Plaud Note Pro Review: The Pros and Cons of the Original AI Recording Card

If there's one piece of hardware that has been thoroughly reinvented by AI, the voice recorder is a prime candidate. My own professional experience mirrors this evolution. Before 2020, I relied on traditional voice recorders for press conferences and interviews, manually summarizing hours of audio. After 2022, my smartphone and transcription apps became my go-to partners. I thought this was the ultimate solution until the concept of the "AI recording card" emerged. In June 2023, Plaud.AI launched the Plaud Note, kicking off a new era. This was followed by competitors like the DingTalk A1 and Anker's "Recording Bean," co-developed with Lark.

This raises a crucial question: with the smartphone and app combination already being so convenient, why do we need a whole new product category? Why add another physical device to our setup? To find the answer, I purchased the Plaud Note Pro. Can this pioneering AI recording card prove its worth against the dual competition of professional recorders and smartphone apps?

Slim Design: Gains and Losses

The first impression of the Plaud Note Pro can be summed up in one word: thin. At just 3mm thick, its form factor is almost unlike any other electronic device—even my Find My wallet card is thicker. Combined with a refined metal casing and a textured finish, the initial hands-on experience is excellent. For someone who travels frequently, carrying the Plaud Note Pro is hardly a burden. You can simply snap it onto the back of your phone with its magnetic case and be on your way. However, this extreme slimness comes with significant design compromises. The device itself isn't magnetic and relies on a magnetic sleeve to attach to a phone, which adds to the overall thickness. Furthermore, its thin profile means it can't accommodate a standard USB-C port, forcing users to rely on a proprietary magnetic charging cable. This design philosophy is similar to ultra-thin laptops that offload connectivity to external peripherals, but while those devices have embraced the universal USB-C standard, the Plaud Note Pro sticks to its own proprietary solution.

Recording is the Foundation, AI is the Differentiator

As a high-end AI recording device, the Plaud Note Pro's recording performance is, unsurprisingly, solid. Thanks to its 4-microphone array and AI beamforming technology, it can accurately capture voices from nearly 8 meters away. It performs reliably in both small conference rooms and noisy media scrums, with impressive echo suppression and clean voice separation for distant speakers. Transcription accuracy is high in normal-paced conversations, with only minor errors on names or specialized mixed-language terms. A notable feature is its back-facing microphone, which allows it to record calls on an iPhone. However, the true value of the Plaud Note Pro isn't just in clear recording and accurate transcription; it's in the AI summary templates within the Plaud App.

To test this, I recorded a one-hour meeting and generated summaries using different templates. The results were starkly different. One template produced a traditional meeting minutes format, organized by agenda items and suitable for archival purposes. Another template extracted actionable items, clearly outlining who is responsible for what, completion deadlines, and points needing follow-up. The key takeaway is that the same recording can yield different outputs tailored to your specific goals. For a journalist, it can generate a draft outline; for a product manager, it can create a meeting summary with a to-do list. Of course, the AI-generated content still requires a manual check, especially for critical details like dates and figures. But compared to the "ancient method" of listening back to recordings, the Plaud Note Pro handles the vast majority of the heavy lifting.

Conclusion: Plaud Ushers in the Recording 3.0 Era with AI

So, do we really need an AI recording card when a smartphone and an app work well enough? The answer depends on how critical recording is to your workflow. While the phone-based solution is mature, it has limitations. In a group interview or press conference, using your phone for recording means you can't use it for other tasks like taking photos, checking information, or writing notes. Recording becomes an act that occupies a vital resource. The AI recording card's purpose is to decouple recording from the smartphone, making it an independent module that doesn't drain your phone's battery or get interrupted by calls. For high-frequency users, this stability is invaluable.

From a broader perspective, the emergence of the AI recording card confirms a trend: in the AI era, hardware is no longer the core of computation but rather the interface for AI. Devices like phones and recording cards are simply conduits for AI models to perceive the real world (through audio) and deliver processed information back to us. We can think of this evolution in major versions: 1.0 was the traditional recorder, valued for 'recording'; 2.0 was the smartphone + app, valued for 'transcription'; and 3.0 is the AI recording card, valued for 'AI processing.' The product strategy is clear: recording is just the input; the real value lies in the subsequent information refinement. While the category is still maturing—relying on cloud processing and subscription fees—the Plaud Note Pro is a worthwhile investment for any professional whose work is deeply intertwined with meetings and interviews.

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