NP880Z5E Ativ Book 8 - Backlit keyboard washed out. Change to black?

I've recently purchased a refurbished NP880Z5e in silver. The keyboard is of course backlit but almost impossible to read. I have to constantly adjust the backlit or turn it off then move the screen down to see. This is my first time owning a laptop other than a Dell business style laptop so I'm not sure if this is normal for this type of laptop.

I have found a black keyboard which I would assume would work better to allow some contrast between the keys and illuminated. Has anyone tried swapping to a black keyboard with better results?

Pic in a dim room with the backlit turned up all the way. This was taken at my natural viewing angle. The only thing that looks better is turning it off completely.





Pic aiming straight down at the keyboard.


I love the construction of this laptop however the keyboard illumination is by far the worst I've ever experienced.

Thoughts?

 

We've been baffled why Samsung producted so many of those grey keyboards when black would give much better legibility. The keyboards between the different versions of the NP770 / NP780 / NP870 / NP880 should be interchangeable.

However, the standard Samsung part is a keyboard in the keyboard surround and palmrest called the "unit housing top". Having black keycaps in a silver surround will look OK but a complete black keyboard unit in an otherwise silver notebook will look a little peculiar (but will be easy on the eyes).

Another option is to try replacing just the key caps. I think they can be unclipped and changed, but haven't had need to try.

John

 

Thanks for the information. After browsing around the web, it appears that there are several aftermarket keyboards. I'm not sure if the keyboard on this laptop is infact OEM since the laptop is a refurb (from BestBuy). I'll try to find a black keyboard and see how it works.

Thanks
Matt

 

Here's an example of a complete "unit housing top".

Be forewarned that swapping that part is a major disassembly exercise.

John

 

Thank you for posting the example. I'm not sure that I would want to change completely to black. If possible, I would just chance to a black keyboard. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a genuine Samsung keyboard or entire top assembly.

 

Up until the 2012 generation (NP700Z5C in case of the 15.6 inch) Series 7 models were indeed silver aluminium chassis with black keys. These are some of the best laptop keyboards I've ever used.



Then Samsung made the mistake of using silver keys on the 2013 NP770/780Z5E causing lots of users to complain about lack of contrast -- on an otherwise well designed and well built laptop. They partially addressed that with the all-black NP870/880Z5E just a few months later. But strangely, they never went back to the universally well received silver/black combination of previous Series 7 generations.

You could try and replace just they key caps, as John mentioned earlier.

 

I may have had that version if it was the one with the aluminum bottom also instead of it being plastic and I believe it had a cd drive also.
I now have an ativ book 8 and I must say that I felt the same about the key contrast or what ever but to be truly honest in the dark having the keyboard set on the lowest illumination setting is more than plenty bright. Any time I turn the illumination to the max it looks really cool great and plenty bright. From the pics you have shown in all seriousness that looks normal. To me at night it looks great and during the day in light it's just fine.
And like I said though when I 1st started using the ativ book 8 I did feel that maybe the illumination was not bright enough and maybe having black keys would have been better. That's how I was then but now I truly like the silver keys and the illumination. So if your illumination is showing up well at night but you still think it should be brighter or anything just give it time and I think you will adjust to it just fine.
I also should say that I know what it's like having black keys on a laptop even now because I also have a mac book pro. To me I think the illumination is much cooler on the ativ book 8 and I have no trouble with the silver keys. The illumination is like a cool blue that is bright.

 

It's not a matter of the brightness of the illumination. It's a matter of the bright silver-white light of the illumination not contrasting sufficiently against the silver keycaps, especially when the brightness of the screen reflects on the keycaps. I've had my NP780Z5E for over two years now, and this has been my only consistent complaint. I didn managed to find one merchant on eBay that sells the black keyboards (without the top assembly and frame) for about $30 shipped from China. I'm probably going to get one of those and see how easy it is to replace the unit on my Series 7. On my Thinkpad W replacing the keyboard is stupidly easy (two screws and the whole unit comes out), but I get the impression that I will have to disassemble most of the layers of the NP780Z5E to get to the keyboard. I have been unable to find a video of the process.

An alternative would be to buy the keyboard from ebay and then switch out the key caps. That would keep me from having to remove the system board and be much less likely to damage the laptop, but I have no idea how I would go about that on an island-style keyboard like this.