Boya Notra Neo: Compact, magnetic, and somewhat scratch-sensitive
The Notra Neo is a square box with sides measuring 6,3 centimeters and a thickness of just 0,8 centimeters. This makes it small enough to easily disappear into a trouser or jacket pocket or to remain permanently attached to a smartphone.
The back features a magnetic surface that allows the Notra Neo to be attached directly to a MagSafe-compatible iPhone. Boya includes an adhesive ring for Android smartphones without a magnetic ring. A USB-C to USB-C cable for charging is also included.
The casing is made entirely of plastic and is available in black, white, yellow, and pink. My black test unit had to endure several days in my backpack during IFA and already showed several visible scratches on the surface afterward.
In direct comparison to a PLAUD Note, the Notra Neo appears less premium. PLAUD opts for a significantly slimmer and overall more elegant-looking case. However, Boya also operates in a different price bracket. The Notra Neo costs only about half as much (to the official Boya shop) and the functional approach is still very similar.
Operation with just one button
The operation is not complicated. In fact, the Notra Neo only requires a single button.
Holding the button down for approximately three seconds starts recording, and a red LED indicates that recording is active. Holding the button down again for three seconds stops the recording.
During a recording, important parts can be highlighted with a short keystroke, making it easier to find the statement again.
Basically, you don't need to do anything more on the device itself, because this very simplicity is ultimately the reason why you would choose such a recorder instead of just an app.
Two microphones plus VPU
For recording, Boya uses two MEMS microphones and a VPU. This makes the Notra Neo somewhat less sophisticated than the larger Notra or, for example, a PLAUD Note Pro, both of which use four MEMS microphones.
Boya specifies a recording distance of up to five meters. The larger Notra model, according to the manufacturer, achieves up to ten meters. It also features noise cancellation, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as 8 GB of internal storage.
The Boya OS app allows for additional adjustments to several recording parameters. Noise reduction can be controlled, microphone gain can be set between 0 and 30 dB, and VCS gain can be selected between low, medium, and high.
Furthermore, the Notra Neo can be connected to a Bluetooth headset, which allows for better voice recording depending on the headset used.
Recording quality: Good at a table, more difficult in the hustle and bustle of a trade fair.
During IFA, I was able to test the Notra Neo in a wide variety of situations. It quickly became apparent that the environment has a significant impact on the quality.
At a quiet conference table, the small device delivers a decent recording. Voices remain intelligible, and the quality is perfectly adequate for subsequent transcriptions. Ideally, however, the participants should be sitting opposite each other and not too far from the recorder.
The recording doesn't sound particularly natural. Especially with the noise cancellation activated by default, voices sometimes take on a slightly tinny quality. Therefore, the Notra Neo wouldn't be my first choice for an interview that's intended for subsequent audio publication.
However, its actual purpose is something else entirely, as the audio primarily serves as a basis for transcription, and it performs well in quiet environments.
The situation is somewhat different in the typical hustle and bustle of a trade fair. At IFA, speech, music, announcements, and the conversations of hundreds of visitors compete for attention. Here, noise reduction is significantly more effective, and at the same time, the accuracy of the transcription decreases.
Anyone using the Notra Neo for interviews in such an environment should therefore treat it more like a small microphone and point it directly at the speaker. Thanks to its compact design, this works quite well and is more comfortable than constantly holding your smartphone towards the person you're speaking to.
Transcription with weaknesses in speaker attribution and technical terms
German and English were reliably recognized in my test. I didn't try other languages. Boya supports more than 140 languages in total. The language can be detected automatically or manually selected in the settings.
Speaker recognition proved more problematic. Even during a quiet conversation between two people, three or even four different speakers were sometimes suddenly recorded in the transcript. As background noise increased, the identification became even more unreliable.
Technical terms are also a weakness. For example, in a conversation about ANKER's Thus AI chip, the transcription turned it into a "TWS AI chip".
Such errors are annoying, but at least they can be corrected afterwards. Both the transcript itself and the summary generated from it can be edited manually.
For normal conversation content, the recognition is generally usable. However, anyone who regularly conducts interviews with many product names, English technical terms, or special proper names should definitely proofread the result.
Boya OS: App and web work hand in hand
After recording, the conversation is stored in Boya OS. The accompanying app is the central hub on the smartphone and handles transfer, playback, transcription, and AI analysis.
I particularly liked the parallel synchronization with Boya OS Web. This means that recordings can be processed not only on the smartphone, but practically directly on the laptop, without having to copy files back and forth via cable or AirDrop or Quick Share.
The app and web interface allow users to play back recordings, transcribe them, and then prepare them as summaries or mind maps. An integrated full-text search enables users to search all transcriptions specifically for terms and conversation content.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok are available as options.
Boya offers several providers for AI analysis. The options are ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. However, it's not clear which specific models are used in the background. You only choose the provider, not, for example, a specific GPT or Gemini version.
The numerous templates are interesting. Boya provides templates for meetings and interviews, among other things, but also more specialized use cases from the medical and legal fields.
Essentially, these templates are nothing more than pre-prepared prompts that determine how the respective language model should summarize a recording. Boya's approach is particularly well done: they don't hide these prompts, but rather reveal the instructions behind each template.
This also makes it easier to create your own templates, for example for recurring interview or meeting structures. This way, it remains transparent which guidelines the AI uses to generate its summaries.
AI analysis requires patience
However, there's still room for improvement in terms of speed. A six-minute test recording took approximately eight minutes in automatic mode to fully generate the transcript, summary, and mind map.
This is relatively slow, especially when meeting minutes are needed as quickly as possible after a meeting. However, since most of the processing is server-side, Boya should be able to improve this with software updates.
A free plan should be sufficient for many.
Like PLAUD and other providers in this field, Boya also links some of its AI functions to a subscription model.
The free starter plan, however, is comparatively generous and perfectly adequate for normal use. It includes 320 transcription minutes per month, unlimited cloud storage, support for more than 140 languages, various export options, and ten professional templates.
For frequent users, Boya offers two paid plans. The Pro plan costs €19,99 per month and increases the transcription allowance to 1.280 minutes. It also includes 40 professional templates and the "ASK AI" feature, which allows users to ask questions about their own recordings and transcriptions.
Above that is Ultimate, priced at €34,99 per month. This plan has no minute limit and includes all professional templates and ASK AI. Both plans become significantly more attractive with annual billing. Pro then costs €110,99 per year, which equates to approximately €9,25 per month. Ultimate costs €249,99 per year, or approximately €20,83 per month.
Those who only occasionally exceed their free allowance don't necessarily need to subscribe. Additional transcription time can also be purchased separately.
Battery life: Easily made it through IFA
The Notra Neo's battery life pleasantly surprised me. I used the device throughout my entire IFA week and it still showed approximately 15 percent remaining capacity at the end. Of course, it wasn't running constantly, but was used intermittently for interviews and conversations.
For typical daily use with multiple meetings or interviews, you shouldn't have to worry much about the battery. The Notra Neo is fully charged via USB-C in approximately 90 minutes.
