Chinese tech giant Alibaba just threw down the gauntlet in the smart glasses war. The company launched its Quark AI headsets in China today with one killer feature Meta and Apple don't have: swappable batteries that promise 24 hours of continuous use. It's the kind of practical innovation that could actually make smart glasses usable for real people.
Alibaba just changed the smart glasses game with something nobody saw coming - batteries you can actually swap out. The Chinese tech giant announced its Quark AI glasses series today, and while everyone's been obsessing over AI features, Alibaba solved the one problem that's been killing adoption: dead batteries halfway through your day.
The Quark lineup comes in two flavors. The S1 flagship costs 3,799 yuan ($537) and packs micro-OLED displays that overlay information directly onto your vision. The more affordable G1 starts at 1,899 yuan ($268) and targets lifestyle users who want AI assistance without the visual overlay. Both models promise 24 hours of battery life thanks to what Alibaba calls a "swappable dual-battery system" - essentially meaning you can hot-swap batteries without powering down.
That's a direct shot at Meta's Ray-Ban partnership, which currently dominates the smart glasses market but leaves users tethered to charging cables every few hours. Meta's latest Ray-Ban models offer impressive AI features but still struggle with battery life that barely lasts a full workday.
Alibaba's glasses run on the company's Qwen AI model, the same large language model that's been competing with OpenAI's ChatGPT in China. Users can control the glasses through voice commands or touch gestures, and the built-in bone conduction microphones mean you don't need separate earbuds. The glasses integrate deeply with Alibaba's ecosystem - Alipay for payments, Taobao for shopping, plus Chinese music platforms like QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music.
The real-world applications sound genuinely useful. The glasses can translate conversations in real-time, recognize prices when you're shopping, provide turn-by-turn navigation, and transcribe meetings automatically. It's the kind of ambient computing that tech companies have been promising for years but couldn't deliver because the hardware kept dying.
Alibaba's timing is strategic. is reportedly working on its own smart glasses project, while continues pushing its Ray-Ban partnership as the gateway to AR adoption. But Alibaba's approach feels more practical - less about recreating your phone on your face and more about augmenting specific tasks throughout your day.
