I Let an AI Take My Notes: My Time with PLAUD Note, NotePin, and the New Note Pro

Confession: I’m a horrible note-taker. My assembly notes normally appear to be a toddler scribbled them on a shifting prepare. Half the time, I’m too busy nodding alongside to truly write something down, and by the top of the day, I can’t bear in mind if “Tuesday, pizza” was an precise motion merchandise or simply lunch plans.

Enter PLAUD AI—a lineup of devices that politely step in and say, “Don’t worry, I got this.” I’ve been enjoying with their three primary toys: the OG Plaud Note, the wearable NotePin, and their shiny new flagship, the Note Pro. And let me inform you, they’re much less like devices and extra like having a super-attentive assistant who by no means blinks or will get bored in conferences.

PLAUD Note: The Overachiever

First up, the Plaud Note. This little man is just like the straight-A pupil in your class who additionally tutors everybody else for enjoyable. Slip it in your pocket, press file, and abruptly your rambling assembly is remodeled into clear, structured textual content.

The voice-to-text transcription is so good it caught phrases I didn’t even notice I mentioned (notice to self: cease saying “like” each three seconds). Then comes the AI-powered summarization, which is principally magic. Instead of 20 pages of “blah blah synergy blah,” it palms you a neat digest of what really issues—choices, deadlines, and the three issues everybody promised however will most likely overlook to do.

Everything syncs into the Plaud App, which is the place the enjoyable actually begins. The app is full of templates—assembly recaps, educational notes, thoughts maps, even ones that appear to be venture administration experiences. It’s like Mad Libs for productiveness. I picked a “Key Action Items” template as soon as, and my notes regarded so skilled I half-expected my boss to present me a elevate.

Subscriptions? Yeah, they’ve acquired these. The Free Starter Plan provides you 300 minutes of transcription a month, which is lots should you’re simply dabbling. But should you reside in back-to-back calls like me, the Pro Plan ($79/yr) is price it. You get 1,200 minutes, extra templates, Ask AI, and speaker labels. Basically, it’s the distinction between having a strong intern and a full-on chief of employees.

PLAUD NotePin: The Fashionably Nerdy One

Now onto my private favourite: NotePin. Think of it because the quirky youthful sibling—similar smarts as Note, however now wearable. Clip it to your shirt, put on it as a necklace, or strap it on like a wristband. I wore it as soon as clipped to my sweater and forgot it was even there till somebody requested me if I used to be secretly within the CIA.

The magic is in its press-to-record simplicity. No fumbling, no “Wait, is it recording?” panic. One press, and it’s grabbing each phrase with HD readability. Add in 20 hours of steady recording (or 40 days on standby—sure, days), and also you’ve principally acquired an always-ready reminiscence capsule.

What stunned me most? The speaker labels. During a group assembly, the app really separated “me” from “Bob” from “that one guy who always interrupts,” which made studying the notes means much less complicated. Combine that with the template system, and abruptly each dialog turns into a cultured abstract, not only a messy transcript.

If the Note is your desk buddy, the NotePin is your out-in-the-wild associate. I might see salespeople, academics, medical doctors—anybody consistently on the transfer—falling arduous for this factor.

PLAUD Note Pro: The Fancy New Toy

Finally, the star of the present: the brand-new Note Pro. If the Note was the A-student and the NotePin was the cool youthful sibling, then Note Pro is the prodigy little one who skipped three grades and performs piano at Carnegie Hall.

First, the design—it’s actually credit-card skinny and weighs simply over an oz. Slip it into your pockets, and also you’d overlook it’s there till it casually information your subsequent boardroom dialogue in studio-quality audio as much as 16.4 toes away because of its 4 fancy MEMS microphones.

The actual showstopper? The “Press to Highlight” characteristic. Imagine being in a gathering, somebody says one thing really necessary (uncommon, I do know), and also you simply faucet the Note Pro. Later, when the AI spits out your abstract, these highlighted sections are entrance and heart. It’s like instructing your AI which elements of the assembly weren’t simply individuals speaking about weekend plans.

Oh, and it auto-detects whether or not you’re on a telephone name or in a gathering with its Smart Dual Mode Recording. No menus, no confusion—it simply is aware of. Battery life? 50 hours of recording on a single cost. I do know devices that die after checking Instagram for 5 minutes, so this was… refreshing.

And then there’s the software program improve. With the Plaud App 3.0, you get multimodal enter (mix audio, textual content, photos, and highlights), multidimensional summaries (layered insights, not simply flat textual content), and the ridiculously helpful Ask Plaud. I examined it by asking, “What were the three main decisions from Monday’s meeting?” and it answered, with references, like an intern who doesn’t complain about unpaid extra time.

About Those Subscriptions (Again)

Yes, all the things funnels again to the app, and sure, subscriptions are a part of the deal. The Free Starter Plan is beneficiant sufficient for informal customers, however the Pro Plan is the place the actual enjoyable lives. For $79 a yr (principally two fancy coffees a month), you get 1,200 minutes of transcription, 20+ skilled templates, Ask AI, speaker labels, and cloud sync throughout gadgets.

The kicker? Over 2,000 templates. I scrolled by them prefer it was Netflix for productiveness. Want your notes in “Executive Brief” format? Done. Prefer a visible thoughts map? Easy. Need one thing that appears like a pupil’s examine information? Also there. It’s endlessly customizable, which implies your notes gained’t simply sit round—they’ll really be usable.

So, Should You Get One?

After spending time with all three, right here’s how I see it:

• Plaud Note: Great if you’d like a dependable workhorse for on a regular basis transcription and summaries.
• NotePin: Perfect for on-the-go varieties who need hands-free recording with zero fuss.
• Note Pro: The top-tier, bells-and-whistles model that makes you are feeling such as you’re dwelling 5 years sooner or later.

But actually, what ties all of them collectively is the Plaud Intelligence platform. It’s the brains of the operation—organizing, summarizing, and letting you interrogate your notes like a detective. Without it, these gadgets would simply be very fairly voice recorders. With it, they’re game-changers.

So sure, I’m formally a fan. The subsequent time somebody asks, “Who’s taking notes?” I’ll simply smile and level at my little Plaud gadget. Because if an AI can do it higher—and make me look extra organized within the course of—why not let it?