Plaud Note Pro: a card-sized AI recorder with four MEMS mics

Plaud's Note Pro is a credit card-sized AI voice recorder that went up for preorder in August at $179, two years after the original Plaud Note. A reviewer who used it daily for more than a month described it as part of his everyday carry. Plaud reports more than a million devices shipped and that over half of its customers have moved to paid Pro subscriptions.

Body and mounting

The Note Pro is 0.12 inches thick, roughly three credit cards stacked, and weighs 30 grams. It fits in a wallet, and the box includes a pouch and a magnetic ring that lets it sit on the back of MagSafe iPhones and compatible Android phones. It records on its own without a phone connection and stores audio in 64GB of internal memory.

Microphones and processing

Four MEMS microphones capture sound from all directions. Plaud quotes an effective pickup range of 16.4 feet. The reviewer reported usable conference recordings while seated far from the stage. A dedicated voice processing unit handles:

• noise suppression;
• voice isolation;
• echo cancellation.

Battery and screen

Plaud quotes 30 hours of non-stop recording and up to 60 days on standby from one charge. In the review, the device still showed 55% charge after 15 days of interviews, talks, calls and personal notes. Charging uses Plaud's own charger on a USB-C cable and takes about two hours from empty.

A small screen shows whether recording is on and how much battery remains. Haptic feedback confirms starting and stopping. Pressing the button mid-recording marks a moment so it stands out in the AI summary.

Transcription

Plaud includes 300 minutes of free transcription each month. Notes can follow ready-made templates for different roles or a custom template, and recordings, transcripts and notes are also available on the web. Audio can instead be exported to another transcription service. The reviewer found transcripts accurate in most cases and recommended the recorder to people with many in-person meetings.