I find the backlit keyboard to be very useful for working in low-light conditions. You can adjust the brightness of it using a couple F-keys. I got it as a BTO option on my 1.33 PB15 and IMO, it's well worth the $62 (edu discount). It's the kind of thing where, if you're going to be blowing $2500 on a laptop, don't skimp on a $70 option that you "think" you might want. You can always turn the backlight off if it irritates you for some reason, but if you don't buy it to begin with, you'll always want/wonder.