I’m ditching my AirPods for standalone earbuds that record and translate everything

Plaud One earbuds don't need a smartphone

 
The secret lies in the charging case. Plaud integrated LTE connectivity into the little box, so the Plaud One earbuds connect to the cloud without the help of your phone. The company says its earbuds work in more than 80 countries and regions without a cellular contract.

Each bud has the modest 16MB of onboard storage, while the charging case offers 512MB. That's correct, megabytes. However, when we talk about audio recordings, that's plenty. Plaud says that users can record up to 30 hours of audio before the memory runs out.

Another neat feature is the microphone integrated into the charging case. You can use the case to record conversations or voice memos without wearing the earbuds.

Transcription and translation happen in the cloud

When you record a conversation, it's then uploaded to Plaud's servers, and AI does its magic. You can then use Plaud's AI agent (called Plaud, original, I know!) to get summaries, translations, and actions across a bunch of third-party apps, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack.

The Plaud AI assistant can be summoned by saying "Hey Plaud," or by pressing the dedicated button on the charging case.

Plaud One can play music too

The Plaud One earbuds can play music too. After all, these are full-blown true wireless earbuds with some decent audio features. Of course, you need to connect to your phone via Bluetooth 5.4.

You're getting Sony's high-resolution LDAC audio codec, active noise cancellation with up to 40 dB of unwanted noise reduction, a bunch of EQ presets, and also IP54 dust and water protection.

Finally, you can add these buds to Apple's Find My network, even though iPhone users won't be able to make use of the LDAC codec.

The earbuds should last up to six hours with ANC off, and the charging case offers another 36 hours of battery life.

Here comes the bad news, though.

No cellular plan needed, but there's a catch

There's a catch. Plaud has negotiated with carriers in the aforementioned countries, and even though you don't need a separate carrier plan, it's all factored in. The earbuds use a subscription model, and the monthly fee probably includes the data fees negotiated with those carriers.

Plaud is launching an early version called Explorer Edition with pre-orders opening today. The initial price is $250, with shipments expected to begin before the end of 2026.

This version includes $200 worth of Plaud tokens, the currency used for all AI features. There's a free plan that includes 300 minutes of transcribing and translation each month, but you can sign up for the Pro plan and get 1,200 minutes for $20 a month.

I'm ready to ditch my AirPods and try these out, so stay tuned for a review in the future. What do you think about this? Would you pay $250 for a standalone pair of buds that can transcribe and translate stuff for you?