Mac Forum / General / Hardware / July 2008

I assume you mean LED backlighting.

It is gradually appearing on new models as the technology becomes more
affordable.

It started on the 15" MacBook Pro about a year ago, arrived on the more
expensive screen variant of the 17" MacBook Pro earlier this year, and
on the MacBook Air (13", but much higher base cost than a Macbook, so it
is possible to include more expensive components).

It will eventually arrive on the consumer MacBook models, but it might
appear first on the most expensive model, working its way down to the
cheaper ones in subsequent product updates.

It isn't the sort of feature Apple would offer as an extra cost build
option, unless tied to something else like a higher resolution display,
as with the current 17" model.

Speculation:

It might arrive as soon as the next MacBook update, which should be
around August or September.

Then again, it might not be affordable enough yet, in which case it
could be delayed until the following model refresh (probably early
2009), or even later.

I think I remember a statement from Apple that the LED backlighting
technology would be in all their laptops as soon as possible, originally
hoped to be in 2007, but there is still a chance it could happen by the
end of 2008.