What’s a keyboard light?

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A keyboard light is an LED light on a flexible neck that plugs directly into a USB port, commonly used on laptops to illuminate the keyboard in low light conditions. The light has a bright but small diffusion, being inconspicuous when carrying out the work. A keyboard light is useful for seeing the keyboard in order to give presentations in dark rooms, for working at night while traveling, or for use anywhere external lights are not unwanted or would disturb others.

The nice thing about an LED light is that it draws very little energy. The FlexLite keyboard light indicates that it uses less than 90 seconds of battery power for each hour of lighting. Like most models, FlexLite uses a single LED lamp. Models that use two or even three lights will draw a little more energy.

In most cases, a keyboard light works best when plugged into a USB port on the back of the laptop, then bent over the top of the display to directly illuminate the keyboard. When light comes from this direction, there is minimal blockage from the user’s hands, making it easier for those who can’t type by touch to see the keys.

Mini models such as the iLite are also available to plug into a side USB port. These extra-tiny keyboard lights have an inflexible little neck bent 90 degrees to shine directly onto the keyboard. While it’s closer to the keyboard than the previous keyboard light, and therefore potentially brighter across the keys, depending on the placement of the USB port, some people find that the hand closest to the mini keyboard light intermittently blocks the light strip.

If you need to see the keys more clearly for typing, you might want to opt for a dual-LED keyboard light like Nite Key Lite. While it will draw more energy than single LED models, it will also provide a brighter swath of light. The manufacturer puts the life of this model at 8000 hours. Not bad considering it will only be used occasionally.

There are several manufacturers of LED keyboard lights, so shop around for the best buy. Prices start at less than $10 US Dollars (USD) for single-lamp models and increase accordingly. If you need to light up a desktop keyboard, you may want to consider an internally lit keyboard.

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