When did the Air's get backlit keys as I need o know date and model?

The original MacBook Air had a keyboard backlight, when it was released in 2008, only the 2010 MBA did not have one. Apple re-indtroduced the backlight in 2011.

www.everymac.com has specs on all Macs.

 

I got the 2010

Still a nice piece of kit tho'

 

Time to upgrade =)

 

lol, i find it hilarious that anyone with a laptop dated only two years old feels that it is massively outdated. I kept my first Windows XP laptop for a good 7 years before replacing it. Yes it was massively out of date specs wise by the time i got rid of it, but was doing its job well up until the time its days come to an end.

 

It's the Apple Way...
In about one month people will say: "OMG you still have an iPhone 4S!"

 

My 3GS is still going strong! I keep willing the battery to die so that I have a reason to upgrade, but every time iOS is updated the battery life gets better....!

 

I bought my 11" in July 2011 but the new model wasnt avaliable in Thailand when I bought mine, but since I saved nearly 40% off the normal retail price even though I bouught through an Authorised Apple Reseller I wasnt going to complain lol!

 

For me, the backlit keys are pretty useless unless you work in the dark sixty percent of the time, every time. It's just a cosmetic feature to me. I shut mine off since I work with the light on. The only routine use would be for those lonely late night sessions to ease some tension..

 

My wife still has her 1st generation 2008 MBA. Still going strong. Apple even replaced a broken hinge for free, even though it's been out warranty for over a year.

Airplanes. And conferences, when you are taking notes in during presentation. Since the Air was designed to travel, my wife's Air finds itself in darkened rooms and planes all the time. The backlit keys are just are just about the best feature (for her) after its small size.

 

I find the backlit keyboard very valuable - it was a big part of my move from a 2010 model to 2011. Planes for sure, but even working with an Air on your lap in the evening while watching TV, the lit keyboard it great.

 

I don’t use the backlighting much but it’s invaluable at times. I do wish the lowest brightness setting were a bit less bright, though; I never use it higher than the minimum setting, and it’s still a bit distracting.

 

Perhaps when the retina screen version arrives. But perhaps not, my MBA is more than good enough for my needs (despite the lack of backlit keys, it's just disappointing/ironic that Apple removed them for that one rev only).

I bought the last but one rev of the PowerMac and ran it for ca. 5 or 6 years before upgrading, and even then I only upgraded because OSX and new apps wouldn't support the old CPU. It still works fine, but is forever stuck at 10.5.

 

As someone who never looks at the keyboard, the backlit keyboard isn't important to me at all. Sure it looks cool, but that's about it.

Well, the 2010 air is a bit of a special case. It isn't really any more powerful then a rev B or rev C air, with exception to the GPU and the optional 4GB memory. So it can definitely feel slow in today's tasks since it's essentially running 4-5 year old hardware. A top-end laptop from 2010 would probably still be fairly usable today, especially if the RAM is upgradeable. ML can use >2GB on a fresh boot, so I would say having a large amount of memory can make a big difference as to whether or not an old laptop is usable

For me, it's worth a couple thousand every few years to have a computer that doesn't force me to slow down. That may not be the case for you, but I wouldn't knock others with different priorities.

 

What are you running on startup that means 2GB of RAM is allocated upon boot?

 

It was a fresh install when I checked the startup usage. My current mac does have 16GB memory though. I have not checked startup usage on my rev B air

Edit: Just checked my Rev B air. It uses 900MB on a fresh boot. Still pretty significant for a machine that only has 2GB. Won't take many applications to use that up

 

My 2009 MBA has a backlit keyboard.

 

The SSD Upgrade in the 2010 Air over the 2008-2009 is substantially faster. (215 Mb/s read versus less than half that) and the GPU (as you mentioned) got doubly-fast. Believe me, I had a late-2008 Air with 9400m/128SSD and upgraded to the 2010 Air with 4GB RAM and the better GPU and faster SSD and it was night and day faster.

I still bemoan not having the Backlit keyboard, but it's a small price to pay for a machine that's served me excellently and daily for almost 2 years.

Yes. Every model of Air, except for the ones introduced in October 2010 have Backlit keyboards.

 

I have a 4GB 2010 and it runs great for web browsing, emailing, writing, working and stuff. It's only slow for things like handbrake encoding and importing or rendering video in FCPX/iMovie -and even then the actual editing isnt an issue.