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Comment by forensic | Hacker News Reader

Why did they remove the keyboard light? That is an essential feature for me. I guess I'm gonna cling to my current MBA until it dies instead of upgrading for better hardware :(

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That's funny, I was having a conversation with a friend last week about how neither of us ever use the keyboard backlight. Cool to see that someone actually does!

I agree the backlit keyboard is so nice on the MBP - I'm guessing next year's Airs will get it...

It's not too likely. It was a feature of the previous Airs, so I'm guessing they removed it for some reason going forward (features removed rarely return).

Obvious 'features' such as cameras often disappear from Apple products for first iterations only to reappear later (even when the tech-goss blogs reveal the chassis has engineered space from the outset)... iPod Touch, iPad etc...

Generally people prefer to look at the screen. Extraneous lights are distracting.

Then give them a choice. The inverse of which is one of Apple's tenants for a holistic ecosystem.

For one of the primary usecases (frequent traveler) the backlit keyboard is pretty important--try typing on a dark plane with the backlight off. Fine most of the time, but when you have to hunt for which symbol is which, or you're not a great touch typer, then you're going to have a much harder time.

That said, my guess is that it's a major battery-suck, and that's why they took it out. White LEDs require non-trivial amounts of power.

I'd gladly "settle" for red LED backlights!

Beacuse Steve Jobs want's you to learn to touch type so you can be more prouctive. It's all in his master plan!

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