We’re still waiting for that to happen with LED backlighting on laptop keyboards, however. And we may be waiting a while.
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p
Why would you need backlighting? If you tend to compute, say, in bed at night and don’t want to disturb your spouse with the bedside lamp, backlighting is a blessing. Same thing if you often compute on red-eye flights or even a dim dorm room. Serious gamers, too, who might appreciate keyboard mnemonics of a sort, can opt for a gaming model with per-key programmable lighting—a feature championed especially by Dell’s Alienware brand.
Now, key lighting isn’t found only on expensive machines. Still, the best LED-backlit laptops are typically midrange or high-end gaming machines, or the better thin-and-light models. Most models with key lighting start at about $800 and rise from there—and sometimes rise a lot.
As we alluded to above, one kind of LED-backlit keyboard is can’t-miss obvious: the colorful ones on certain gaming machines. Models like the Alienware 17, Alienware 18, and MSI GT70 deliver elaborately programmable backlighting that not only can be set in zones or clusters, but can also feature transition effects, such as breathing, pulsing, and color changing. The effects can be practical (outlining certain keys) or just aesthetic.
The other, more common kind of key backlighting is a fixed single color. Usually—but not always—that’s white. A couple of blazing exceptions, though, are predictably in gaming machines: Witness the green glow of the 2013 refresh of the Razer Blade, or the edgy red of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p.
LED-Backlit Keyboards: What to Look For
If you can, though, you'll still want to look at the actual laptop before you buy. Some backlight designs are better (and brighter) than others. To evaluate the backlight feature, keep these factors in mind…
BRIGHTNESS & TWEAKABILITY. Can you manually kick the brightness level up and down? Check for this control; you might perform it via a combination of keys. Not every machine allows for this; alternately, all you may be able to do is turn the lighting on or off. Some premium machines employ sensors that adjust the brightness automatically according to where you’re working or playing.
LIGHTING BLEED. Only a deep-dive review, or a visit to a shop, will tell you about this. Island-style keyboards (the kind with a border around each key) tend to be better at avoiding this, but not always. Some non-island-style boards show a good bit of lighting emitting from around the keys, sometimes not by design. It’s a matter of personal preference, really, but the cleanest look is with the lighting properly isolated under each key, shining through the clear symbol cutaway atop each key.
Some buyers might appreciate the extra light around the keys when working in an extra-dark location. But there is no comparison between the clean, isolated-looking lighting on a MacBook Air or the Razer Blade, versus a lesser implementation.
Alienware 17
KEY LAYOUT. Typing comfort is just as important as backlight quality—maybe more so. Again, this is something you can really only assess by putting your fingers on the machine. As we alluded to above, you’ll see two kinds of key layout in laptops: island-style, and conventional. Island boards have space and a border around each key; a conventional layout has the keys wedged up against each other. The key "throw," or distance from key to key, tends to be a bit wider between island keys than conventional, all else being equal. Again, try before you buy.
KEY TRAVEL. Vertical key travel (the distance the key moves up and down) is another personal-preference item—your ideal may not work for someone else. In general, thicker laptops have more vertical travel. (Ultrabooks, especially, tend toward the shallow.) Key-fussy gamers might audition the MSI GT series machines, which use premium SteelSeries-sourced keyboards with nice tactile feedback and plenty of lighting frippery. For business or productivity-centric laptops, Apple's MacBook Air and Pro have good boards (though shallow travel is the order of the day with the Airs). For those who can’t opt for a Mac, you can always find comfort in the ThinkPad keyset, in a model like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
These 12 machines below are just a starting point—not an absolute ranking—so use them as suggestions of models and lines to investigate. Some are power-user laptops (the MacBook Pro with Retina Display); some are balanced productivity-focused models; and some (it’ll be pretty clear which) are gaming laptops.
See the Best LED-Backlit Laptops We've Tested...
Apple MacBook Pro (15-Inch Retina Display, 2012 Version)
Our Verdict: An incredible, super-high-resolution screen lifts Apple's 2012 flagship laptop to a pinnacle for video and graphics professionals—who'll be too wide-eyed to blink at its $2,199 price.
Apple MacBook Air (13.3-inch, 2013 Version)
Our Verdict: The MacBook Air's screen and chassis haven't changed since last year, in a time when some other laptops have gone lighter and higher-res. But with the 2013 Air, Apple still delivers the smackdown, with 12-hour real-world battery life.
Alienware 17
Our Verdict: Sporting a fresh albeit familiar design and featuring the latest processor and graphics technology, the Alienware 17 is an excellent choice for a mid-range gaming notebook. Like most 17-inch gaming rigs, it's big and heavy.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Our Verdict: The thinnest and lightest ThinkPad we've seen, this 3-pound, 14-inch ultrabook is pricey but perfect—okay, near perfect—for business execs and IT managers.
Alienware 18
Our Verdict: With its SLI-powered graphics, Core i7 "Haswell" CPU, and a liberal helping of speedy RAM, the Alienware 18 delivers some of the fastest frame rates we've seen to date. It's a hefty beast with a monstrous price tag, however.
Sony VAIO Pro 13
Our Verdict: A few minor design issues aside, Sony's VAIO Pro 13 is an excellent ultrabook that's extremely light and quite long-lasting. If you don't mind its high price, it's a great travel-friendly PC for productivity and entertainment.
MSI GT70 0NE-276US
Our Verdict: The MSI GT70 0NE-276US delivers the fast frame rates that gamers crave and is jam-packed with cool features and high-end components. However, you don't get much battery life from this bulky 17-inch gamer.
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p
Our Verdict: Lenovo updates its already excellent Y Series gaming laptop with a "Haswell" CPU and dual GTX 750M graphics, resulting in even better performance. But the price could be cut by halving the RAM, and we'd like to see a real solid-state drive in this price range.
Razer Blade (2013)
Our Verdict: Just 0.66 inch thin and 4.1 pounds, this souped-up slimline delivers genuinely game-worthy frame rates in an amazingly portable package. If James Bond went to LAN parties, he'd carry the Razer Blade.
Digital Storm Veloce
Our Verdict: The Digital Storm Veloce is a $1,596 gaming laptop that squeezes considerable Core i7 and GeForce power behind a 13.3-inch, full HD display. It's more spunky than suave compared to the thinner, lighter Razer Blade, but a solid solution for portable play.
Toshiba KiraBook
Our Verdict: Toshiba launches a new luxury brand with an ultra-high-resolution ultrabook (think MacBook Air Retina). The view is alternately spiffy and squinty, but the rest of the design dazzles.
Asus Republic of Gamers G750JX-DB71
Our Verdict: The Asus G750JX is a 17-inch gaming laptop that uses the latest Intel Core i7 and Nvidia GeForce graphics hardware to deliver solid performance and more than four hours of battery life. It’s neither the fastest nor the flashiest rig around, but it gets the job done for under two grand.
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