Amazon's $75 Bee Frontier and $100 Eclipse Take On Pocket and Plaud

Amazon has launched two new Bee AI listening devices — the $75 Frontier wearable and the $100 Eclipse smartphone recorder — its first Bee hardware update since acquiring the San Francisco startup in July 2025.

The Eclipse puts Amazon in direct competition with Pocket and Plaud, two startups that have built sizable businesses selling compact AI recorders that attach to phones and turn conversations into transcripts. Both charge more than Amazon. Pocket's device costs $129 at the time of writing; Plaud's cheapest product runs $159.

Amazon and Bee did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition, which the company announced in July 2025.

What do the new devices actually do?

Both products listen to conversations, transcribe them, and use a companion app to generate summaries, to-do lists and reminders. Both encrypt transcripts and make them accessible only to the user, according to Amazon.

The Bee Frontier is the successor to Bee's original $50 wristband, which resembled a Fitbit but used microphones and AI instead of workout tracking. The idea: a personal assistant that captures useful details from everyday exchanges so users don't have to take notes.

The refreshed Frontier ships with a smaller, lighter design and comes in three colors — lavender, sage and onyx. It's water-resistant. Amazon rates the device at up to seven days on a single charge, matching previous models, though the price has climbed to about $75 from $50.

Amazon also upgraded the Frontier's dual mics with advanced noise-cancelling. In a blog post, the company said the Frontier can "take note of what matters and ignore what doesn't, even in noisy environments like a crowded restaurant or open office."

The Eclipse, meanwhile, is a credit-card-sized device that attaches magnetically to the back of a smartphone. It uses the same transcription software and companion app as the Frontier but requires no wearable. It comes in four colors — silver, midnight, honey and blush — and Amazon promises more than 21 days of battery life, triple the Frontier's seven-day rating.

The Frontier went on sale Thursday. Amazon said the Eclipse would arrive "soon" but gave no specific release date.

How big is the competition?

The startups Amazon is targeting aren't small.

• Pocket said in August it had sold more than 200,000 devices and reached a $100 million annualized revenue run rate just eight months after launching.
• Plaud said in September it had surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, attracted more than 2.5 million users across 170 countries, and is targeting $500 million in global sales for 2026.

Both companies have proven demand for dedicated note-taking hardware. Amazon is now betting it can win that market with lower prices and distribution reach the startups can't match.

The takeaway: Amazon's second act for Bee is a price war — and at $100 versus $159, it starts with a meaningful edge.