“If you can stomach the price, the Skylight Cal Max makes it easy to streamline your chores, meal prepping, and upcoming events.”
- Premium design
- Integrates with most calendars
- Colorful UI helps organize events
- Distraction-free interface
- Missing some features
- Doesn’t support apps
The world of smart displays is dominated by the Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub. These products are jack-of-all-trades devices, giving you access to a touchscreen with support for apps like Netflix and Spotify, while also serving as a connected hub for the rest of your smart home. In that regard, the Skylight Cal Max couldn’t be more different.
The Skylight Cal Max is a sprawling 27-inch touchscreen display built specifically for organization. It doesn’t support apps. It won’t connect to your smart home. And you don’t get a built-in voice assistant. But for folks seeking a distraction-free way to organize their lives, the Skylight Cal Max is a worthy alternative to traditional smart displays.
Getting started
Because of its size, the Skylight Cal Max needs to be mounted on a wall. That’s a stark contrast to most smart displays and digital calendars, which often let you choose between standing them on a countertop or mounting them. Getting the Cal Max onto your wall isn’t too much of a hassle, though you’ll need to be moderately comfortable with power tools. The calendar comes with a mounting template, making it easy to figure out how to align it on your wall and reduce headaches from trying to get it level.
Once the device is mounted properly, you’ll then need to download the Skylight app. This will walk you through the rest of the process (which only takes a few more minutes). During this setup, you can send out invite requests to family members and sync your existing calendars from Google, Apple, Outlook, Yahoo, Cozi, and Readdle.
A striking centerpiece
Part of the reason the Skylight is so expensive is because the team didn’t cut any corners with its design. The 27-inch touchscreen gets you a 2560 by 1440 resolution that looks great in action — and since it doubles as a digital picture frame when not in use, galleries and slideshows look fantastic in action. The screen is also responsive to touch. I’ve experienced no lag or slowdown when sifting through its menus or typing on its touch keyboard.
Skylight offers a few different frame styles and finishes to help you personalize the Cal Max. Arguably the most enticing option is the Shadow Box style, which encases the Cal Max in an aluminum frame and makes it look much more upscale than either the Echo Show or Nest Hub. Of course, it’s also much more expensive, clocking in at around $600 (and possibly more, depending on your configurations).
Not your average smart display
As I alluded to earlier, the Skylight Cal Max isn’t a traditional smart display. In fact, I hesitate to even use the term “smart display,” as “smart calendar” seems more appropriate. Whereas devices like the Echo Show and Nest Hub can sync with other smart devices, let you stream TV shows, listen to music, or check the news, the Skylight Cal Max won’t let you do any of that.
Instead, it’s a streamlined device built around organization. You won’t find entertainment apps or other distractions here — but what you will find is a variety of menus that let you improve your daily routines.
The big selling point is the digital calendar, which syncs with your existing calendars from sources like Google or Apple. And since you can invite other members to the Cal Max, you can get your entire family’s schedule plotted on the calendar with ease. Best of all, changes you make on your phone or laptop are automatically pushed to the Cal Max.
You can even enable a setting that pushes changes made directly on the Cal Max back to your connected accounts, allowing them to stay updated regardless of where you’re performing the edits. That makes it surprisingly easy to keep up with both you and your family’s schedule. The ability to add or edit events from your smartphone, laptop, or directly on the Cal Max makes it much more flexible than a traditional calendar.
Because of this flexibility, I found myself using it more frequently than a traditional calendar. Whether I was hiking, heading to the movies, or just walking the dogs, I could quickly add something to my Cal Max before I got home — ensuring I didn’t forget.
Beyond serving as a digital calendar, you can use a Chore tab to set different chores for family members and use a Meals tab to lay out your eating habits for the week. I found the latter to be particularly useful, as I could quickly check what I planned to eat for the week before grocery shopping. Several preset options are available (such as Tacos, Burgers, and Leftovers), but you can also create your own recipe along with cooking instructions and ingredients. In short, it’s a powerful tool and a great addition to the standard digital calendar format.
A few missing pieces
Overall, I’ve found the Skylight Cal Max to be a welcome addition to my home. The ability to remotely update my calendar is incredibly useful, and because the device itself is so premium, I’m always drawn to it while walking through the room. However, the Cal Max is missing a few features you’d expect to see for a product in this price bracket.
For one, I’ve yet to find an easy way to remove members from the group. So if you give a roommate access who later moves out, you’ll either need to let them stay in the group or factory reset your device. There’s also no option to cross out events as you complete them — something I love to do on traditional calendars.
It’s even more strange that your meals don’t appear on the calendar alongside your tasks. Instead, you need to toggle over to the Meals tab to see what’s on the menu.
Those are minor complaints for an otherwise stellar product, but the fact that seemingly simple features are missing on such an expensive device could turn away some shoppers. It’s even more frustrating when you need to sign up for a Skylight Plus membership to use features like cloud backup, online access, and remote settings. The plan is pretty affordable at just $39 per year, but it only makes it more frustrating that some basic features appear to have been left out.
But as long as the price doesn’t scare you away, the Skylight Cal Max is an excellent way to organize your life. With a vibrant display, easy-to-use interface, and several ways to update and edit your schedule, it’s the best alternative to smart displays that I’ve seen.
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