Omi is the only device in this ranking you could build yourself. Based Hardware publishes the PCB schematics, the Gerbers, the mechanical STEP files and an 88-component bill of materials under an MIT licence, and documents the parts cost at roughly $30 to $50. That is not a marketing gesture — it is the reason Omi scores highest of any shipping device on privacy.
What it is
A 25.5 mm orb worn on a neck cord, with two TDK T5838 PDM microphones, an nRF5340 BLE controller, a dedicated nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 radio, 8 GB of NAND flash and a 150 mAh battery. It captures continuously. Apps exist for iOS, Android, Mac and the browser, and an Apple Watch can act as an additional capture surface.
Living with it
The thing that separates Omi from everything else here is that “where does my audio go?” has an answer you control. The product FAQ still describes an unlimited on-phone transcription path, and you can point the stack at a speech provider you choose or run it locally. Every other shipping device in this ranking answers that question with “our cloud, and here is our policy”.
The subscription picture is less clean. Omi’s product FAQ says you do not need a plan, then lists a cloud path “starting at $19/month for unlimited cloud transcription” plus 300 free cloud minutes. The help-centre subscription article, updated more recently, describes Basic as 300 listening minutes, Plus at $19/month or $161.91/year for 1,500 minutes, and Unlimited at $29/month or $269.91/year — with no mention of unlimited on-phone transcription. This page encodes $19/month, the marketed starting paid plan, rather than printing “None required”. Unlimited on-phone remains the caveat, not the working cost for always-on capture.
Against that, the hardware is the weakest part of the package. Ten to fourteen hours means a nightly charge — the Bee Pioneer runs twelve times longer for a quarter of the price. There is no water resistance rating of any kind on something worn against your chest all day. And the price has gone from $89 at its CES launch to $179 now, while the official store shows it sold out, which makes the value question somewhat theoretical.
Two claims to discount. Omi’s founder told WIRED at CES that the battery “lasts for three days”; Based Hardware’s own current specification sheet says 10 to 14 hours, and this page uses the specification sheet. And the brain interface in the marketing is explicitly deferred — the company concedes the first version ships audio-only, with the brain module targeted at 2026–2027.
Who it is for
People who want continuous capture and are not willing to hand the audio to a vendor. Nothing else here offers that combination, and for a certain kind of buyer it outweighs every hardware complaint above. Everyone else should note that this device is sold out, charges nightly, starts a cloud plan at $19/month, and costs $130 more than a Bee Pioneer that runs for a week.