Alibaba has launched the Qwen Glasses N1, its new pair of AI-powered smart glasses, with prices starting at 2,999 yuan ($450) before any government discounts. The release marks a further push by the Chinese e-commerce and cloud company into consumer hardware as it looks to compete with Meta in the AI glasses market. The product takes its name from Qwen, Alibaba's family of artificial intelligence models — a name that signals how central the company's AI models are to the device.

According to The Next Web, some Chinese outlets have listed the N1 at 2,899 yuan, below Alibaba's official starting price of 2,999 yuan.

Rather than trying to win buyers over with a lower price, Alibaba has priced the glasses in line with Meta's market-leading Ray-Ban range, a strategy focused on features and quality instead of affordability. The move puts Alibaba in one of consumer hardware's most closely watched new categories, where Meta's Ray-Ban line has so far set the standard. The glasses are now available to order in China through Taobao, Tmall, JD.com and Douyin, and any launch beyond China has yet to be detailed.

A 50-megapixel camera and Alibaba's Qwen assistant

The N1 carries a 50-megapixel sensor with a 1G5P lens and shoots 4K video. Wearers can use bone-conduction microphones to interact with Alibaba's Qwen AI assistant via a voice chat feature, while the glasses also support translation, meeting notes, shopping and payments, all accessible through voice commands. The feature set draws on Alibaba's broader ecosystem, tying the assistant to the shopping and payment services the company already operates.

Yahoo Finance reports that the glasses can last up to 25 hours on standby, or deliver nine hours of music playback, per charge.

Pro model adds hands-free payments and health tracking

Priced at 3,499 yuan, the N1 Pro uses eye-tracking technology to let users ask questions about objects they are looking at, without having to point them out or describe them.

The N1 Pro also enables hands-free payments through Alipay: users can start a transaction in the app, then look at a merchant's QR code and nod to confirm once they have checked the payment details. QR-code payments are already a routine part of daily commerce in China, and the feature adapts that familiar habit to a hands-free format.

The glasses also monitor health metrics such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels and skin temperature, and use AI to turn the readings into quality health summaries — a set of functions more typical of dedicated fitness wearables.