopping, travel, payments, music, and productivity.

“AI glasses open the door to a revolutionary way of connecting and interacting with computers in the AI era,” said Wu Jia, VP of Alibaba Group. “With Quark AI Glasses deeply integrated with Qwen, users can access Qwen anytime, anywhere, enabling the AI to connect seamlessly with the real world and deliver value at an unprecedented scale.”


Alibaba plans to challenge existing players such as Xiaomi, Xreal, and Meta in the Chinese market, which remains the largest market with nearly 50 million units shipped. As for global numbers, Q2 2025 witnessed 136.5 million units sold at a year-over-year growth of 9.6% compared to Q2 2024.

Meta recently launched a new brand of smart glasses built in collaboration with renowned eyewear brand Oakley, upgraded its coveted Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to the next generation and unveiled the new Meta Ray-Ban Display Smart Glasses lineup.

Meta recently spoke about how its smart glasses empower people with disabilities to perform daily tasks more independently, through hands-free support that allows users to make phone calls, send text messages, translate speech, and capture photos and videos just by using their voice.

It can also provide detailed descriptions of their surrounding environment, while a partnership with Be My Eyes powers its Call a Volunteer feature that connects blind or low-vision individuals with volunteers who describe what they’re seeing.

The launch of Alibaba’s new smart glasses follows a series of releases of new products and services.

Just over a month ago, Alibaba unveiled Quark AI Chat Assistant, a new chatbot powered by Alibaba’s latest Qwen3 models, bringing strong reasoning, understanding, and execution capabilities.

This is also integrated into its Quark app, enabling multiple capabilities of AI search and conversation, and a complete AI experience, marking “a new phase of integrated AI that unifies dialogue and search capabilities within a single application.”

Having launched in public beta on November 17, Alibaba said its new Qwen App crossed 10 million downloads within the first week and nestled into the top three slots of Apple’s App Store free apps chart in China, making it one of the fastest-growing AI applications to date.

The Qwen App is the company’s newest consumer-facing AI application that’s positioned as a “smart personal assistant that not only chats but gets things done.”

Alibaba also said that its new Qwen App and Qwen AI model are now natively embedded in the desktop version of Quark’s new AI browser, bringing instant, always-on AI assistance to over 100 million users. It also enables the browser users to access Qwen directly from the homepage search bar or via a persistent sidebar.

What do you think about Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses? Do you think its integration with Qwen will help the company beat Meta’s smart glasses?

Let us know in the comments below!