Cell World Congress in Barcelona may be a European tech present, however for the previous few years, the occasion has largely been dominated by Chinese language telephone firms corresponding to Xiaomi and Honor. This yr, they had been joined by tech large Alibaba, which launched its Qwen sensible glasses on the present — and having tried them, all I’ve to say is, Meta ought to watch its again.
The Qwen glasses are among the many first wearable units Alibaba is constructing on high of its Qwen AI household of huge language fashions, and the corporate introduced two completely different fashions to the MWC.
The primary pair, the Qwen S1 specs, have a heads-up waveguide show etched into the lenses, and function a rival to Meta’s Ray-Ban Show mannequin (minus the gesture management). My first impression of those AR glasses was that they had been mild and comfy to put on — I would not have identified that they had been sensible glasses by their weight alone. On the finish of every arm are swappable batteries, which snap off simply so you’ll be able to hold the glasses working for longer whenever you’re on the go.
The battery modules on every arm are simply swappable
I activated the glasses with the phrase “Hey Qwennie,” which it picked up with its 5 microphones. I then requested it to finish a variety of fundamental duties, together with asking the system to take a photograph and to inform me what I used to be once I held a photograph of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia in entrance of my face.
I might see a miniature model of the photograph I captured within the inexperienced show, and the glasses had been in a position to reply my architectural question each by displaying textual content within the heads-up show and thru the bone conduction constructed into the arms of the S1. Maybe my favourite function, although, was the turn-by-turn instructions. This function felt prefer it might change into important for navigating a busy metropolis, and way more handy than utilizing a telephone or smartwatch.
Right here you’ll be able to see the place the heads-up show is etched into the left lens.
I additionally tried out the teleprompter function, which scrolled as I learn out loud from the textual content showing on the show however should confess I did not discover it fairly as simple to observe as an analogous demo I attempted earlier within the week on the MemoMind One glasses. With the Qwen sales space assistant speaking to me in Chinese language, I used to be in a position to see and listen to the English translation of her phrases on the show and in my ear concurrently, though there was sufficient of a delay to stop our communication from being completely clean.
The second pair of glasses Alibaba delivered to the present had been the Qwen G1 glasses, which lack the heads-up show current on the S1, however in any other case provide just about the identical options because of the microphones, cameras and bone-conduction.
The G1 glasses haven’t got the S1’s heads-up show.
On the entire, I used to be impressed by the look, really feel, sound high quality and capabilities of those glasses, which for many individuals may be their first introduction to Alibaba’s Qwen AI (by means of the Qwen App, which is built-in with the specs). In China, the place preorders for the glasses are already stay, individuals carrying the glasses will have the ability to full duties corresponding to ordering meals or hailing a cab fully palms free.
Alibaba mentioned pricing for the G1 glasses will begin at round $275 (for comparability, Meta’s Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses price $379), however did not say how a lot the extra superior S1 glasses will price. Official gross sales in China will start on March 8, with Alibaba promising a global rollout that includes integration with widespread international providers scheduled for an unspecified date later in 2026.