Plaud Note, AI audio recorder.

My thoughts on the device after use under varied conditions.

Overview

This is my real world Plaud Note review after using it for audio recording, note taking, transcription and call recording. I bought this after seeing the pro in action. I did some googling and there's lots of chat about the microphones on the non-pro version being better in busy spaces. So I bought the non-pro one, I've not done a side-by-side comparison but I've listened to the non-pro and pro in similar environments and I agree, the non-pro does perform well in busy rooms.

The device is an audio recorder with 64GB of onboard storage. The app pushes the recording to the cloud which processes the recording into a full transcription, summary and set of actions from the recording.

The device has a slide switch. When it's in the grey position, it's a room recorder, when you switch it to red position and magnet it onto your phone, it turns into a call recorder.

The room recording is ideal for meetings, training, discussions, QSOs etc. Phone recording is ideal for all the things you'd record calls for.

The cloud processing & AI transcribing introduces some data protection questions, but I'm not here to talk about that (well, not in this paragraph).

What it is like to use

The device is easy to set up, take it out of the box, turn it on, you're golden. If you want to be a fancy pants then you'll want to stick it in the case and magnet it onto your phone. My Pixel device has a sorta kinda magsafe back but it's a little weak. Fear not, it comes with a sticky backed metal loop which holds the case tightly.

When I bought mine it came with a black case and a brown one, I prefer the look of the brown one, I'm more of a brown rather than black kinda guy, so mine lives in the brown one. It smells & feels kinda leathery, I don't know if it's leather or pleather, but I guess that doesn't really matter! It keeps the thing tidy!

The device is tiny, 85x55x3mm and weighs 28gr. The battery lasts for 50+ hours, it has a 4 pin magnetic charge cable, which is a little bespoke but the device is so thin I can excuse the lack of a USB C connector.

The device feels well put together, the body is aluminium with textured lines along the front. The slide switch activates with a nice click and the push button is discreet and smooth. The crossbar of the A is an indicator LED, there's a haptic motor in there too that lets you know when you start/stop the recording.

The AI part comes after the recording, and is what takes the device from a toy to something else. It's also where my data protection worries come in. When you finish recording an interaction, a couple of minutes later the recording is available on the app (and website if you allow syncing with the cloud). This is where we hit the professional use case issues.

When you hit the transcribe button the recording is uploaded to be processed by an AI model. Plaud say the data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). The recordings are only stored in the cloud if you allow it. The encryption is nice, my concerns come in from the "personal data may be accessed by affiliates or transferred to third-party providers in other jurisdictions" called out in the privacy pages.

This means that for professional use, it needs lots of thought. Right now I'm not using it for work stuff. Before any professional use I think you'd need to be able to answer

• where the transcripts are processed
• who the AI sub processors are
• whether data goes to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, AWS, etc.
• whether UK/EU data residency is available
• whether SCCs / IDTAs or other transfer safeguards are in place
• whether data is used for model training

• Security/Privacy teams approved it
• A Data Processing Agreement exists and is in place
• Retention / deletion controls were documented
• A script was in place before using it with customers
• A ruling on what meetings it can be used in
• A DPIA or risk assessment was in place

Things I like

The recorder works well. I've used it indoors and outdoors and it works well. It's not magic, if it's in a huge room with lots of voices it's going to struggle, if you try and use it at a rugby match, it's going to struggle. If you use it in a room with 4-6 people chatting about something, it'll work well, if you use it round your garden table with 4-6 people chatting about something, it'll work well.

I've only used it a couple of times to record calls on my mobile, but each one worked well with both sides of the conversation recorded clearly. There's no need to use speakerphone, it works well on just the normal ear speaker.

You can avoid PLAUD’s cloud transcription workflow by exporting the audio and running it through a local Whisper model. That does not remove every privacy concern, because you are still recording people, but it does mean the transcription processing can stay under your control.

The other thing to be clear about is consent. This is a discreet recorder, which is useful technically but risky socially. For meetings, calls, training sessions or other conversations, people should know they are being recorded and why.

Data is transferred to your phone using bluetooth, this can be supplemented using WiFi for larger files, but for recordings up to a couple of hours, bluetooth is fine.

Things that annoy me

The whole cloud / AI / subscription thing is a bit of a faff. The 'starter' plan comes with 300 minutes a month of transcription, and for my personal use case that's fine, but if you plan to use it more than 300 minutes a month, it'll cost you.

I think a less enshitified solution might be to charge more upfront & bundle it with a customised transcription application, but where does the monthly subscription come in with that?

Other than that I've got no complaints about the device, it works well, the transcription is solid and the app is decent.

Final thoughts

If you want a small high quality recorder. The device is that.

If you're comfortable with 300 minutes a month of cloud processing, that is included.

If you're happy to run a local Whisper model then that also works great.

If you're looking for a personal recorder then I have no issues recommending this one, the build and output quality is spot on. Sure the recordings aren't the same quality as my Zoom recorder, but I can't magnet that onto my phone and have people ignore it and speak naturally around it.

For professional use there are questions that need to be answered, but for personal use, it's a great solution.