Hardware company Plaud.ai has released its new physical note taker, the Plaud Note Pro, on Wednesday. The device is priced at $179 and arrives two years after the original Plaud Note was released, and a year after the company released an AI Pin.
For those unfamiliar, the Plaud Note is a credit-card-sized hardware note taker that can stick on the back of a phone to help take notes during calls or in-person meetings. The new Note Pro looks similar to the original model but includes one major upgrade: a small 0.95-inch AMOLED screen that displays information such as a recording indicator and battery level.
The Note Pro offers a 30-hour recording capacity for the standard range. This can be extended to 50 hours on a single charge by using a shorter range of 9.8 feet, or nearly 3 meters.
According to the company, the Note Pro is equipped with four MEMS, or Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, microphones, compared to two on the previous device. This upgrade allows the new model to capture audio within a range of 16.4 feet, or nearly 5 meters, which is a two-fold increase from the original. The startup also states that users will benefit from improved noise suppression and speaker detection.
While the original Note required manual switching between call and in-person recording modes, the Note Pro uses an auto-detection feature to handle this automatically.
Plaud.ai is also updating its companion app with new features. Users can now take text notes directly on their phone and add images such as slides. The app update introduces multidimensional summaries, which allow users to extract insights in different formats like key points or data items. The company has built templates for summary generation, and the app can automatically suggest the appropriate one based on the user’s role. Users also have the option to build their own templates.
Another new feature, currently in beta, enables users to query their notes.
The Plaud Note Pro is priced at $179, and users can pre-order the device starting today. Shipping is scheduled for October 2025. Those who pre-order will receive 600 complimentary transcription minutes along with a magnetic case. The service includes 300 minutes of free transcription per month, with paid monthly plans or one-time top-ups available for additional minutes.
Plaud is one of the companies that has continued to find success even as other AI device makers have struggled to gain popularity. The company reports it has shipped over a million units of its AI hardware note takers, with nearly half of its users upgrading to the Pro plan.