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If MBA had a keyboard light? Would you conisider it now?

L

Lamarak

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2010
344
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The new MBA having no lighted keyboard was a deal breaker for me. I was considering selling my 2009 13 MBP and getting an air because I do take it around a lot and having the lit keyboard was very useful in dark classrooms and under lit rooms. I do have some sight problems and wear pretty thick glasses.

So if it had a lighted keyboard, would it have made you consider it at all as a replacement for your current computer?
 
No, the lack of keyboard backlighting doesn't deter me at all. When I type, I never look down at the keys, and so I keep my backlight off in any case.

I wonder if there is a generational difference in the use of backlit keys. I'm in my early 20s, and I and all my friends were trained to type in school with a sheet covering our hands. None of us use the backlight feature.
 
I like using the backlit keyboard, even if I don't need to look at the keyboard. It's just a nice... extra. especially when I play video games in the dark, and I'm randomly trying to find the 3 button, but hitting 2 or 4 will kill me. Than a backlit keyboard is very important. :D
 
wow, that's a huge bummer, especially for a Premium product like the MBA, I wouldn't sell my 2009 13" MBP because The new MBA Is still and even more underpowered, 1.6 and 1.8 is pretty bad, the older one was 1.83 and 2.13, It's sexy but it's not enough for me

Back on topic I have my MacBook Pro as a companion product so I use it sometimes on my couch in the dark, in bed, in my car and so on, and I found it even more useful than i thought
 
Alvi said:
wow, that's a huge bummer, especially for a Premium product like the MBA, I wouldn't sell my 2009 13" MBP because The new MBA Is still and even more underpowered, 1.6 and 1.8 is pretty bad, the older one was 1.83 and 2.13, It's sexy but it's not enough for me

Back on topic I have my MacBook Pro as a companion product so I use it sometimes on my couch in the dark, in bed, in my car and so on, and I found it even more useful than i thought
Click to expand...

Im getting a job soon that will require travel is why I was considering it, but no lighted keyboard and in hind sight the points you brought up, I will be lugging my 13 with my hypermac battery. That battery is so useful and handy.
 
Lamarak said:
Im getting a job soon that will require travel is why I was considering it, but no lighted keyboard and in hind sight the points you brought up, I will be lugging my 13 with my hypermac battery. That battery is so useful and handy.
Click to expand...

I type on an apple bluetooth keyboard most of the time, I never look at my keyboard, I touch type, so the backlight is pretty much useless to me.
 
Lamarak said:
Im getting a job soon that will require travel is why I was considering it, but no lighted keyboard and in hind sight the points you brought up, I will be lugging my 13 with my hypermac battery. That battery is so useful and handy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I travel a lot with my 13" MacBook Pro and It's an okay computer, I find it kinda heavy sometimes, even if it's nothing compared to a Dell Computer or an HP but it's hard to hold it with one hand and the Air isn't.
Apple is definitely hiding stuff like Under-powering with better (not amazing like the iPad) battery life and SSD's, and It still only has 2GB of ram so I feel that it's overpriced, This style of Specs (especially the 11" one) is made to compete with Premium netbooks that are 600$, and the Netbook era is almost over because of the tablets so this is made for students with money that also have an iMac, but probably also have an iPad (which makes it an awkward expense)
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I like using the backlit keyboard, even if I don't need to look at the keyboard. It's just a nice... extra. especially when I play video games in the dark, and I'm randomly trying to find the 3 button, but hitting 2 or 4 will kill me. Than a backlit keyboard is very important. :D
Click to expand...

well it wouldn't be important on a MBA in that case..
 
Epsilon88 said:
No, the lack of keyboard backlighting doesn't deter me at all. When I type, I never look down at the keys, and so I keep my backlight off in any case.

I wonder if there is a generational difference in the use of backlit keys. I'm in my early 20s, and I and all my friends were trained to type in school with a sheet covering our hands. None of us use the backlight feature.
Click to expand...

This
 
i understand that some users say how they are touch typists and that they have no need for backlit keyboard, but quite simply in dark environments it is a perfect companion to make typing a bit more enjoyable and convenient.

I am a 80+ WPM typist, also trained like some other posters here who were taught in high school to type with a cover over the hand. that doesn't mean the backlight is useless and I use mine every night. Also, we weren't trained in high school to find the reverse Fn keys, so for those controls the backlight is rather helpful
 
For me it would need a backlit KB and a FW800 port. Then it would be perfect. I don't need the SD card slot.
 
Some folks speculate Apple will drop the keyboard light on MBP in future updates. That would suck big time.
 
No wonder they have no shots of the MBA in the dark...

They should really add the backlighting - At the moment the MBP is the only Mac that has a backlit keyboard. As someone said earlier, if they take that away that would REALLY suck.

•I also think that the desktop keyboards should have backlighting too :D
 
The reason I got the 15" MBP was I needed a computer to do everything for me (movies, bootcamp, photoshop, run games in win7). If I had a powerful desktop I'd consider the MBA but the lack of backlit keyboards might force me to wait for the refresh of the 13" MBP. I can't imagine how much space the LED's actually take up.
 
if it had the light id sell my mbp and get the 4gb ram model. i dont use optical at all.
 
No Backlit keyboard is a dealbreaker

The Air cost too much priced above the 13" Pro. If it was the price of the 11.6" with a backlit keyboard yeah I would probably buy it.

Strange that every phone has a backlit keyboard (and did right from the beginning way, way back), but laptop makers think that with almost ten times as many keys a laptop keyboard should not be backlit.
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I never used the backlight on my MBP except when using an external display with the laptop display turned off...with the display on, even at the lowest brightness, the keys are plainly visible.
 
toxic said:
I never used the backlight on my MBP except when using an external display with the laptop display turned off...with the display on, even at the lowest brightness, the keys are plainly visible.
Click to expand...


Some people can basically see in the dark. Some can touch type 100 words per minute when sleepy.

Should everyone else be euthanized?
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No, the deal breaker as a secondary machine is the lack of gigabit ethernet, for practical backup, and when there is no wireless.

As a primary machine, the lack of FireWire also brings it down.

And finally, the impossibility of upgrading it makes it throwaway.
 
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