Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and bound to become a bigger part of our lives in the coming years. While not all newly launched AI products impress us, some do just enough to capture our attention. Anker’s new device has done just that.
Ahead of the IFA 2025 tech exhibition in Berlin, Anker has unveiled the Soundcore Work, a nearly coin-sized (0.91 inches) AI recorder, which can record and transcribe conversations using dual microphones, with support for over 100 languages. Thanks to its AI prowess, powered by GPT 4.1, with a move to GPT 5.0 on the horizon, it can also summarize the recorded conversations to save you some time (via The Verge).
The Anker Soundcore Work won’t go easy on your wallets
Anker will release the Soundcore Work in white and black colors later this month for $100, with global availability expected later in the year. In addition to the $100 you pay upfront, Anker will also offer a $16/month subscription with additional features, though the company didn’t say what these additions are.
Elsewhere on the features front, the Soundcore Work can run for up to 8 hours with its onboard battery, which is quite remarkable (if accurate). There’s also a charging accessory provided by Anker that can reportedly take the total runtime of this AI recorder to 32 hours.
The recorder weighs only 10 grams and attaches magnetically to your clothing, while it’s also convenient enough to be worn on a lanyard. Anker addresses the lack of physical buttons on the Soundcore Work with tap gestures: a single tap to initiate the recording and a double-tap to mark or highlight a specific portion of the ongoing recording for later.
The full audio recordings plus transcripts will be available on the Soundcore mobile app, and you can also share them with your peers. Anker lets you export the recordings and transcriptions into other formats, although we’re yet to get all the details on what that looks like.
As you would imagine, most of the heavy lifting happens behind the scenes, with encrypted audio recordings shared to Anker’s cloud when a user initiates the transcription or shares the recording with someone.
While there’s plenty to love about the Soundcore Work, the fact that you need to pay $100 and then $16 per month to benefit from some of its additional (and yet unknown) features is likely to make some people skeptical. But as The Verge rightly points out, Anker’s only competition in this segment comes from the Plaud NotePin and the Bee AI wearable, so the company might just be able to pull this off.
What do you make of the Anker Soundcore Work?
