These GPT-5 earbuds have a useful recording feature that makes work calls much more productive

Oso AI Earbuds ZDNET's key takeaways The Oso AI earbuds are available for $249. They record calls, meetings, and conversations, and generate accurate transcripts and AI summaries. They're pricey, some features are behind a premium tier, and without ANC, they won't replace your primary pair of earbuds. View now at Oso Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. Earbuds aren't all about playing the best music anymore. Productivity-minded earbuds are a thing -- sacrificing some audio quality for rich integrations with videoconferencing software or AI-powered transcription features. I recently reviewed another pair of these buds: the Epos Adapt E1, which are optimized for video calls, and I praised their handy gestures. However, the latest productivity pair I've been using are the Oso AI earbuds, a pair specifically designed to transcribe and summarize calls. Also: I replaced my AirPods for an unlikely alternative at work - here's why it's my new favorite Oso's earbuds are powered by Open AI's GPT-5 model. The buds can take notes of your meetings, phone calls, or even face-to-face conversations and record, transcribe, provide summaries, and translations through the integrated AI meeting notetaker by Laxis. The earbuds feature 13mm dynamic drivers, a dual beamforming microphone, and support for Bluetooth 5.2. Physically, the plastic case and shiny earbuds don't exactly scream premium, but they don't feel low-end, either. The case has something unique, though: a touchscreen display. Tapping the display shows the time and date, and swiping through the screens shows information for features and settings, such as volume, brightness, EQ, playback controls, and more. What's really helpful, though, is the battery information, which displays each bud's percentage and the power left in the case. When the case is idle, or if you open and put the buds in, an animated face appears to look around, squint at you, or sometimes give you heart eyes if you tap it. I assume the brand wanted to personify the buds as an AI-ready assistant that jumps in to help you when you need it. Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET The touchscreen on the earbuds case doesn't exactly cause usability problems, but handling it can result in menu activation, occasionally skipping tracks, or changing a setting just from pulling the case out of your pocket. The touchscreen is one of those features that sounds good on paper but won't be for everyone. Note that you can turn it off in the settings, though. When it comes to other features, the recording capabilities on the earbuds are rather robust. I tried them out in a few meetings, and the transcripts generated were as accurate as any other AI transcription service. The summarization feature was also accurate, with surprisingly fast generation. Also: I replaced my AirPods Max with the AirPods Pro 3, and didn't mind the $300 price gap Recording phone calls is one of the key features of the buds, since this used to be a rather tricky task. The recorded call quality is excellent, and activating the feature in the app is easy. Another thing to note here is that, although the Oso user will hear a voice notification that a recording is starting, the only impact is a subtle sound effect that the caller hears. In the Oso app, you'll find all your recordings in one place, under the Conversation tab. Clicking into a recording will pull up the written transcript with audio playback at the bottom. Scrolling through the audio timeline will automatically shift to the part of the transcript, so you can follow along. This section is also where you can access the summary feature and have the app generate a well-formatted overview of the conversation, meeting, or phone call, complete with bullet points and action items. The result is similar to what you'd see with Google Gemini. When it comes to sharing, you can copy and paste from the app into Slack, email, or text messaging. Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET These features are great and are what the majority of users will engage with. However, the LaxisChat option, where you can interface with the chatbot to ask questions about the recorded content, is behind a paywall. In fact, the Oso app is rife with prompts to upgrade your membership to a premium tier, with a progress bar that shows you just how much room you have left for audio storage with the free membership. You get quite a lot of storage for free, though: 300 minutes of monthly transcription and AI summaries, and 1,000 minutes of cloud storage for your recordings. Also: These unusual earbuds were the surprise of the year for me - why they sound so good If you want to interact with several recorded transcripts and interviews, I could see the membership being useful, but keep in mind that a lot of these features can be found in other places, like on a Google Chromebook Plus using Gemini, in Apple Intelligence on a MacBook, or an AI-packed Android device, such as the Samsung Z Fold 7. The usefulness of the Oso earbuds lies in the app's ability to keep everything in one place. However, at $119/year, the premium tier is not exactly cheap, especially with the cost of the earbuds themselves, which run for $249. Again, this is pricey for a product of this caliber. The buds cost the same price as Apple's brand-new AirPods Pro 3, a top-tier pair of buds with ANC and many of the same AI integrations. Also: The best earbuds of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed While we're on the topic of ANC, I should mention that the Oso buds claim to have "smart noise cancellation", which likely refers to treating audio on calls, but the buds don't have active noise cancellation that will dim out ambient noise. In that sense, they won't replace high-end earbuds for most folks. For example, the Oso earbuds didn't stand a chance on the subway in New York, my music being completely drowned out by the ambient noise. To be fair, though, that's not exactly what these buds are made for. These are the earbuds you pop in when you have an important meeting, phone call, or lecture, and you want to record every word in audio and text. ZDNET's buying advice The Oso AI Assistant Earbuds are great for anyone who wants to record, transcribe, and summarize conversations, lectures, or meetings. The corresponding app houses all of these features in one place, and the summaries it provides are comparable to those of other leading AI-powered platforms. The call recording feature is good, and journalists, in particular, will love this capability, which is not in the premium tier. For these transcription and summarization features, which are often services associated with memberships, the $249 price of the earbuds is easily justified. But if you're looking for a pair of earbuds that have booming bass and ANC, these are not what you want. The Oso earbuds will play your music, but they're designed to record, summarize, and transcribe dialogue, and they do it well.