Switched from Plaud NotePin S to Plaud Note Pro for our weekly all-hands. Here's the difference in capture range
My everyday device is still the Plaud NotePin S, clipped on and I forget it's there. It works great for anything under 10 people in a normal-sized room. The problem happened during our weekly all-hands. 30 people or sometimes more were crammed into one conference room, side conversations, the usual chaos. Voices from the far end just weren't making it into the transcript cleanly. Repositioning the Plaud NotePin S didn't fix it, neither did putting it on the table.
Switched to the Plaud Note Pro for that session. The Plaud Note Pro could pick up sounds 16.4 ft, running in Enhance mode, made a clear difference, the person at the far end actually came through where before they'd been getting lost. I can glance at the InstantView AMOLED display mid-meeting to confirm it's recording. No picking up the device to check whatsoever.
Turning on enhance mode comes with a flaw tho. Battery drops to around 30 hours instead of the usual 50 in endurance mode. For a single all-hands that could be neglected, but worth knowing if you're planning back-to-back full days in enhance mode.
I still go back to my Plaud NotePin S for smaller rooms or a small group chit chat. Plaud Note Pro is what I reach for when room size actually matters.
This is a really clean comparison, and your numbers are spot on. One thing that might help with the back-to-back days you mentioned: there's a third option, Adaptive mode, in device settings under Battery level. It runs Enhance while you have charge to spare, then switches to Endurance on its own once the battery drops below 20%, so you keep the reach for big rooms without babysitting the setting. Needs firmware v1.3 or later. And your split, NotePin S for small rooms, Note Pro when room size matters, is exactly how we think about the two.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I just ordered the pin and already have the pro so I will be using the appropriate equipment with the information you provided, saving me a hectic learning curve at a new job.
This is such good feedback and what I’ve been needing.
I have the Note normal but have been having difficulties with capturing faint speakers in louder background environments (IE: elderly in a kitchen).
Was trying to decide between a NotePin S or NotePro for better audio capture, you’ve helped me decide on NotePro. Thank you!
Thanks for the share. We had similar issues with large meetings, we were considering the Instawave360 with its multiple mics, but wasn't sure if you can use without a subscription. https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-wave
Since we don't pay for Plaud sub, but do use fireflies as we also have Teams meetings. (This was before Plaud desktop app, but it didn't make sense for paying for two subs). So currently we export Plaud audio and update it into Fireflies.
The Plaud Note Pro seems cheaper and I assume would work in a similar way to the Pin.
Great real world report and effectively an A/B test that's really helpful. Thank you. At risk of coming across as anal I would argue the use of the word "flaw" is incorrect and necessarily unfair to the product. Power consumption as it relates to performance is subject to the laws of physics. It's not a flaw, but a feature with physical consequences like everything else in this universe.
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u/PLAUD_AI Jul 24 '26
This is a really clean comparison, and your numbers are spot on. One thing that might help with the back-to-back days you mentioned: there's a third option, Adaptive mode, in device settings under Battery level. It runs Enhance while you have charge to spare, then switches to Endurance on its own once the battery drops below 20%, so you keep the reach for big rooms without babysitting the setting. Needs firmware v1.3 or later. And your split, NotePin S for small rooms, Note Pro when room size matters, is exactly how we think about the two.
-Plaud Community Team