Is this the best, most versatile recorder you can buy?

Here’s a secret: I’m on a mission to make my life easier. Maybe you too. For me, as a writer, one of the most tedious and reliable jobs is transcribing interviews. Maybe you should turn what was said in meetings into usable notes. Students have the same challenge, to make useful versions of lectures. I am looking for the best solution for this problem. And Plaud Note could be it.

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Mostly, I’ve been loyal to a Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphone and its sensational Recorder app. Nothing else has come close so far. I record interviews and watch (with a slight sense of dread) as the voices are transcribed in real time on the Pixel screen. There are a lot of things wrong, but it does it on the device, quickly, and fixing it is a quick process. Plus, you can access all your recordings online, in both audio and text format.

Then, I saw the Plaud note. Plaud – say it rhymes with cloud – is a company that started as a Kickstarter last year and is now in general sale. The Plaud Note is a thin, metal device no bigger than a credit card, and barely thicker. It looks sleek and classy and has excellent build quality. The ridged front and smooth back make it pleasantly tactile. Choose between three colors: black, silver and starlight.

While it can fit in your wallet, it’s best to use the supplied magnetic case, not least because it’s MagSafe compatible, so it’ll attach effortlessly to the back of compatible iPhones. Other phones with Qi2 compatibility will also work.

This system means you can record calls with Plaud Note by simply plugging it in and toggling the recording mode in the phone call settings. Note that call recording is not legal everywhere, so check where you are. In some states you need the consent of all parties and anyway, this is only polite, even in countries where only one party’s consent is required.

To use Plaud Note, you select the recording mode (call or note recording) and long press the button. A light indicates it is recording. For phone recordings, with the device attached to the back of my iPhone through the case, it recorded the call very clearly.

For voice notes, you can keep Plaud’s note or place it on the desk. Either way, the mics are good and have captured audio well every time I’ve used it. The company says it has noise cancellation

When you’re done, Plaud Note uploads the recording on your phone to 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 great, turning transcription and summarizing over in moments.

When you buy Plaud Note, it comes with a free starter plan that gives you 300 minutes of transcription and summarization every month, done with GPT-4o. I was very impressed with the results.

There are also paid subscription tiers with more transcription minutes and extra features like tags for each speaker and more advanced templates for your summaries along with dozens of offers that come standard. These include meeting note, speech, advisory meeting and lecture. There’s 64GB of storage and the battery lasts up to 60 days on standby, says Plaud.

The results are excellent. Of course, there are still parts you need to fix, but it’s easy to separate the audio and the transcript so you can edit the text on a laptop, for example.

Are there weaknesses? Well, that impressive real-time transcription that the Pixel offers isn’t here, with the handy ability to check what someone said earlier while you’re still in the meeting. And there’s something particularly good about everything that’s done on the device, as it is on the Pixel.

But I only have two other anklets marked Plaud. It’s a tight fit in the MagSafe-compatible case, so sliding it in takes practice. Mostly, I stick my fingernail under the call recording switch to get it out. The other issue is the charging cable, which is custom. But I can see why: it’s just too thin for USB-C to fit, and the cable is neatly designed so you can charge it in the case.

verdict

The Plaud Note is a brilliant, impressively thin device that’s so light you barely know it’s there. Looks great and works great. I’d love it if transcription could be on the device, but it’s fast and efficient, so waiting for transcription and summarization is hardly a chore. All in all, it’s a spectacle.

It costs $239, though it’s currently marked down by $40 to $199 for Prime Day. Available from plaud.ai.