If you missed it, here it is.

And what you're looking at right here is the world's first 60 Hertz ePaper display.

And look, I know in my post, I said it was 120 Hertz and they told me it was gonna be 120 multiple times.

But I think what's happening is it is capable of 120 Hertz but they're locking it to 60 for now.

So yeah, we're just gonna call it 60 Hertz.

Anyway, after I made that post, tons of comments.

Some were excited about this potentially game-changing tech, the idea of a fast refresh rate Kindle where you get all the benefits of the Kindle without the distractions of the iPad.

And then some people saying that, well, this is essentially a worse version of the iPad.

It's basically an iPad without color.

But also there were a lot of people who were confused about the actual technology behind the display.

Is it actually e-ink or is it something else?

And after a ton of research of the past week and testing and back and forth with the Daylight team,

I have your answers.

But let's just start with the basics.

What is it and why does it exist?

So this is the Daylight DC1, a 10.5 inch 60 Hertz ePaper tablet running on Android 13 that is designed for deep focus and wellbeing as it states on the website.

Now, the way I see this device is it's sort of slots right in the middle between the Kindles of the world and the iPads of the world.

With the Kindle, you get the really nice screen that has this paper-like quality with e-ink.

But then on the other hand, you've got the iPads, which are infinitely more capable and powerful, but aren't as good for your eyes.

And the fact that they have this really nice screen and you can download any app to it makes you just wanna use it for content consumption like Netflix, YouTube, social media.

So this device takes the best of both worlds, having an actually good refresh rate, but also sharing some of the same unique qualities as e-ink.

Now, keep in mind, this display is not e-ink.

I wanna get that out of the way.

We're gonna talk about the display a little bit later, but first, let's talk about my actual experience using the device.

So overall, using this device for the past two weeks,

I can say that for the most part, this device has accomplished its goal, which is to create a healthier, more human-friendly computer.

Because the display is limited to black and white,

I didn't find myself wanting to scroll through social media, even though it is fully capable of doing so.

Watching videos in monochrome just really isn't enjoyable.

Paired with the incredibly tinny-sounding speakers on it makes it terrible for media consumption, which in this case is actually a good thing.

So instead of mindlessly scrolling, when I picked up this device,

I naturally gravitated towards more productive and less stimulating tasks.

Because it runs on Android 13, you're able to install any app on the App Store.

So not only was I able to install the Kindle app and have instant access to all my e-books,

I was also able to install the Bible app to get some reading done there, or browse through Chrome to do some research.

And I think an important distinction between reading on the Daylight and reading on a Kindle is that you're not just limited to Amazon's monopoly that is the Kindle Store.

But if you actually wanted to pull up a third-party app, maybe catch up on the news or pull up a recipe, you can now actually not only do that, but do that smoothly.

So for things like highlighting text or making annotations, all of that is just much nicer on the Daylight with that 60 Hertz refresh rate.

Now, on top of doing all of that stuff,

Daylight also gives you a stylus or a pen made by Wacom.

It doesn't use any batteries, so you don't need to charge it.

And I was able to use it for note-taking, creating to-do lists, and even doodle a little bit, which is something I haven't done in years.

And honestly, these days, it seems like screen time is only going up.

And so having something actually tactile that you can write on instead of just clicking or tapping on a screen is refreshing.

When the device is off and I see it laying there on the couch,

I don't feel the urge that I would with like an iPhone or an iPad to just pick it up and scroll around or maybe browse social media.

But then another benefit with this device is its backlight.

Now, modern displays, like the one you're probably watching this video on right now, run into two problems for a small amount of people.

So the first problem is blue light, and the second problem is that they flicker.

So yes, even right now, as you're watching this video, your screen is actually flickering a couple hundred times per second.

And if you lower your brightness, it'll flicker at a slower rate.

This is a process that's called PWM, or pulse width modulation.

For most people, this is not a problem.

But if you have sensitive eyes, it can lead to eye strain, headaches, or in extreme cases, even migraines and seizures.

So instead of using PWM, the daylight uses what's called DC dimming, which is completely free of any flickering.

But then maybe something a little more people care about is blue light.

Now, the daylight features this warmish backlight.

So if you compare it to a Kindle, it is much warmer.

But then at night, it also has this extremely warm amber backlight, which is supposedly 100% blue light free, which you can dial in to your own liking.

Now, these two things, flicker free and blue light free, may not even affect you, and you might not even care about this stuff.

But it's nice to know that they're thinking about these people who could potentially be sensitive to these effects.

But then this is sort of where I ran into a couple of issues with this device.

Of course, no product is perfect.

And this being a first-gen product, there's gonna be some issues.

So for one, it doesn't have the fastest processor.

It uses the MediaTek Helio G99, which I haven't heard of.

But what I can say is that the two apps that I use the most on a day-to-day basis don't actually run that well on the daylight.

So Spark, my preferred email client, is just slow, laggy, and often crashes, and is basically completely unusable.

Like in my two weeks of testing,

I just couldn't get any emails done on it, which is a big part of my day-to-day.

And then the other app that I use a ton is Notion.

And again, Notion feels sluggish and clunky, opening different pages, navigating around the UI, just feels a little bit slow.

This one isn't as bad as Spark.

Like it's still usable, but it's just not as snappy or as responsive as I would like it to be.

But then the thing that makes it feel incomplete is the lack of a keyboard case.

Generally with a tablet meant for productivity, you would want some sort of first-party, like attachable or detachable keyboard case so you don't have to carry around a separate Bluetooth keyboard.

With the Daylight though, even though there is some sort of connector in the back, they're not selling any keyboard cases.

So then not only do you have to find some sort of stand to prop it up, but you also have to bring your own Bluetooth keyboard.

And it really made me not wanna use it for any sort of tasks that requires typing, which is a lot of my day.

So that's the first thing.

But the second thing is just the overall hardware of the device.

It's made from this recycled plastic material, which feels a little bit cheap, and it's also quite heavy coming in at 550 grams compared to other tablets in the same size range.

The iPad Air comes in at 462 grams, and the Remarkable 2 comes in at 403 grams.

So at 550, it feels a little bit hefty, and I have gotten this comment from a couple of friends who I've handed this device to.

And also this might be a matter of preference or potentially for the blue light reasons, but the backlight on it is oddly warm, which I just didn't personally like.

Lastly, the display isn't particularly the sharpest, coming in at 190 pixels per inch compared to the 200 plus on the Remarkable,

Books, and the iPad Air.

Makes this one just a tad bit fuzzy when you're really looking close.

It's not that bad, but I do wish that it was a little bit sharper.

So all of that, I can understand.

It's a first-gen product.

I assume that they're gonna improve on it in version two.

But I think the biggest problem that I have with this device is the display.

But not even the display itself, but the way that they market the display.

And this is something that I've noticed on different posts, different comments, just replies to their social media posts that people are not only, one, confused about the tech behind it, but also two, for the people that know what it actually is, they're actively calling them out on it because it's a little bit misleading.

Here's what I'm talking about.

So on the website, it says, we invented a new type of display that's like e-ink, but faster.

Or here it says, super fast, like e-ink, but better.

But as I mentioned before, it's not e-ink.

And when you look at the specs on the device, they call it a live paper display.

But what is live paper?

And if it truly is a new invention that they've come out with, why isn't there more information on it?

It took a bit of digging, but eventually I found the answer in the Daylight subreddit where the founder made a post.

Here's what it says.

We developed our own custom e-paper display tech we call live paper.

We focused on solving the trade-offs our LCDs traditionally have.

Around reflectance percentage, metallic look, not paper-like enough, viewing angle, white slate, et cetera, et cetera.

Now, if you caught it, the answer was right there in that post.

So this, turns out, is not e-ink, but it is an LCD display.

To be specific, it's a transflective LCD, which is just another variation of LCD.

Not gonna go into the specifics, but what you need to know is that transflective LCDs have been around since the early 2000s.

And even today are used in applications where display needs to be viewable indoors as well as outdoors.

Take for example, a smartwatch.

But fundamentally, this is not a new type of display.

And by directly comparing it to e-ink,

I can't help but feel that it's a little bit misleading for the consumer.

In fact, let's compare it to e-ink.

I have a seven-year-old Kindle right here.

And if you look at the side-by-side, these two displays actually look quite similar, but there are some differences.

For example, on the right, you can see that the Kindle has higher contrast.

The whites are whiter.

Also, viewing angles.

LCDs are just not as good as e-ink.

And that's because e-ink and LCD fundamentally work in completely different ways.

With e-ink, there's actually a layer of ink that is physically moving back and forth, which will obviously interact with light much more differently than an LCD display, which uses tons of layers, a polarizer, a reflector.

So when viewed at certain angles, it's not gonna have the same visibility as an e-ink display.

Not to mention, one of the biggest advantages of e-ink is that it is bi-stable, meaning that once an image is set, it doesn't require constant electricity to maintain that image.

LCD, on the other hand, does require constant electricity.

So once you turn it off, the image disappears.

So while this tablet can still be pretty efficient and have a pretty good battery life, it's not gonna be at the same levels as let's say a Kindle or any other e-ink tablet.

Now, look, I get it.

This is a tough challenge to solve because on the one hand, it does resemble e-ink in some ways.

It's non-emissive, which means you can use it without any backlight like e-ink.

And it's also got the matte texture that people typically associate with e-ink.

But just because you put a matte texture on an LCD display does not make it e-ink.

And again, when you directly compare it to a different technology that is fundamentally different, it becomes incredibly confusing.

And also, when people are actively asking you directly, like whether this is e-ink or a matte LCD, and you guys respond with, it's like e-ink but better, that is again, incredibly misleading, kind of like a bad look on the company and a little bit scummy in my opinion.

Now, I did get to talk to the lead engineer at Daylight.

And what I can say is they are aware of the issues and the confusion on social media.

And they're actively reading the comments and trying to figure out a solution.

One potential solution that we talked about is creating an official blog post on the Daylight website that goes into detail of how the live paper display actually works and the tech behind it.

I personally think that that's a good solution and would help a lot with transparency and honesty.

But also under the tech specs of the device, you should probably put transflective LCD just somewhere in there.

Now, I'm not trying to downplay what this company has created or the mission that they stand for.

I think for many of us, screen addiction and social media addiction is a real thing, whether we realize it or not.

And I think it takes a lot of courage and bravery to spend six years developing a product that might not even take off and is trending in the opposite direction of what the industry is leaning towards, which is colorful, addictive displays.

But this device won't be for everyone.

It costs $729, which is more than an iPad Air 11-inch and considerably more than the other e-ink tablets on the market right now.

And also, like I mentioned before, it faces a lot of the hardware challenges of a first-gen product.

Like charging $729 for a device that doesn't even do emails and doesn't have any first-party accessories to make full use of the display is a little bit outrageous.

But overall though,

I can say that there is a place for a device like this.

Clearly, with the Remarkable and the Books tablets that have come out over the past few years, it sort of tells me that there is a niche crowd out there, or maybe a big crowd out there that is actively seeking to pay more for less.

And so hopefully with version two, it'll have better hardware, better build quality, maybe be a little bit lighter and have a faster processor.

And hopefully they can get that price way down.

Now, Daylight is a small company and I'm sure they're gonna be watching this video.

So if you have any thoughts, feedback, or questions, definitely drop them below.

But hope you learned something new today.