A startup’s “tablet” gears up to take on Apple’s iPad

Anjan Katta, founder of Daylight Computer

I am a tablet nerd. I have been since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad.

Tablets, especially the iPad, connect with me emotionally, much like my vintage fountain pen and notebook made out of Japanese paper. There is a reason why I use the iPad for most of my work, though lately, it has taken a backseat to a new device — the Daylight Computer’s Tablet.

This is one of the most talked about devices in Silicon Valley. It was created by Daylight Computer, a company started by Anjan Katta to solve his problem — he suffers from ADHD and wanted something that allowed him few distractions and allowed him to work with intent. The reason I am excited about that new tablet is because it is optimized around reading, writing, and productivity. This is very different from the tablets we have had so far.

Arun Venkatesan, founder of Carrot Fertility and a design-centric engineer, on his blog, writes:

At the original 2010 iPad launch, the majority of demos were entertainment-focused, with only a brief nod to content creation. Today, the data shows that the majority of time spent on tablets is indeed for entertainment purposes, not productivity.

Tablets, including the iPad, have largely become consumption-oriented entertainment devices, rather than the revolutionary productivity tools many had envisioned. Addressing this reality requires a more holistic rethinking of the tablet form factor and user experience – something the Daylight Tablet aims to change.

What the company has created is a beautiful tablet — about the size of a normal iPad Air. It is just a “little less than white,” white, with a gorgeous screen. It is very simple, elegant, and lovely. It has an e-ink like screen, and the matte monochrome paper-like display is optimized for reading, writing, and note-taking. It refreshes at 60 frames per second, a pretty big deal for these kind of displays. (Anjan explains about this here on Hacker News.)

This different screen technology developed by the company is called LivePaper and it feels as snappy as anything you have experienced on an iPad. This is what puts it a notch above other e-ink tablets. This is precisely why the new Daylight tablet is much less stressful on the eye and easy to use even in direct sunlight. It has 8 GB memory, about 128 GB in-built storage, an 8-core chip, microphones, speakers, and a powerful battery.

There is no camera — thank God!

It has all the usual networking options – Bluetooth and Wifi. It has no cellular modem. I used it with my iPhone’s hotspot when sitting in the park. At home, I used my home wireless network.

Reading on this device, thus far, has been a joy, especially when sitting in the park. I use it to peruse articles I have saved on my Reader app (from Readwise), lots of papers (PDFs), and, of course, an occasional note I write to myself.

I used the browser and some of the specifically optimized apps such as Pocket. But it is mostly the browser. Much as I disdain Chrome on my desktop, it seems to be in perfect symbiosis with the device. I didn’t have much time with the device; I wish I had. The device I had in my hands was a prototype — and while it did have some other non-productivity apps, I didn’t care much about them. YouTube, for example.

Daylight uses a version of Android (much like other devices, say Oculus) and allows you to tap into the Android app ecosystem — so you can use social networking apps, but that would be pretty pointless.

For now, all I can say is that the team has done an amazing job so far, but a long journey awaits them, for we all know hardware is a hard game. This is an endeavor worth cheering for.

May 18, 2024. San Francisco.

Daylight Computer launched today, May 23, 2024. Here is a video to accompany the launch of the new tablet.

Related Reading:

A Review of Daylight Computer’s Tablet, by Arun Venkatesan. The article gives you a deeper understanding of the why and the how of the Daylight Tablet.

Why I Am Excited About the iPad
Technology
23 comments

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Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More

23 thoughts on this post

  1. Thanks Om! Now I want to check it out.
    Appreciate you and all you share.

      1. None. Whenever I have a stake in something I disclose it in bold and on my disclosures page. [Also, next time you want to ask a question asking aspersions over someone, have the balls to use your real name and email.

  2. Sorry but this article is very thin. An e-ink tablet with running Android and no camera. No pictures, no specs, no price range, no roadmap.

    Does it come with a stylus? Since it’s optimized for writing? If not, what does that even mean?
    It has “all the usual networking options” but you connect it to your hotspot, so it does not have 3/4 or 5G?
    Eink screen. Does it have a backlight?

    1. It does come with a stylus. It also uses the stylus from Lamy. And it will have no 5G at least for now.

      Eink is not backlit in a conventional sense and you can use it in the dark

      1. I believe this is customized IGZO display without color mask – that has nothing to do with eInk.

        (Note, this is not critique to display itself – using IGZO is brilliant; giving up to 120fps refresh rate. Just noting that it really is no eInk – only commonality being that they both are reflective, black and white displays)

    2. They are going to release final specs and model on May 23. I was using a prototype model (as I wrote) and as a result can’t give details of the final product or the final images.

  3. If we want to work with fewer distractions and more intent, is the problem with the device itself or how we use it? 🙂

  4. I’ve ordered one and am looking forward to trying out this new tablet.

    The Book Palma e-ink handheld tablet uses a grayscale epaper display and provides access to the Google Play store – Android supports this just fine.

    1. I would love to hear about your impressions on this one. Please remember to share them if possible 🙂

  5. This looks really intriguing. I’m naturally skeptical of anything that claims to solve ‘the distraction problem’ with tech as it usually translates to creating a crap smartphone replacement.

    But 50% of my iPad use (in the summer at least) is similar to yours – sitting in a park reading and annotating books and articles. Something that does those things better than an iPad and supports the ecosystem of apps (Kindle and Reader mainly) is something I could see myself buying, albeit not at $729. But the cases are cute.

    1. An entire review and no mention of the Remarkable tablet, which apparently does the same or more at half the price. I don’t own one, but it seems like a pretty cool product that meets the reviewer’s requirements.

      1. This is very different from “Remarkable” as in this is a “tablet” where as Remarkable bills itself as a “note taking device” and then some. More importantly, this is “NOT” a review. My reviews take almost three to six months of actual use. These are my very early impressions — and in the early usage, it allows me to do few things well and differently. I am sure other devices are going to come to market as well.

        1. I do hope that it’s completely different from reMarkable.

          reMarkable is the bastard son of tablets because of its lack of security features.

          In an industry where at-rest encryption and SSO compatibility is the standard, reMarkable, the exception, is incredibly leaky and unsuitable for the rigors of professional use. Doctors, Lawyers, and other folks that need a paper-like note-taking tablet, as well as a standard tablet style device that supports applications like Epic are thoroughly assed out.

          However, I have low hopes. Now if someone cobbled together a paper-like display on the Galaxy Z Fold, then I’ll be excited.

      2. Remarkable is cool (I use one daily), but it is a very different kind of device. Remarkable is minimalistic – “electronic paper”, while as Sunlight is really a computer where you can run any Android apps.

        Remarkable is probably better for focus: No browser, no social media, do email, no distractions. But with that Remarkable is very limited as well.

        What makes Sunlight very interesting is that you could treat it as a computer. Even install Termux and use that for development, going beyond what iPad Pro is capable of.

    2. The price, I would admit is very high, but given it is a startup with very little funding, I am willing to give them a benefit of doubt that they make a case for themselves. It is funny how many people react positively to the device. And I love my “iPAD.”

  6. Thanks for your thoughts. How does it compare to existing players in the market, like the Onyx Boox? Boox markets itself as an e-reader, but the concept seems to be the same, very high refresh rate android tablet.

    1. Kai

      The biggest difference is how the screen performs. It is their proprietary technology I believe and it allows them to give a “live paper” like feel. While I have never used Boox, but it is way better than v1 Remarkable I have used.

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