My Disappointment with Daylight Computer

tl;dr: Please don't buy a Daylight Computer DC-1. While their LivePaper screen technology is impressive and something I genuinely like, they never shipped the promised full Sol:OS release. Additionally, the company has focused its marketing efforts on parents of autistic children, including through media that platforms vaccine-skeptical views, and has sponsored a MAHA-aligned autism event.

Browsing Hacker News back in February 2025, I stumbled across thoughts on Daylight Computer, a review of a tablet called Daylight Computer DC-1. The selling point was its LivePaper screen, a 60Hz paper-like screen with an amber backlight. The post piqued my interest. I looked up a video in which Anjan Katta, the founder, demonstrates the tablet and elaborates on the company's philosophy. It deeply resonated with me. He addresses what I have long felt. On a work day, it's easy for me to spend up to 12 hours staring at a screen. It's exhausting, I can't concentrate, and my doomscrolling habit often makes me feel anxious. I often find myself cursing my smartphone dependency.

His promise of a computer that is calm, that removes distractions, that helps me focus on my writing and reading, was intriguing. After two months of consideration, in April 2025, I ordered it for €817.49. Two months later, it arrived on my doorstep.

From day one, I loved it. The promise was fulfilled. I had a computer I could use without feeling stressed.

I quickly recommended it to others:

That was around a year ago. Since then, I've continued to use my DC-1 on a near-daily basis. But over the following year, my view of the Daylight Computer company soured. Would I still recommend it today? No. It pains me to admit it, but I feel scammed.

Technical issues

From the first time I booted it up, the software held back the hardware. To this day, the tablet runs on Android 13 with a customized Niagara Launcher. At first, I didn't care, as I expected them to soon ship their own custom version of Android:

Sol:OS

Sol:OS was supposed to be the software layer for the DC-1 that would bring the company's vision of a healthier computer to life. It was expected in fall 2024. Nearly two years later, the promised full release hasn't materialized. As a consequence, I have two orange buttons on the side of my tablet that do nothing. When customers on social media ask for a release date, Daylight responds with vagueness. A look at their sparse release notes gives me little hope.

Daylight Reader

Daylight Reader comes preinstalled with the tablet and is marketed as their flagship app. It's a native PDF reader which allows you to sync and annotate your files. I never got it to work. I could log into their web app and upload PDFs, but they refused to appear on my DC-1.

I tried solving the issue together with Daylight's very friendly customer support, but as the debugging steps got more and more technical, I just gave up. I thought to myself "As long as Obsidian and Kindle work, I'm fine". Daylight later made backend changes to Reader's upload, storage and sync system, but they never solved the issue for me. A year has passed, and I still can't use it.

Security Updates

The last software update that included security patches was released on 17 February 2026. As the device still runs on Android 13, Daylight must increasingly take responsibility for maintaining the stack and backporting security fixes itself. Will I receive further updates before the fabled Sol:OS release? I have no idea.

Failed Attestation

My DC-1 is not Google Play Protect certified. As a result, some apps outright refuse to work. For example, I can't use the ChatGPT app. Daylight Computer has acknowledged this issue publicly. When it will be fixed is still uncertain.

If you just want to read about the technical issues I have with my device, you can stop now. But, given that it has been nearly two years since the last substantial feature update, I wondered: what is Daylight Computer working on?

Daylight Labs

While Sol:OS remains unfinished, Daylight Computer branched out with Daylight Labs. On its website, the lab is described as:

Daylight Labs will enable us to venture into territories where ideas become "fringe". This is where ancient practices meet modern innovation, and where the future of human-technology symbiosis is being created.

Apparently, the future of "human-technology symbiosis" is incandescent light bulbs and a wooden light fixture with a "custom low EMF grounded plug" - wait what?

Electromagnetic Fields

I knew from the beginning that Daylight Computer was at least partly aimed at the modern wellness scene. Some wellness and health influencers attribute a broad variety of health problems to electromagnetic fields*¹. They range from heart issues and infertility to nausea, headaches and depression.

The low-level environmental EMF exposure of our day-to-day life has not been shown to cause the broad range of effects attributed to it*².

In a podcast appearance, Tristan Scott, an executive, says that

... at the hardware level, nothing has been done on the Gen 1 Daylight Computer really to optimize EMFs

Despite that, concerns about EMF have increasingly appeared in Daylight's marketing.

Our homes and bedrooms are full of electronic devices – Wi-Fi routers, phones, TVs, smart speakers, not to mention all the wiring in the walls. These devices emit various types of EMFs (radiofrequency radiation, electric and magnetic fields from power currents). If we want to create the best sleep sanctuary, we need to mitigate EMFs in our bedroom.

Additionally, their current FAQ addresses the question "Does the tablet have lower EMF than the iPad?"

While Sol:OS is almost two years overdue, they now advertise an upcoming "Smart Airplane Mode" to reduce EMF exposure. Talk about priorities!

Daylight Kids

Daylight has increasingly marketed its products to parents of neurodivergent children, especially children with ADHD and autism. In 2025, they launched Daylight Kids*³. I think the product - a modified DC-1 - is fine. I would prefer my child to use it over an iPad.

In the newsletter "Daylight News #3", they talk about attending an ADHD conference:

Our team recently attended the ADHD conference CHADD ADHD Con in Kansas City, where we connected with professionals who understand the profound impact screen quality has on focus and attention. 

The response was incredible. Educators, clinicians, and parents alike recognized that for many kids—especially those with ADHD, autism, or sensory sensitivities—traditional screens can be overwhelming.

CHADD is a well-established organization for people of all ages with ADHD. The "Autism Health Summit", which Daylight Computer sponsored, is a different kind of event.

Autism Health Summit

The "Autism Health Summit" (AHS) states its goal as "healing the underlying conditions associated with autism". It aims to connect parents of autistic children with alternative medicine and biomedical treatments. The 2026 event had direct links to RFK Jr.'s MAHA network.

The schedule included an announcement from Kennedy himself, a "MAHA Update" and presentations about homeopathic and stem-cell treatments for autism.

A look at the sponsors besides Daylight Computer provides further evidence of the MAHA alignment. Among others, AHS also listed the following sponsors:

• Children's Health Defense, the RFK Jr.-founded organization that promotes claims that vaccines can cause autism
• MAHA Action, an advocacy organization for the Make America Healthy Again movement
• Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that has long promoted vaccine-skeptical material
• Micronic Silver, a company that sells ingestible silver as a dietary supplement, touting its supposed antimicrobial and antiviral benefits*⁴

Podcast appearances

Podcasts are another way Daylight reaches parents of autistic children. Tristan Scott, a Daylight executive, appeared on an episode centered on Daylight products of Autism Parenting Secrets, a podcast that amplifies vaccine-skeptical messages. During the episode, he discusses EMF exposure as a health concern. He also made an appearance on an episode of "From the Spectrum", another podcast aimed at parents of autistic children that features "alternative-health solutions". The podcast advertises Daylight with the promo code "autism" for $50 off.

True believers

I don't believe Tristan Scott is a grifter. Neither do I believe Anjan Katta - the founder whose charismatic video appearance sold me on the DC-1 - is one. After looking through their posts on X, I'm convinced they are true believers. Before I bought my tablet, I knew about Katta's marketing to the wellness industry. Given the overlap between parts of the wellness scene and the MAHA ecosystem, their current marketing no longer surprises me. Daylight found its audience. Maybe one day I'll get my software update.

Conclusion

It's frustrating. With LivePaper, Daylight Computer has a unique technology. Its hardware is constantly held back by its lackluster software. Either way, this was my last purchase from them. I think the anti-vaccine movement is harmful, and I don't want to support a company that markets itself within that ecosystem.

AI disclaimer: As English is my second language, I've used ChatGPT to check for grammatical errors. The prose itself is entirely my own. ChatGPT has been used to research the summit organizers and sponsors.