Backlit Keyboard to Return in New MacBook Air?

[MacRumors]

Photo of original MacBook Air by kimb0lene

The backlit keyboard will reportedly be making a return to the MacBook Air with the new 2011 models that are quickly approaching release. The seemingly minor feature omission for the 2010 MacBook Air has generated a good bit of backlash on Apple's own support forums.

AppleInsider claims that the imminent MacBook Air refresh will bring back this popular feature:

According to people familiar with the matter, backlit keyboards will join the string of hardware enhancements planned for the new 11.6- and 13.3-inch notebooks, which are also expected to adopt high-speed Thunderbolt ports, an upgrade to Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture, and possibly high-speed 400MBps flash memory.

The backlight provides illumination to the keyboard in the dark (as pictured above). The feature is also present in all of Apple's current MacBook Pro notebooks.

The MacBook Air is expected to be released soon with part numbers already leaked on Monday. Apple is rumored to have delayed the MacBook Air release until OS X Lion was ready and shipping.

Article Link: Backlit Keyboard to Return in New MacBook Air?

[shazzam]

It's the little things that count

[Lone Deranger]

Yes! That'll make these things sell like hot cakes even more!

[Jobsian]

Never been a major concern for myself but I'm glad if it does return as a quick glance at opinion polls will tell you it'll make a lot of people happy!

[torbjoern]

Cool. I wonder why they dropped it in Rev D in the first place.

[talkingfuture]

Never been a big concern for me as I have never used one before. Though seeing how highly rated they are by the people that have used them they must be pretty good. I just hope it doesn't push the price up too much as I always associate the backlit keyboard with Apple's more expensive laptops.

[Illumination]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I'm sold! I need a new Mac anyway.

[MacNico]

Will the new MBA's with ThunderBolt also support flickering and black outs on 24" ACD'S?

The seemingly minor feature omission for the Thunderbolt port's has generated a good bit of backlash on Apple's own support forums.
And also on the MacRumors forum.

[Portaluk]

Excellent news if true, there is no reason i can think of why this feature was removed in the first place.

[RedReplicant]

Waste of battery life to me.

[phalseHUD]

Yes, the 11" is tempting me providing the specs and price are right. Hoping for a price drop in the UK!

[OllyW]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Waste of battery life to me.

You can turn it off if you don't want to use it.

[wrkactjob]

Wow! These newest Airs are going to sell like hot cakes!

Not that I have ever bought a hot cake, nor do I really know what a hot cake is?....in fact most of my favourite cakes are cold ones.

[bchreng]

Queue the 'I-don't-need-it-because-I-can-type-in-the-dark-so-no-one-else-should-either' know-it-all in 3... 2... 1...

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by OllyW

You can turn it off if you don't want to use it.

That circuitry still adds to inefficiency.

[HiRez]

Fantastic if true, it's a feature I would use all the time. Also, I doubt it affects battery life that much, it just uses a few small LEDs, the same type used in keychain flashlights which last for years and are tiny. Although if they can make it a software preference to turn it off, so much the better.

[Jobsian]

Originally Posted by wrkactjob

Wow! These newest Airs are going to sell like hot cakes!

Not that I have ever bought a hot cake, nor do I really know what a hot cake is?....in fact most of my favourite cakes are cold ones.

It's known that warmed-through cakes sell at such speed.

[Duke15]

Originally Posted by wrkactjob

Wow! These newest Airs are going to sell like hot cakes!

Not that I have ever bought a hot cake, nor do I really know what a hot cake is?....in fact most of my favourite cakes are cold ones.

They are pancakes, which sell like crazy here in canada lol

[xUKHCx]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

That circuitry still adds to inefficiency.

I'm surprised you are not also arguing about the extra weight.

The "inefficiency" will be negligible.

[rmbrown09]

I just hope that it has a decent GPU, battery life, backlit, and i5's and i7's.

I also want a flush glass screen but hey.

[Duke15]

This is going to tempt a lot of the ppl who said they probably won't buy one because of theHD3000 graphics

[bchreng]

Originally Posted by xUKHCx

I'm surprised you are not also arguing about the extra weight.

The "inefficiency" will be negligible.

The .1% it could've added to battery life and performance would've have made his day! How could you be so insensitive?!

[dr Dunkel]

What kind of resolutions could be expected?

[akm3]

I LOVE my iPad. I even sold a 15" Macbook Pro and bought a 27" iMac instead, because the iPad replaced my mobile computing needs.

I would *Really* like to see an Air with built in 3G (and while I'm dreaming, with data plan prices the same as the iPad)

Anyway, I know it seems trivial but the backlit keyboard (and the less bitched about lack of an ambient light sensor) which were on the A/B/C Air's I really liked, and miss on my wife's 11" Air. I hope they bring both back, it would seriously tempt me away from the iPad and back to an Air (+tethering iPhone I suppose) as my primary portable.

But I guess what I would really want is for the iPad to be buffed up even more. At least the iPad has a backlit keyboard

[Heilage]

It wouldn't have been a dealbreaker for me, but if the backlit keyboard shows up again, it would be the final little thing that would worry me about the Air.

I want one.