The Plaud AI Pro,
I’ve been the annoying guy who records every single meeting for years. Phone apps, laptop mics, you name it – I’ve tried them all. Some were okay, most were meh. Then I slapped the Plaud AI Pro on the back of my iPhone seven days ago… and yeah, I’m fully converted.
This thing is basically a super-thin, credit-card-sized gadget that magnetically sticks to your phone (MagSafe case included – feels premium, looks slick). It records audio like a dream, but the real magic happens after you hit stop.
The Part That Actually Blew Me Away: The Output
You end a call or meeting → it transcribes almost instantly → then it turns that messy hour of crosstalk into notes I’d be proud to send my boss.
We’re talking:
- A perfect 8–12 line executive summary at the top (I just copy-paste that into Slack 90 % of the time and I’m done)
- Smart sections with headings the AI creates on its own
- Action items with @names assigned automatically
- Decisions in bold, questions highlighted, all the “umms” and tangents stripped out
And here’s the bit that saves me hours every week: every single paragraph and bullet has a clickable timestamp. Skeptical about a quote? Tap the timestamp → jumps straight to that exact second in the recording. No more frantic scrubbing through audio praying you land in the right spot. I now flick through these summaries faster than I ever read my own handwritten notes.
Oh, and that tap “pointer” feature? Mid-meeting gold. Someone says something critical, you quickly double-tap the power button on the device → it flags it with a star and pulls it into a “Key Moments” section at the top of the summary. Absolute chef’s kiss.
The Template Library Is Insane (in a good way)
Over 1,000 templates and counting. 1:1s, sales calls, brainstorms, interviews, coaching sessions – whatever your flavour, there’s a template that structures the output exactly how you need it. Pick the right one and it feels like you hired a professional note-taker. They really need a “favourites” button though, because scrolling through a thousand options gets old fast.
Hardware & Day-to-Day Stuff
- Battery: 2-hour charge on the cute little magnetic USB-C puck → 20+ hours of recording
- Audio quality: stupidly good even in loud offices or with strong accents from teammates across the globe
- Design: metal + leather, super slim, stays glued to my phone – I forget it’s there until I need it
The (Few) Things That Still Need Polish
- Mind maps auto-generate with almost every template and I ignore them 95 % of the time – let me turn that off globally, please
- Export options are basic (copy, email, Apple Notes). I want one-tap to Notion, Slack, Todoist, PDF, Word, etc.
- Integrations only work through Zapier right now – native ones would be a game-changer
- Give us template previews and example outputs so I’m not guessing
- Let me drop in my own scribbled notes or screenshots after the recording and re-run the summary – that would be huge
Verdict After Seven Straight Days of Use
For £169, this has already saved me more time than any other gadget I bought this year. The transcription is great, but the ridiculously good, timestamped, actionable summaries are what make it feel like cheating.
If Plaud keeps pushing software updates at this speed (and they’ve been shipping them fast), this month), this little thing is going to be on the back of every knowledge worker’s phone by next year.
Honestly? I’m never taking it off.
(And yes, I’ll update this post in a month – but my bet is I’ll still be this excited.)
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