Unfortunately, they are not saved "automatically." I attended a meeting tonight at which I took notes on the proceedings. Length of the note was pretty long -- but during a lull in the action, while I was not looking, my screen locked. When I unlocked it, my note was BLANK. I tried again, taking notes, then letting the screen lock. Again a blank note.
Unfortunately, if you save the note, you cannot continue editing it; you must start another note to continue taking notes.
And anything you do that superseded the note; e.g. pull the notification bar down to control the recorder or to look at the email notification, also blanks the note.
Color me one very unhappy long-time Evernote user. I may go back to an earlier version. That would be find, except I'll have to be very careful to avoid letting Google Play Store update the Evernote app.
This was such a wonderful feature. I was spoiled. Now I'm in a position of thinking Evernote is a wonderful app ..but it won't do handwriting-to-text. And that capability is important.