[rowaway1]

backlit keyboard aren't just for looking nice. they're for working at night in dark rooms. before touch typing you need to glance quickly at your hand's position above the keys, to make sure your hand position isn't transposed slightly up, down, left, right--which happens easily when you're blinded by a monitor in the dark, and the key bed is pitch black. yes, you can fold down your monitor till the light illuminates the keys, squint while you orient your hand, then raise the monitor to eye-level...but that is a distraction to workflow when hacking at night. way too much effort just for checking hand orientation. backlit keys solve that problem, which is one of the most serious 1st world problems facing rich people with nice computers today.

[Shorel]

No, no, no.

That's why the F and J keys have small bumps you can feel so you can position your hands for touch typing. The 5 key in the numeric keyboard also has one of these.

The backlight can be useful for the function keys or whatever, but touch typing does not need any light.

[wyclif]

As a touch typist I've never understood the fetish for backlit keyboard design, I don't need it and it only decreases battery power.

[rowaway1]

people who work in the dark, but have not achieved total union with the keyboard, appreciate the backlight. forced battery drain isn't an issue: turn off the light if you don't want.

[rowaway1]

do f and j bumps enable you to touch transcribe this string?

>}[\|:{%^&?`~]*();"'!@_+-=#$,./<

not for me. these keys are the bottlenecks that break my flow and force me to think for a few moments about where things are.

your tactile union with your keyboard may be 100%, but mine is more like 80%. congrats if you've mastered chopsticks, but fork is a no-brainer. i admire the simplicity of those little f and j bumps, but they're just no match for a glance.

why not a choice: a backlight to turn on if you want, off if you don't? i don't want a backlight on all the time either. if i'm banging out email, no need. but if i'm coding, or something else that requires lots of special characters and finger-fu, then a backlight is handy.

[chrisbolt]

I've never used a laptop where the keys weren't illuminated by the big LCD behind them.

[rowaway1]

you've never stared into a bright LCD in the dark and become blind to the keyboard? if so, cool. but many people have sensitive eyes.