How do you feel about non-backlit keyboards?

Hello everyone. My thread is just to ask all of you guys' opinion on backlit laptop keyboards, because the laptop I'm looking at is about $1000 but without a backlit keyboard. I previously owned a weak laptop with a backlit keyboard, and it helped. I don't know what to do! By the way, is 6.83 lbs heavy? Thanks everyone.

 

Heavy for what? It is for a 15.6" laptop, but it's lightweight for a 17.3" laptop.

My laptop has a ThinkLight instead of a backlit keyboard, so there's a little LED that shines down from the top of the display onto the keyboard. That works just fine, though I never really use it sine my fingers have muscle memory of where all the keys are.

Maybe you could post in the WNBSIB forum and fill out the sticky to get advice on what laptop to buy?

 

I rarely use the keyboard backlight on my Vaio Z, but I must admit that it looks cool in the dark.

 

I personally find the feature useful if you're going to use your laptop in very low light conditions with the display set to lower brightness levels. Aside from that, not all that useful, i can live without it for sure, i considering having one a nice extra, but not a deal breaker.

 

@privatejarhead sorry I didn't specify! I'm talking about for a 15-15.6" laptop model. I did fill out a form and had a thread, but I promised that would be my last questioning thing, so I did t want to harass the forum haha xD I was looking at the sager 9130 for a college/gaming laptop, but the no backlit keyboard and weight worries me. I have a budget of $1000-$1200 because I only want to keep the laptop until I see what haswell has to offer then I'll sell it. Thanks for your input by the way! That's a pretty cool laptop feature! I kinda know where most keys are on the keyboard but I naturally glance at it from time to time to make sure what I'm typing is correct, so I'm just fidgety with losing a backlit keyboard. What do you think?

@namaiki lol thanks for your input as well! It's kinda the same with a good bunch of kids in my college (minus the lovely vaio z) in the fact that not many are bothered by having no backlit keyboard.

 

Ah, well you can't really "harass" the WNBSIB forum; I've posted a ton of threads there before finally deciding on my W520

As for the keyboard, I suppose it's up to you. If you mostly don't have issue with finding keys with just your fingers, the loss of the backlit keyboard doesn't seem all that great. If someone took out my ThinkLight tomorrow, I wouldn't miss it really. And in the laptops I've tested that had backlit keyboards, I felt that the typing quality was compromised (keyboard flex and whatnot).

 

tijo: thanks once again tijo! The more and more it looks like people don't really require backlit keyboards. It doesn't hurt your eyes to type when it's dark?

privatejarhead: ahhh I didn't see it that way. To keep for 1 year, I'm not sure what I want. I guess my difficulty is choosing a weighty but great performance and no backlit keyboard as opposed to one that has good weight, cooling but not so great performance and a nice backlit keyboard for a good price. Sorry I worded this pretty badly xD I'm so indecisive so I'm using a budget as my decisive factor, but it's still a struggle

 

Don't really need the backlight when I game but it would be pretty awesome looking and useful for typing in the dark.

Too bad the Clevo W110ER didn't have the option for it just yet and there doesn't seem to be a way to mod the keyboard. :/

 

it is really hard to type when you use it in dark especially if u are not good with typing

 

As others have said, if you intend to use your laptop in low-light conditions than it is certainly helpful.
As for my feelings towards a non-backlit keyboard, I'm using a laptop without backlighting for about a year now and have not had a need for it yet. It's a nice accessory, but not necessary in my opinion.

 

Thank you lVantage, uday and Steven! It seems to me then that I can save some money on a backlit keyboard then. The only qualm I have is that I had a 14" laptop with a backlit keyboard and used it all the time at night. I guess it shouldn't be that bad to have a change I guess?

 

As long as the lcd backlight isn't set to low levels, you'll still see the keyboard just fine.

 

This, and so I can compete with the macs next to me.

 

Hahaha at my school we have a ton of Mac user as well xD wait tijo so it should be cool to just use a non-backlit for the time being?

 

Every backlit keyboard I've owned has been a race to disable it. If you touch type you really don't need it and it eats up some of your battery life.

 

I find backlit keyboards more annoying than helpful. They generally distract my eyes heavily from the screen, and anytime that I would actually use them it takes longer to find the correct button pattern to turn them on then it does to just use the light switch.

 

It's a nice novelty. And after using a backlit for years now, I've gotten used to it. I usually just leave it on all the time, it's fun. With this notebook it's nice to have it at colors I'm in the mood for, instead of just white.

Hmm the Sager 9130 comes with a GTX 670M. Have you considered getting a MSI then? Their Steelseries keyboards have good reputation so far. I think Asus is coming out with a 14" machine with the GTX 670MX also. Though both probably more than 1200.

Just go with the P150EM then, splurge a little. If you need more CPU power to upgrade Haswell, then just upgrade your Ivey to something faster and better and OC it. It seems that for mobile platform, Haswell will not be able to overclock.

 

Wait hulawafu with the asus thing, is it 14" or 17"? I read your links and it looks like they only talk about the 17. At the same time, the msi look so... Interesting lol! I guess I'll take a look at the 9150 from mythlogic with the steelseries keyboard, but it's expensive tho! And thanks for more of your inputs fellas I always appreciate it!

 

For both my desktop and my laptop I found that over the years I've grown accustomed to the back-lighting on the keyboards. I'm usually in low light conditions, and occasionally catch myself looking down at the keyboard to see what I'm pressing while typing. This is probably attributed to a lack of typing skill, but I honestly find it useful to at least have a feature I can choose to use, or turn off.

 

It's really great if you don't have a setup where you know there will always be overhead light. If you're sharing a room (dorm, hotel, etc.) where you might need to work in the dark, its a life saver.

 

Thanks for more of the inputs!! mkyeny that's the same way I type sometimes. I try to use muscle memory to access my keys, but for some reason I look down to the keyboard a lot. Also, i do live in a dorm so i have to be considerate of my roomate and have the lights off sometimes. Although, from what some of the others say, the keys aren't hard to see even with the lowest screen lighting. Syndrome, what machine are you using? Were the keys like, super bright for no reason? Once again thank you for your experiences and opinions guys!

 

Just carry around a flashlight lol... Joking aside if you really need to see the keyboard just tilt the screen down... But if you have been typing for years, you should really have no problems

 

Rarely use the backlight keyboard and most likely would not consider this feature to make a final decision.