AI voice recorders and “chat-with-me” wearables are flooding the market, but not everyone wants a gadget that sits on their body all day. For people who primarily need reliable audio capture for meetings, interviews, and quick voice notes, a dedicated recorder can be a better fit—especially one designed to be carried as easily as a bank card.
A crowded AI voice gadget market, but a different bet
A wave of AI recording devices—including Omi, Bee, and Friend—has been positioning itself as always-ready hardware that captures your voice and enables conversations with an AI chatbot. Bee has already been acquired by Amazon, and more products are on the way, such as the Stream ring by Sandbar and a new AI ring from former Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, both expected to arrive next year. Even with all this activity, it’s still unclear how successful wearable AI devices will be over the long run.
Plaud has been carving out a clearer lane by aiming at professional use cases with a form factor that doesn’t try to be jewelry or a pin. Instead, it offers a credit card-sized recorder meant to live in your wallet or ride on the back of your phone. The company says it has shipped more than a million units, and that more than 50% of customers have converted to pro subscriptions.
Plaud Note Pro: price, positioning, and what’s new
The latest version, Plaud Note Pro, launched for preorder in August, arriving two years after the original Note. It’s priced at $179 and is built around a simple promise: make capturing good audio easy, then turn that audio into usable transcripts and structured notes with AI.
What makes Note Pro stand out in a sea of AI gadgets isn’t a flashy “always listening” pitch. It’s the practicality of a device you can carry without thinking about it—and that still behaves like a purpose-built recorder when you need it.
Design that actually fits everyday carry
Plaud Note Pro leans hard into thinness. At 0.12 inches thick—roughly the thickness of three stacked credit cards—it’s described as the thinnest AI recording device on the market. That slim profile is the entire point: it fits in a wallet like a card, or it can be mounted to a phone for quick access.
Plaud includes a wallet-like pouch and a magnetic ring accessory designed for MagSafe-enabled phones. With that setup, you can attach the Note Pro to the back of an iPhone or a compatible Android device. It’s also very light at 30 grams, which helps it disappear into a wallet without feeling like you’re carrying another gadget.
Standalone recording: a key difference versus many AI wearables
One of the most meaningful distinctions between Plaud and many newer wearable AI devices is that the Note Pro doesn’t need to be connected to your phone to record. That matters in the real world: phones die, Bluetooth can be finicky, and some people don’t want every recording tethered to a handset in the moment.
Plaud Note Pro includes 64GB of onboard storage, allowing it to hold a large volume of audio without immediately transferring files to a phone or uploading anything to the cloud. For professionals who record frequently—meetings, interviews, conference sessions—that independence can be the difference between a tool you trust and a gadget you babysit.
Audio capture: four MEMS microphones and a dedicated processing unit
Hardware still matters when the goal is usable transcripts and accurate summaries. Plaud Note Pro uses four MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) microphones designed to capture sound from all directions. Plaud advertises an effective audio range of 16.4 feet, and the device has been used to record conference talks from far away with satisfactory results.
Beyond the microphones, there’s also a voice processing unit intended to improve recording quality via noise suppression, voice isolation, and echo cancellation. In practice, this kind of processing can help clean up audio before it ever reaches a transcription system—often leading to fewer errors and less time spent correcting text later.
Battery life built for travel, conferences, and long workweeks
Battery anxiety is common with small devices, especially anything positioned as “always ready.” Here, the Note Pro appears to prioritize longevity over flash. After being fully charged and used across a conference (including recording interviews and talks), plus additional phone call recording and personal note-taking afterward, the device still showed 55% battery remaining after 15 days of use.
Plaud says the Note Pro can deliver 30 hours of continuous recording and up to 60 days of standby on a single charge. Those numbers, combined with the real-world multi-week use described above, point to a product that can plausibly live in your wallet without demanding constant charging.
Charging is handled via a proprietary charger with a USB-C cable at the other end. Plaud says it takes two hours to charge from 0%, after which you should be covered for at least a couple of weeks unless you’re recording hours of content at a time.
Recording confidence: screen, haptics, and “highlight” moments
Wearable AI devices often run into a deceptively simple problem: it’s not always obvious whether they’re recording. Without clear indicators, users can miss important moments—or record when they didn’t intend to. Plaud addresses this with a tiny screen that shows recording status and remaining battery.
There’s also haptic feedback when starting and stopping a recording, reinforcing that intentional “I’m recording now” action. That intentionality can be useful in professional settings where it’s important to be transparent with others in the room.
During a recording, you can press a button to mark a moment worth revisiting. That highlighted point is then surfaced more prominently in the AI-generated summary—an approach that mirrors how journalists and researchers flag key quotes without needing to take their hands off the device for long.
Transcription and AI notes: flexible workflows for professionals
Not everyone wants to lock into a single transcription workflow. Plaud Note Pro can be used as a pure recording device, letting you export audio for processing in another transcription service you already pay for.
If you use Plaud’s built-in features, the company provides 300 minutes of free transcription each month. It also supports AI-generated notes built around templates tailored to different roles and tasks. You can create your own template as well, which can be especially helpful if you regularly record similar meeting types—weekly one-on-ones, sales calls, user research interviews, or conference sessions—and want consistent outputs.
Transcription quality is described as accurate in most cases, and access has expanded beyond the phone app: you can now review the recording, transcript, and notes through a website. Plaud has also fixed an issue previously noted by Brian Heater involving tapping a word in the transcript without hearing the corresponding point in the recording.
Card-sized vs. wearable: why the form factor may win
Pendants and pins might sound more convenient at first glance—you clip them on and forget them. But the trade-off is often weaker microphone placement, limited battery, or less flexible positioning. A card-sized recorder can be placed on a table, mounted to a phone, or carried in a wallet, which can be surprisingly versatile across different environments.
For people who spend their days in in-person meetings, bouncing between conference rooms, co-working spaces, client sites, and events, the Note Pro’s strengths are straightforward:
- Carryability: A 0.12-inch profile and 30-gram weight make it easy to keep on you.
- Standalone reliability: 64GB storage means you can record without a phone connection.
- Meeting-friendly signals: A screen and haptics help confirm recording status.
- Usable outputs: Transcripts and templated AI notes support post-meeting follow-up.
Ultimately, the $179 price can be easier to justify if you routinely record conversations where accuracy and recall matter—interviews, stakeholder meetings, conference talks, or detailed personal voice notes—because the time saved on transcription and summarization compounds quickly.
Conclusion
Plaud Note Pro focuses less on the hype of AI wearables and more on the everyday mechanics of capturing good audio and turning it into actionable text. With a wallet-thin design, standalone recording, long battery life, and structured AI notes, it’s positioned as a practical tool for professionals who record often and want a device they can truly carry everywhere.
This article is based on reporting originally published by TechCrunch.
Related Articles
- Best AI-Powered Dictation Apps of 2025: Top Voice-to-Text Tools for Faster Writing
- 2025’s AI Vibe Check: Mega-Funding, Infrastructure Frenzy, and a Growing Push for Real Business Models
- Why Social Media Follower Counts Matter Less in 2025 as Algorithms, AI “Slop,” and Niche Communities Take Over
Based on reporting originally published by TechCrunch. See the sources section below.
