Plaud note
Here’s a secret: I’m on a mission to make my life easier. Maybe you are, too. For me, as a writer, one of the most exhausting, most reliably boring tasks is transcribing interviews. Maybe you need to turn what’s said in meetings into usable notes. Students face the same challenge, to create useful versions of lectures. I’m on the hunt for the best solution to this problem. And Plaud Note just might be it.
Mostly, I’ve stuck with a Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphone and its sensational Recorder app. So far, nothing else has come close. I record interviews and watch (with a small sense of awe) as the voices are transcribed in real time on the Pixel’s screen. There’s a lot to go wrong, but it does it on-device, fast, and cleaning it up is a quick process. Plus, you have online access to all your recordings, in both audible and text formats.
Then I saw the Plaud Note. Plaud—say it to rhyme with cloud—is a company that started as a Kickstarter last year and is now on sale. The Plaud Note is a sleek, metal device no bigger than a credit card and barely any thicker. It looks sleek and stylish, and has excellent build quality. The ribbed front and smooth back make it pleasantly tactile. Choose from three colors: black, silver, and starlight.
Plaud Note in silver finish.
While it will fit in your wallet, you’re better off using the included magnetic case, not least because it’s MagSafe compatible, meaning it sticks effortlessly to the back of compatible iPhones. Other Qi2-compatible phones will also work.
This system means that you can record phone calls with the Plaud Note by simply clicking it into place and sliding the recording mode to the phone call setting. Please note that recording phone calls is not legal everywhere, so check the situation where you are. In some states, you need the consent of all parties, and that is polite anyway, even in places where only one party’s consent is required.
Plaud Note in MagSafe case.
To operate the Plaud Note, select the recording mode (phone call or note recording) and long press the button. A light indicates that it is recording. For phone recordings, with the device attached to the back of my iPhone, through the case, it recorded the conversation with great clarity.
For voice notes, you can hold the Plaud Note or place it on a table. Either way, the microphones are good and have picked up audio well every time I’ve used it. The company says it has noise cancellation
When you are done, the Plaud Note will upload the recording to your phone in the Plaud app. It must be near the phone and the app must be open.
From here it uploads the recording for transcription and summarization. It works brilliantly, returning the completed transcription and summary in no time.
When you purchase the Plaud Note, you get a free Starter subscription, which gives you 300 minutes of transcription and summarization every month, done with GPT-4o. I am very impressed with the results.
There are also paid subscription levels that offer more minutes of transcription and additional features like labels for each speaker and more advanced templates for your summaries in addition to the dozens of offerings that come standard. These include Meeting Note, Speech, Consulting Meeting, and Lecture. It has 64GB of storage and the battery lasts up to 60 days on standby, Plaud says.
The results are excellent. Of course, there are still some bits to clean up, but it is easy to share the audio and transcript so you can edit the text on a laptop, for example.
Any downsides? Well, there’s none of that impressive real-time transcription that the Pixel offers, with the handy ability to check what someone else said while you’re still in the meeting. And there’s something particularly good about everything done on-device the way it is on the Pixel.
But I only have two other gripes with the Plaud Note. It’s a tight fit in the MagSafe-compatible case, so it takes a bit of practice to slide it out. I usually have to hook my fingernail under the call recording switch to get it out. The other issue is the charging cable, which is custom-made. But I get why: it’s just too thin for USB-C, and the cable is neatly designed so you can charge it in the case.
Plaud Note attached on iPhone.
Pronunciation
The Plaud Note is a beautifully smooth, impressively slim device that is so light you will hardly notice you have it. It looks great and works brilliantly. I would love it if you could transcribe on the device, but it is fast and effective so waiting for the transcription and summarization to be done is hardly a chore. Overall, it is a showstopper.
It costs $239, though it’s currently discounted $40 to $199 for Prime Day. Available via plaud.ai.