Meet the DC1 tablet, a Kindle and iPad hybrid

Imagine a merger between a Kindlethe eBook reader from Amazonand an iPad, the famous tablet from Apple. Well, the result could very well be the DC1a 10.5-inch tablet that brings some interesting ideas and reflections on electronic product design.

It was created by a new company that is trying to create a type of computer with fewer distractions, more minimalist and that saves sanity in general. The company name is Daylight Computer and its first device is precisely the DC1. Let’s take a closer look at this new gadget.

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DC1 and its LivePaper display

The main highlight of the DC1 is its display. Daylight calls it a “LivePaper” display and says it looks like an E-Ink display, but is smooth and responsive like a traditional LCD. It’s important to point out that this isn’t something that exists in practice, at least not yet, and in general, anyone promising an “E-Ink-like” LCD screen is seriously overselling their product. But Daylight believes it has invented something genuinely new and better. If that’s the case, it would be a very interesting combination of iPad and Kindle.

The tablet also has a backlight without the blue filter, meaning the DC1 will glow an amber color. Daylight is jumping on the blue light blocker bandwagon, based on the popular notion that exposure to blue light can be harmful to sleep and cause eye strain. There is some evidence for the sleep part, although eliminating blue light is only part of the dilemma between technology and sleep. There is much less real connection between blue light and tired eyes.

The device appears to be a pretty standard Android tablet. Well no exactly Android. It runs an operating system called SolOS, which Daylight describes as “a custom Android-based operating system designed to facilitate deep concentration.” It is based on Android 13, to be precise.

The DC1 has a processor MediaTek Helio G99, 8GB de RAM and 128GB of storage, comes with a Wacom passive pen and has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The device weighs 544 grams. It appears to have all the stock Android apps and services. Daylight’s bet seems to be that just changing the hardware can change your software experience as well.

The reflections behind DC1

Daylight CEO Anjan Katta said he started the company both to help himself combat eye strain and distraction and to try to redefine our relationship with gadgets as a whole.

Over the past few months, he’s been quite poetic about the problems with modern devices. “The thing I like to think about is what would have happened to, like, Tolstoy if he had grown up like that. What would have happened to Maya Angelou if she had a phone emitting blue light and lots of distractions? Would she still have been able to write the poetry she did?“, the CEO asked in a podcast.

In practice, Daylight is questioning a really interesting point: smartphones really are the right idea? Companies like Light e Humane are asking the same question in different ways. But they’re all trying to find technological answers to technological problems, rather than just encouraging everyone to throw their phones overboard and move to the countryside. “It is impossible to escape technology. It’s not even realistic,” said Katta on that podcast. Instead, he argued, we should rethink the computer.

So it looks like Daylight is more of a display company than a tablet company. He mentioned wanting to make monitors, notebooks, clocks, alarm clocks and other devices, but said he believes a LivePaper-equipped foldable phone is ultimately “how we change the world.“

Well, I don’t know if this is the right way to “change the world”, but it’s good that there are already people thinking (and acting) to try to overcome the problem caused by smartphones.

Price and availability

DC1 is still in the pre-sale phase. The company says it has already sold out of the first batch, which required a $100 deposit to reserve. The final price of the device is a bit steep, it costs US$729, which when converted into our currency is almost R$3,800.

The first models will start shipping in June, when we’ll see if it’s possible to build a screen that’s easy to use and easy to put down. Obviously, there is no forecast for this type of product to arrive in Brazil.