[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.