There’s a big piece of paper hanging up in the San Francisco office. Daylight ComputerListed in purple ink are all kinds of devices the company wants to make in the future. The list is long. Daylight wants to make phones, laptops, tablets of various kinds. Basically, anything you can think of that can be a screen, and they want to make it with a better, different screen. One that looks like paper, rather than being glaringly bright in a dark room, and works just fine outdoors.
Right next to the paper with the product ideas is another, equally long, sheet of reasons why Daylight might fail. While CEO Anjan Katta gives a tour of the office, the rest of the team is preparing for the launch party for the first device. A tablet called DC-1It’s clear he’s worried about how the world will react to his big ideas about the future.
Daylight is trying to be more of a lifestyle brand than a gadget manufacturer. In recent months, Katta Podcasts and YouTube Channel Preach The sublime gospel The minimalist gadget author argues that because exposure to blue light disrupts sleep, we need devices that encourage us to use our devices less frequently and more intentionally, rather than luring us with bright lights and notifications. Rather than modeling themselves after tech companies like Apple or Samsung, Katta and Daylight seem to worship companies like Patagonia, which make good things and stand for something. And if Patagonia can sell vests to venture capitalists, Daylight can sell tablets to tech enthusiasts.
The DC-1 costs $729, which is a lot for an Android tablet, especially one like the company’s first. It’s thick, heavy, and powered by an older chip. I like the speckled back and clicky buttons, but I can’t help but notice that the ports are slightly misaligned and that you can literally pry it open by sticking your fingernail between the display and the case. I’ve had no issues with the hardware in my time with the tablet, but this feels like the first attempt at a less-than-refined manufacturing process.
According to Katta, the DC-1 isn’t finished yet, especially the software. The device is supposed to run software called Sol:OS, which is a customized version of Android that helps keep it minimally quiet. Currently, my test model runs a lightly customized version of the popular Niagara Launcher, but at one point I factory reset the device, which lost many of the features the team had loaded for testing. That means the device isn’t ready for a full review yet. We’ll review Sol:OS once it’s actually released, which Katta says is expected to happen this fall.
For now, I want to talk mostly about the screen. The DC-1 has a 10.5-inch screen, which Daylight calls a “Live Paper” display. Just to be clear, Live Paper is not E Ink. E Ink is the technology found in Kindles and most other e-readers, and it uses actual ink, which means it looks great in sunlight and only uses power to move the ink around. (Technically, E Ink is the brand name and “electronic paper” is the technology name, but everyone uses them interchangeably; E Ink is tissue paper.) Live Paper is actually designed to solve some of E Ink’s weaknesses, particularly its slow refresh rate and ghosting, which can leave faint marks on the screen for long periods of time.
Katta explains that Live Paper is actually an adaptation of reflective LCD display technology that’s been around for years. Reflective LCDs are LCD displays without a backlight, using a mirror at the bottom of the stack to reflect natural light onto the pixels. That makes them easier to use in bright light, consume less power, and are cheap, thin, and light. All good things. But they have just as many downsides. RLCDs are obviously hard to see in bad lighting, and it’s hard to find ones that are in color, large, or high resolution.
There are already some popular RLCD devices. Hans Note 2 A favorite of the r/RLCD subreddit, Hisense Q5 Katta (who got some good reviews a few years back) says he’s been trying to solve the problems with RLCD and improve the system overall for the past five years. The DC-1 doesn’t solve all the problems, because it doesn’t support color. Katta says this is technically possible, but it involves a lot of compromises. But the Daylight team has succeeded in developing a 10.5-inch reflective LCD that’s almost as easy on the eyes as E Ink and almost as responsive as a typical tablet screen.
I say “almost” because in either case, not completely. On the E Ink side, the Live Paper is a bit more reflective than the Kindle, consumes much more power, and has significantly worse viewing angles. Viewing angles are probably the most obvious advantage of E Ink; with LCDs, there’s always going to be reflections, and while the Live Paper has improved on that, it’s still not as crisp and clear as an E Ink screen in sunlight. E Ink feels like paper, and Live Paper feels like a screen.
On the other hand, compared to an iPad or a smartphone, the DC-1 lags a bit when scrolling quickly within an app (though not as much as any E Ink screen I’ve tried). It also exhibits a bit of the wobbly “jelly scroll” that’s plagued many devices, and there’s a bit of ghosting when you move quickly. Daylight says the Live Paper screen updates at 60 frames per second, but you can definitely notice the occasional stutter.
Live Paper is truly a versatile device.
Essentially, the DC-1’s screen isn’t as good as the Kindle in ideal conditions, and isn’t as good as the iPad in ideal conditions. But Live Paper is actually just good enough to be an all-around good user. It’s responsive and fast enough that you can easily type on the DC-1 and even watch videos (albeit in black and white). E Ink is good enough for emergencies, but you’ll find it easier to work on the DC-1 than on a Kindle or Boox tablet.
The DC-1 is much easier to read in bed and in bright light than something like an iPad. Personally, I’d prefer this display to be a bit smaller. It’s no secret that I love my Boox Palma as a pocket-sized Android device, but I think the Live Paper display would make it even better. But if you’re the type of person who uses your iPad for reading, web browsing, journaling, and crossword puzzles, the DC-1 is fine. It’s just not a great Netflix machine.
As for the backlight, Daylight’s clever idea was to let you control not just the brightness but also the temperature of the light. (By the way, many e-readers can do this too; some recent Kindle models allow you to do this as well.) Has a “warm light” mode I like it a lot better than the default light, which goes from a normal daylight-like blue light to a deep, warm amber light, which seems to be good for reading at night without disrupting circadian rhythms or sleep. The overall theory is sound, but it remains to be seen whether the light from a phone screen is really so damaging. Hard to sayBut from a comfort standpoint, I really like it. Now I read in bed with a pretty dim, warm light. I don’t know if I’m sleeping better, but it’s definitely easier to read in the dark.
Even more impressive is that you can turn off the backlight completely. At its lowest setting, the DC-1 doesn’t emit any light at all; it relies solely on ambient light to show you what’s on the screen. (Backlit RLCDs are sometimes called “transflective LCDs.”) But without the light on, even in bright sunlight the DC-1 looks very dim and low in contrast. I almost never turn the light off completely.
Everything in Daylight’s office feels as busy and new as the DC-1. Outside, a barefoot man is putting tablets into little grass boxes for people to use that day. There’s a table with gorgeous cases for the DC-1, another with Patagonia slings for early bird buyers. Outdoor-themed art is everywhere. The company seems to know what it’s doing, but not quite how to use it. After using the tablet for a while, I’m skeptical of the $729 case for the DC-1, but I’m pretty optimistic about what the Live Paper device lineup will look like. Maybe there will be a lineup somewhere between the iPad and the Kindle after all. In an increasingly screen-mediated world, Daylight asks an interesting question: What would happen if you changed the screen? Probably a lot more than that.
