Neosapien Neo1 review: AI-powered virtual RAM for your brain

Among all the advancements promised by AI, a new breed of devices is emerging in the form of AI notetakers. It’s early days, but even in their evolving form, these devices are aiming big. So when I came across one that promises to be my “second brain” and tells me that I could become superhuman if I became a Neosapien, I had to try it out. Labelled the Neosapien Neo1, this is a tiny device that looks like a USB flash drive and is designed to be worn on a chain around your neck. And when you do that, it promises to give you infinite memory of sorts… or more specifically, a bank of memories that you can go back to anytime you want. Piqued?

Table of Contents

What is the Neosapien Neo1 and what can it do?


The Neo1 is a compact plastic device that looks just like a USB flash drive and is about the same size. Weighing a mere 20g, it features a Type-C port at the bottom for charging and a hook on top through which you can loop the bundled metal chain and hang it around your neck. Available colours include copper, black, silver and gunmetal. An inverted U-shaped light on the front glows when the device is active, and you can also double-tap below it to toggle between active and sleep modes. The light glows white when the device is active, and orange when it’s charging. A couple of small slits on the side look like they let sound in to feed the internal mic. The mic can record audio within a range of 2 meters.


The device has a built-in battery that can be charged via the Type-C port, and a Type-C to Type-C cable is included in the box. The cable closely resembles the white braided one that Apple has been including with its iPhones. It’s just something I noticed and found worth mentioning, though it doesn’t have a bearing on this review in any way. The Neo1 doesn’t have any built-in storage, and relies on a smartphone paired over Bluetooth to work. Which brings me to the app…

How’s the app experience?


The Neo app is available on Android and iOS, and works as the central hub for using the Neo1. The app experience, therefore, is crucial. I’m glad to report that the app doesn’t disappoint — it’s intuitive and is well designed. The app layout is divided into four sections, labelled Home, Ask Neo, Memories, and Reminders, which are all mostly self-explanatory. You can also view the remaining battery level of the paired device on the top right, and a button next to that gives you access to your account, device firmware details, and settings. There’s also a desktop app for macOS and Windows that lets you record online meetings, and that’s designed well too.

How well does it work


The overall premise is simple. If you have the device hanging from your neck and it’s activated, it’ll keep listening to conversations, feed that audio into its AI model via the companion app running on the paired phone, and process the information to give you summaries and reminders.


You need to train it with your voice during the setup process, after which it’ll label your side of the conversations with your name. The AI processing happens on the cloud, which means your phone should be connected to the internet for it to work. While there’s no built-in storage, the Neo1 can still capture audio and store it on the paired smartphone even when the latter isn’t connected to the internet, and process the conversations later when the phone goes online. And just in case you forget the Neo1 device at home or if it runs out of battery, you can use the app on your phone directly to capture conversations and meetings. The app can sync up with your calendar once you give it the necessary permissions, and then display upcoming meetings on its home page too.


Each processed conversation is termed a memory, and the cloud processing takes a few minutes. The recording continues as long as the device/app detects ongoing audio conversation, and once that stops, it uploads the audio to process it and eventually show you the corresponding memory, which is essentially an AI-generated summary. If the AI detects any actionable points in the conversation, it suggests and lists them as reminders, and you can choose to accept them if they look relevant. You can go into the three-dot menu at the top and see the full transcript of the conversation. Over 140 different languages are supported, and in my experience, randomly switching between Hindi and English while conversing was handled reasonably well. In case the conversation or meeting has breaks in between, the segments get processed as separate memories, but the app allows you to merge different memories together for easy reference. There’s also an option to connect the app to the AI tool of your choice (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude), and take advantage of the memories/intelligence you might have built up in your usage over time.


Coming to the meat of the matter — how well does the Neo1 work? In my experience, the device microphone seems quite sensitive, and picks up conversations in close proximity quite well. This was the case even when I chose not to wear the device around my neck, but kept it in my shirt pocket instead. From a privacy perspective, though, it’d be better to wear it around your neck and let the glowing LED alert others that their voice is being recorded. In most cases, the so-called memories prove to be quite useful, and since they’re searchable, they become a memory bank that you can go back to while trying to remember who said what. Of course, for this to work as intended, you should have the device on you and in active mode, so that it records the conversations. In addition, you also get a summary email at the end of the day to an email ID you specify, giving you a bird’s-eye view of what transpired during the day instead of having to scroll through various memories in the app.

On the flip side

In my experience, I think the Neo1 works best for structured conversations, such as meetings. If you keep it active with you all day, it tends to pick up a lot of chatter around you and create a ton of memories which won’t be of any use to you. Another downside is that you need to engage actively with the app often to sift through the collected memories, remove the unwanted ones, merge the ones that need to be joined together, and so and so forth. The battery lasts about a day if you keep it active all day, so expect to charge it on a daily basis. You can also stretch it to a couple of days if you just keep it active for a few meetings and then put it to sleep, but that means having to remember to toggle between active and sleep modes before and after each meeting. Also, I think that integrating built-in storage so it could store conversations locally would go a long way, since that could enable offline usage.

Is it for you?


Now that’s something you have to decide after reading this review. At Rs 12,999, it’s not really an impulse purchase, but it’s not atrociously expensive either. I think it holds a lot of promise as a showcase of how AI can help increase productivity, though as you can guess, it’s best suited for working professionals and those who spend a lot of time in meetings. Areas of improvement include battery life and enhancing the AI to a point where it can separate the chatter from useful conversations, and possibly automating the on/off modes. I find it quite useful in its current state — seems like a step in the right direction for sure.

Editor’s rating: 7.7 / 10

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Cons

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