Plaud Notice Professional assessment: This tiny AI recorder is good, however not low-cost

Finest Costs At the moment: Plaud Notice Professional

There are many AI companies for transcription and assembly notes. What Plaud goals to do — and does very properly — is to behave as a hub for all of your recordings and notes. Whether or not you’re recording in-person conferences and lectures, telephone calls, or video conferences in your pc.

Every part is gathered in a single place, and you’ll entry and edit it anyplace, on each your cellular and your pc.

Glossy {hardware}

The Plaud Notice Professional is actually a really slim, credit-card-sized voice recorder weighing only a tad over 1 ounce (30 grams). My first thought once I take it out of the field is, “Oh, I’m going to lose this.” My second thought: “How on earth is that this little factor going to handle to report conferences?” Because it seems, it does an excellent job certainly.

M3 / Andreas Thors

The largest visible distinction from its predecessor, the Plaud Notice, is that it now has a small show. That alone is a large enchancment, as now you can simply see when recordings begin, the battery life and extra.

They’ve managed to squeeze in 4 microphones, in addition to a separate VPU (voice processing unit) that helps the microphones distinguish speech from distracting background noise. For instance, it will probably amplify voices, cut back noise, and make the sound clearer earlier than it’s saved or despatched on for transcription.

The sound high quality is completely acceptable, even in noisier environments, and it’s simple to listen to everybody talking. Nevertheless it’s primarily the transcription that’s the purpose, so don’t count on podcast-quality recordings.

In “enhanced” mode, the vary is as much as 16 toes, which is pretty correct, whereas “endurance” mode prioritizes battery life and reduces the vary to 10 toes. The distinction is 30 and 50 hours’ battery life respectively, so that you don’t want to fret about lacking something if you wish to report for a complete day, whichever mode you select.

However that brings us to charging. That is the most important compromise — and, relying in your choice, the most important disadvantage of the entire recording gadget. The charging cable isn’t USB-C, however a specialised cable that attaches by way of magnets.

I can already image myself tearing out my hair once I understand I’ve forgotten to pack it for a visit, or misplaced it and have to purchase a brand new one.

Personally, I might have most well-liked a thicker voice recorder with USB-C, however in case you report a number of telephone calls, the slim design is a particular benefit.

M3.se

Transcription and AI summaries

The recordings you make are synced with Plaud’s cloud resolution (sadly, you’ll be able to’t run the AI domestically) and may then be transcribed and summarized in infinite methods. Merely click on “computerized transcription,” and Plaud then chooses which AI mannequin to make use of, in addition to the template and format for the abstract.

If you wish to fine-tune the method and customise it extra particularly, you may make the alternatives your self as an alternative. You choose which AI to make use of (on the time of writing, Claude, ChatGPT or Google Gemini) after which which format template to make use of. There’s a complete library of various templates created by Plaud and different customers that you should use, or you’ll be able to create your personal template (i.e. your personal immediate) for a way the recording needs to be introduced.

M3.se

Within the completed transcript, you’ll be able to then edit who mentioned what, and it turns into very clear. You can even select whether or not Plaud ought to keep in mind this for future transcriptions, and it normally works.

A easy however helpful function is which you could simply share a hyperlink to your assembly abstract in order that the opposite individuals also can entry it.

The draw back of utilizing AI for transcriptions is, properly, the AI itself. Though AI has come a good distance, it isn’t flawless, and Plaud (and different transcription companies) won’t ever be higher than the AI fashions on which they’re based mostly. AI companies generally wrestle with troublesome phrases, slang, and particular business jargon.

Areas of use

I examined Plaud in numerous situations to see how properly it handles totally different environments and totally different numbers of individuals being recorded.

4 individuals round a desk within the canteen

Throughout lunch, a lot to my colleagues’ delight (properly, kind of), I positioned Plaud on the desk and recorded our whole lunch dialog. It picked up all of the totally different voices and will simply distinguish who was saying what. Mushy background music and different individuals speaking had been no downside.

M3.se

Afterwards, I acquired a transparent abstract of the matters we’d mentioned, what we’d mentioned, and what motion needs to be taken (after-work plans, TV collection to look at, and our common work-related gripes).

Recording telephone calls

To report cell phone calls, you connect the Plaud gadget to the again of your telephone utilizing the MagSafe-compatible mount. You may already inform that that is going to be trickier for these of you who don’t have an iPhone. Nevertheless, it comes with a small magnetic ring which you could connect to your cellular or telephone case in case your telephone doesn’t have a magnetic again.

M3.se

Recording calls is a bit like magic, as you don’t join the Plaud by way of Bluetooth or some other technique — you merely connect it to the again of your cellular and begin recording. When it’s connected to the telephone, it picks up the sound of the decision by the telephone’s vibrations, while concurrently recording to its personal storage. It mechanically detects which recording mode is in use: telephone calls or common conferences and conversations within the room.

I examined it with each an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy S26, and the outcomes had been actually good. The one draw back is which you could’t join headphones.

Digital recordings

Personally, I’m fully bought on the digital aspect of Plaud, though the {hardware} can also be spectacular. Maybe primarily as a result of I don’t have that many face-to-face conferences to report today…

M3.se

With an app in your pc, you’ll be able to simply report conferences in Groups and different platforms. All of it occurs completely within the background, so there’s no want to ask any annoying bots as assembly individuals.

You may both set Plaud to start out mechanically each time you start a gathering, or you can begin it by opening the app.

The wonderful thing about that is which you could add different parts whereas the assembly is in progress, similar to screenshots or highlighting when one thing notably essential is claimed. That is then included within the assembly abstract you obtain as soon as the assembly has been transcribed afterwards.

The assembly summaries are actually good, and in case you’re conducting interviews, you’ll save a number of time.

Conclusion: Actually good, however…

That is undeniably an excellent AI assistant, however there are some things to keep in mind earlier than you make the leap.

Foundry

The primary is the worth. The Plaud gadget itself prices $189. When you use the service often, the 300 free minutes (per 30 days) will run out rapidly. You then have two subscription choices to select from: $99.99 per yr (1,200 minutes per 30 days) or $240 per yr (“limitless”).

You can even high up with X variety of minutes at a hard and fast worth. When you use Plaud for work or examine, it might, after all, be value the price.

The second factor you should ask your self is: Do I have to report lots of people in face-to-face conferences? If digital recording is sufficient, there’s a complete host of AI assistants to select from, similar to Google Pocket book LM. What’s extra, you may get a month-to-month subscription to one of many main AI companies for nearly the identical worth, after which you should use them for extra than simply transcription.

We’d positively advocate the Plaud Notice Professional, which makes note-taking a breeze, however with the caveat that it’s best to take into account the factors above fastidiously earlier than shopping for one.