When I tried the Plaud Note ProI came to a conclusion that I did not expect: I was one of the very few gadgets of AI that justified being a device and not simply an application. The question I ask myself now, weeks after having the NotePin S on me, is whether its spiritual successor can say the same.
The answer is not so clean.
The NotePin S arrives as the wearable version of that same proposal. Same brain, different packaging. Instead of a card that lives glued to the iPhone by MagSafe, here you go a small 17 gram oval that you can pin to your lapel, hang around your neck, wear on your wrist or pin with a magnetic pin. Plaud presented it at this year’s CES with the promise that capturing what you say would never require taking out your phone again.
When you first hold it in your hand, the thought is almost identical to the one I had with the Note Pro: how well finished this is. Solid materials, premium feel, that type of product that does not boast of being expensive but suggests it.
The finish of the Plaud NotePin S. Image: Xataka.
The box is also unusually neat for a startup: magnetic clip, pin, necklace cord, bracelet and charging base included from the beginning, something that with the original NotePin required a separate purchase.
All this comes with the Plaud NotePin S box. Image: Xataka.
Image: Xataka.
The most relevant change compared to the previous model is small and huge at the same time: they have replaced the pressing gesture with a physical button. The original NotePin had a problem for some users, who were encountering recordings that had never started because the touch gesture had not responded well. The S solves this with a long press to record, a press to stop, and a short press during recording to mark a highlight (one of its best features). Simple. Works.
I’ve spent a few weeks wearing it in different formats:
- The clip on the lapel is the most natural in face-to-face meetings. It is the image that crowns this article.
- The magnetic pin, the most elegant.
- The cord-necklace, the most comfortable for everyday use outside of formal contexts.
- The bracelet, on the other hand, is the option that convinces me the least: the material feels below the level of the rest of the kit, and in a world where almost everyone already wears a watch, adding another element on the wrist is not very practical.
With the cord to hang it around your neck. Image: Xataka.
With the bracelet adapter to wear it on the wrist, with a form factor similar to that of typical activity bracelets. Image: Xataka.
Here in a slightly more inclined view… Image: Xataka.
…and here on the side so that the thickness can be distinguished. Image: Xataka.
What does work consistently is recording. The microphone picks up well up to about three meters, which is enough for most meetings. The transcription, processed in the app using models from OpenAI, Google or Anthropic of your choice, is accurate in Spanish without the type of errors that would cause you to lose confidence in the system. Automatic summaries, especially when you have marked highlights During the conversation, they are the most useful final product: what previously required rereading the entire transcript now appears organized and immediately actionable.
There is a novelty in the ecosystem that deserves special attention: along with the hardware, Plaud has launched a desktop application for Mac and PC that records Zoom, Google Meet or Teams meetings in the background without adding any bot to the call. It is an important distinction because similar alternatives appear as visible participants in the meeting, which makes many interlocutors uncomfortable.
Example of a recording made with the Plaud NotePin S seen in the Plaud interface. In the screenshot you can see the summary, much more extensive and structured than we could expect. More than a summary, it is a complete and detailed outline. Image: Xataka.
A sample of some of the templates with which we can tell Plaud “how” to generate a transcription and the subsequent treatise. Very useful. Image: Xataka.
And another example of a summary, in this case we can see how he makes the quotes in the language of the recording, English; but it offers us the entire summary in our native language, Spanish. Image: Xataka.
The Plaud app does not appear anywhere, it records natively and is free for those who already have the hardware. For those of us who use the physical device and also usually have meetings by video call, the integration of both sources in the same hub It’s really comfortable.
What is uncomfortable is the question that appears here.
- With the Note Pro, the hardware justification was clear: it freed you from your phone, it had four high-quality MEMS microphones, and the 30-hour battery let you record everything without worrying.
- The NotePin S has only a fraction of that claimed battery, and its three-meter effective capture radius puts a real limit on it in large rooms. Although in a high school classroom, where I recorded the image above, it responded perfectly.
In everyday contexts, both are sufficient. In the most demanding contexts where the Note Pro especially shined, the NotePin S falters in comparison.
What the NotePin S offers that the Note Pro can’t is that you can wear it, not just carry it around. And there is the basic question that must be answered before buying it: do I really need to wear my recorder, or is it enough for me to have it in my pocket or on the table?
By separating its magnetic coupling, the charging connector is revealed. Image: Xataka.
And so it is attached to the USB-C charging accessory. Image: Xataka.
Here, separated from the clip that allows it to be put on the lapel. Image: Xataka.
For a journalist doing interviews on the move, the answer is yes, it can make sense. For someone who goes from meeting to meeting in a company, the clip on the lapel makes undoubted logic. For the researcher, the consultant, the lawyer who wants to capture conversations without the cell phone being in the way: also.
But For the majority of Note Pro uses, which are someone recording meetings from a fixed position, the NotePin S provides no real advantage over its older brother.. They are tools for different contexts, not an evolution.
The price is where things get a little more complicated. 179 euros for the hardware, plus 20 euros per month (or more, depending on the minutes you contract) if you exceed 300 monthly minutes of the free plan.
The Note Pro was already a product with a price that required justification. The NotePin S, which in some technical respects is less capable, asks for the same ticket input. Plaud’s bet is that the wearability factor justifies this equivalence. For a user profile it is true that it justifies it. For another, no.
What does not raise any doubts in me is the quality of execution. Plaud has been demonstrating for two generations that they know how to make small, well-finished hardware, that the integration of AI into their ecosystem is serious, and that they understand the workflows of their users. In a market full of AI gadgets that are basically prototypes disguised as a product, the NotePin S is a real product. That has value, and it is more scarce than it seems.
What I ask you to do before purchasing it is to honestly answer one question: Do I make my recordings while moving or sitting down? If the answer is the second, I highly recommend the Note Pro. If the answer is the first, then you have the NotePin S. They are not interchangeable. They are good at what they do. And that level of specialization, in the era of many gadgets that aspire to be everything, is quite good.
Plaud NotePin S
This device has been provided for testing by Plaud. You can consult how we do reviews on Xataka and our relations policy with companies.
In Xataka | Pendants, bracelets and “buttons” on the forehead: new AI wearables listen to you (and record) all day
Featured image | Xataka
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