The Plaud Note Pro and the Plaud NotePin S can be extremely useful products for the user who needs to keep track of a lot of information every day. These slick devices and equally slick companion app are some of the most useful AI tools we've seen and can improve your productivity and efficiency at the same time.
- RATING
You’ll be surprised at the number of meetings, calls and conversations busy people have every day and keeping track of them can be a challenge. The Plaud Note Pro offers a great solution to stay on top of things and improve your efficiency.
Plaud also offers the NotePin S – which offers similar functionality as the Note Pro but instead is a wearable device.
At its heart Plaud is an AI company but, unlike the many other AI companies, they are not solely software based.
In fact it is one of the few hardware-enabled AI companies.
The Plaud Note Pro is about the size and thickness of a credit card and has four microphones to record meetings, calls and other conversations.
The Plaud Note Pro comes with a magnetic case that can attach to the back of an iPhone via MagSafe but also includes a magnetic ring which can be placed on the back of any other smartphone to keep the Plaud Note Pro within reach.
It can be charged with a special magnetic cable that attaches to the back of the device. So no USB-C charging – it is just to thin to fit in a USB-C port.
The Plaud NotePin S is less than 5 cm long and weighs just 17.4g it can easily be worn on your shirt or on your wrist with the included band.
You can use it on the go effortlessly so it can literally be by your side when you’re walking between meetings, visiting clients and working in the field.
You can even take it with if you’re visiting your doctor so that you can capture every detail of the diagnosis and understand every part of what’s required to get well again.
And if you do misplace it, the Plaud NotePin S can also be located on Apple’s Find My network.
So instead of taking notes during those interactions you can let Plaud record everything.
But that’s only the beginning.
The strength of the Plaud product is that it uses AI to take that recording and not only transcribe it, complete with attribution if there are multiple speakers, but also summarise everything however you want.
It’s like having personal assistant in your pocket who can take not of everything you’ve said all day and keep a record and summary of it all at your fingertips.
The Plaud Note Pro and NotePin S need to be paired with your smartphone so it can communicate with the Plaud companion app.
It is here where your transcriptions and summaries are sorted and stored.
The ideal scenario for Plaud would be a meeting where it can record what everyone says before producing the summary a minute after the meeting actually ends.
For our review we took Plaud to several product briefings that were quite long and technical.
At the end of that briefings we had the full recordings which we could go back and listen to, the complete transcriptions and the summaries.
Now I know what you’re asking? Can’t my phone do that on its own? Yes – and no.
Firstly the Plaud products are purpose built for recording – they have sensitive microphones that can pick up every word from up to five metres away and offer a better result than your phone.
Secondly, Plaud is not wasting your valuable battery power on your phone. If you are recording several times a day then it will have an impact on your phone’s battery.
Plaud, on the other hand, has battery that lasts for up to a week even when used everyday. That’s an achievement considering how small and thin the device is.
The device also offers features that no phone recorder would be able to match.
With the device you can make a short press or tap to highlight a key moment that you’re hearing and input text to add context to what’s being discussed.
The Plaud NotePro can also record phone calls so it’s not just limited to meetings and in-person conversations.
The other benefit of recording instead of notetaking is that you can make eye contact with the other people in the room whether it’s a meeting or an interview.
You can also use the Plaud NotePro and the Plaud NotePin S to create your own voice memos or record ideas wherever inspiration strikes.
What adds to the power of the product is the excellent combination of hardware and software.
The Plaud app is at the core of the experience and It is where you’ll find all your recordings and transcriptions.
But it is also where users can utilise other features including added in text and images to build up your notes.
But what Plaud allows you to do is access and search through any of your stored notes to quickly find the information you need at that moment.
The strength of the Plaud product is its multi-dimensional summaries, which allow users to choose the form that suits your role or industry.
The summaries can include audio, images, and text and be shaped to deliver action items, feedback and strategic overviews.
The Plaud Note Pro offers up to 30 hours of continuous recording in enhance mode with remarkably accurate recording I can pick up voices from all around the room.
In endurance mode it can still maintain decent voice pickup within 3 m but that stretches your recording time to up to 50 hours.
The Plaud Note Pro and Plaud NotePin S do have free plans that offer up to 300 minutes of transcription and multi-dimensional summaries.
The Pro Plan ($16.25 per month) and Unlimited Plan ($33.33 a month) offer 1,200 transcription minutes a month and unlimited transcription minutes respectively.
Now the question may come up about whether the Plaud devices respect other people’s privacy.
This is obviously at the discretion of the user but generally Plaud is more of a professional recording device that would only be used in a professional scenario.
The Plaud Note Pro Plaud NotePin S are available now and are priced at $278 and $254 respectively.
VERDICT
The Plaud Note Pro and the Plaud NotePin S can be extremely useful products for the user who needs to keep track of a lot of information every day. These slick devices and equally slick companion app are some of the most useful AI tools we’ve seen and can improve your productivity and efficiency at the same time.
