soundcore Work | The World's First Coin-Sized AI Voice Recorder

This coin-sized AI recorder is what I've been looking for some time now, and Anker has come through with excellent, minimalist design features! I have been hacking together multiple apps and devices for years, finally this company has wrapped it all into one sleek, modular package.The design is excellent, its a minimal, nickel-sized button mic that docks into a compact cradle which doubles as charger and extra storage. The magnetic system is genius - just clip it to your collar, or wear it on the included lanyard, or snap mic + cradle to the back of your phone using the magnetic ring. It feels like a tiny, pro-grade tool rather than a cheap gadget. Haptics and the side power button make it obvious when you’re recording; the LED is visible enough to be ethical, but not obnoxious.Right out of the box setup was genuinely fast and painless. I installed the SoundCore Work app, powered up the dock and mic, paired to my phone, let it update firmware, and was recording my first real working session in about ten minutes. As someone who lives in long client meetings and does a lot of talking, that frictionless start matters.In daily use, this thing replaces a whole multi-step workflow: instead of recording on smartphone, exporting the audio file, then uploading the file to a separate transcription app; and then copy/pasting into ChatGPT/Claude and creating my custom prompts for producing summaries and detailed out put, the SoundCore app records your session, uploads, and then runs OpenAI (Chat 4o) powered transcription and GPT-style summaries for you. The structured notes, cross-meeting summaries, and double-tap markers make it much easier to navigate long sessions afterwards.On the hardware design side Anker really shines - the audio quality is exceptional - more than good enough for accurate transcription and clear playback, even in rooms with multiple speakers. The battery life for the mic alone can cover long sessions (8 hours); dock + mic together easily handle full-day (32 hours) workflows with extended recording windows. And for portability, the coin-size mic comes in around 48g total, it basically disappears on clothing or in a pocket!On the software side, the AI features are genuinely useful but come with trade-offs - you get 300 free minutes per month as a Starter member and after that, you can buy minutes or go Pro $15.99 Monthly, 6-month @ $69.99, or annual plan @ $89 unlimited minutes. Likewise, the transcription and summarization quality is excellent, but processing large files and exports can feel slow, and heavy users will burn through minutes quickly, you can buy minutes in blocks - 120 mins $2.99; 600 mins $9.99; 3,000 mins $49; 6,000 mins $89Everything runs through Anker’s cloud (AWS), with strong encryption and privacy controls, but if you handle very sensitive or regulated conversations, the always-cloud model and subscription may give you pause.For my usage, the frequent meetings, coaching sessions, and speaking gigs - the time savings and convenience, I could easily justify the cost but Anker has to improve upon this first step and in its proposed services - fully utilize the excellent hardware features by upgrading the firmware and allow users to rapidly access the stored data files via the USB C port directly to the users computer platform!The processing and through put from the mic to the docking station is sluggish at times, the translation features and processing is lengthy (especially for 45-minute and greater sessions), the creation of cloud links for shared data takes too long - there are quick solutions waiting for implementation, especially with a trusted brand like Anker that I’ve used for over 15 years. I fully expect firmware, app speed, local access options, and integrations to improve over the next 12 months! And when that happens, I plan to pick up another AI recorder!

You can use this device during a meeting or class lecture to record everything and then upload it for transcription to text. It will differentiate between different speakers (speaker 1, speaker 2, etc.) and you can rename the speakers with their real names.Another great feature is the double tap function. While you are recording, if you hear something that you want to highlight, you just double tap the device and it will mark this section of the recording. When you get the text back, the areas you marked will be highlighted.The system uses AI to create a summary for you and will also group items up into different categories.The only downside I see is that you need an internet/cell connection to get the recording transcribed into text.

Magic! Everyone should get one of these.

My title mentions the two things you should really be considering here - security and subscriptions - but before I get to that, let me talk about the basics of the device. First, it DOES work really well actually at what it’s meant to do - recording and transmitting voice data through your phone to the Anker cloud servers, where it’s processed and you get back an intelligent transcription and (while you have the Pro subscription) summary. The recording device is easy to use, easy to charge (via USB-C), easy to keep around (particularly if you’re MagSafe ring friendly as it can mount to MagSafe devices) and has great battery life. The app you use it with and the pairing process are relatively straightforward and you can be up and running fairly quickly. I found the voice recognition and transcription capabilities to be quite good overall and it was handy to use for my intended use case (basically talking out a summary of my day and my thoughts and have it transcribe that back to add to my notes). It’s not discreet - and not meant for that - but it does look reasonably professional if you end up using it in meetings. Overall, it’s a well-built device from a brand - Anker and their Soundcore sub-brand - known for making quality and innovative devices.So there you have the basics. Now we get into the two things you also need to consider, security and subscriptions. I’ll tackle subscription first. With the device, you get 6 months of the “pro” level subscription (normally about $11-12/month) which gets you the extra intelligent summary not available in the “free” tier AND (more importantly) 1,200 min a month of transcription usage. That’s 20 hours - which if you’re using this in meetings, could be burned up in less than a week. If you want to use this CONSTANTLY (unlimited usage) you’re looking at $240/year subscription which is considerable. Alternatively, if you want to avoid subscription fees, you’re looking at the free plan which is 300 min/month (5 hours) and no summaries. I’ll likely drop down to that after my trial ends, but we’ll see. So, given the limits, you really need to consider the subscription costs when you buy the device.Second, security. While Anker has proven over the years to be a company that produces solid devices, in this model Anker has control over any recordings you transmit (yes, they’re encrypted and yes, Anker claims to delete them after 7 days, but Anker holds the encryption keys - not you - and you have no way to validate the deletion of the recordings). Also, AWS storage buckets (what they’re using) are also only as secure as the person that configured them makes it. To that end, I’m not using this for anything that has highly sensitive data (I wouldn’t use it for client meetings or - if you’re a medical professional - patient discussions for example) nor company confidential data. BUT, I have no reason to explicitly believe you can’t trust their security and I’m not an expert in that particular field. So, you’ll have to make your own judgement there.And, I suppose there you have it. A top notch device and service that comes with some potential security questions and a relatively costly subscription model. Is it right for you? Only you can say that, but it IS right for the way I want to use it and I very much enjoy doing so!

Súper compacto y útil.