Hi everyone,
I’m excited to be joining the Framework adventure with the new FW12! 
One thing I’ve noticed is that the keyboard isn’t backlit, which is something I’ve gotten really used to over the years. I think the last time I had a laptop without a backlit keyboard was back when the Eee PC came out!
Just wondering, are there any plans to offer a backlit keyboard option in the future?
Framework generally doesn’t publish future plans, if they’ll create a backlit keyboard, they’ll very likely announce it as soon as you can order it, not sooner.
(I personally couldn’t care less about the backlight of the keyboard, I generally don’t need to look at the keys)
For me, this is sort of a deal breaker. Like the OP, I’ve grown accustomed to this feature, and it’s really useful when using a laptop in a dark or poorly lit environment.
If the threads in this forum are used as a kind of wishlist, to gauge interest to help decide what to build next, it sadly doesn’t look like this will gain much attention with only three likes on 200+ views.
I know that Framework generally doesn’t publish future plans, but it would be great if they could chime in on this thread and say if this is completely out of the question or not.
If I knew that a backlit keyboard option is coming somewhere down the line, I would probably buy the laptop now, knowing that I will be able to upgrade the keyboard in the future.
I sent an email to support regarding this and biometrics, and got the following response.
Furthermore, we understand that you would like to see a Framework Laptop 12 with Fingerprint Reader, backlit keyboard and Windows Hello.
For now, these are not available. While we cannot promise or speculate on the possibility of including these in future iterations of our product, we appreciate your suggestion and will pass these along to the appropriate department.
I’m not surprised by the reply, but it’s still a bit disappointing that in 2025, a laptop can ship without a backlit keyboard. It’s such a helpful feature in dim environments, and I find it easier to type when I can see the keys clearly.
Maybe a future version of the Laptop 12 will include one, or maybe it won’t. I’m still interested in trying the device, though my expectations might be a little too high, even for something meant as a secondary machine.
I wouldn’t mind paying extra for a more refined version, but I understand that’s not the focus of this model.
Ditto. While I’m not currently in the running for an FL12, I would want a backlit keyboard. My wife is hankering after a new PC and an FL12 may be a suitable machine, but again a backlit keyboard would be a requirement.
well shoot. Glad I found this post. I’ve canceled my preorder for the framework 12.
I was really hoping that this laptop would be the true successor to the x230t, but it’s not quite there yet. Maybe next generation will get there.
Pretty surprised though… I haven’t seen a laptop without a backlit keyboard in over a decade.
Feel the same. But kept my order. Hope is that there will be a keyboard upgrade option in the future. Form factor and all the features just really appeal to me.
Pure speculation on my part: it seems that all notebooks targeting education don’t have backlit keyboards. Personally don’t understand why, because the screens emit much more light anyway. Students an pupils still can bring their regular laptops too. Not happy about the missing backlight, but that’s my best guess at least.
Same here, keeping my order. The form factor is the most important part to me and the stylus support is super important for my classes. Just hoping there will eventually be a backlight option.
Afaik even the censored schematics we got for the other models are not out jet so we can’t really tell if it has the pins that would make adding backlight later possible.
Tried going down this rabbit hole, but came up inconclusive.
My findings:
Does not tell us much sadly.
We straight up don’t have the info jet.
That is somewhat concerning. Sounds like they may have just put the raw matrix on the pogo pins which sounds like not the greatest thing for reliability probably fine though. The question is if they left pins for a backlight or not.
USB3 itself only has 4/5 pins (2 data pairs and a ground between) plus a taped on usb2 port with 2 data pins and power and ground. Not sure how that is relevant to the keyboard though.
That’s not the case. As you can see on Linus’s video the pogo pins go to the touchpad PCB and from there to a chip and then to the keyboard matrix, in a similar way to the Framework 13.
I of course don’t know how the pins are wired, but it’s probably power, an i2c connection, a lane to detect if the panel is connected and other normal stuff. That still doesn’t explain all the pins, but maybe they put the same signal on multiple pins for more reliability.
You may be right, 20 pins is veeeery tight for a matrix.
That may be it cause 20 is way too many for 2 usb ports some i2c and power
If it isn’t raw matrix I hope the are running qmk or zmk on it.
It is. To the point that I think that a raw matrix looks very unlikely.
The FWL12 US english keyboard has 78 keys. An ISO layout would add 1 key. Whereas JIS / japanese adds 5. So 83 keys for JIS. The minium number of pins for a raw 83 key matrix should be 18 (9×10 rows/columns). Leaving only 2 pins for both the touchpad, and the caplock indicator? I mean, possible if you used 1-Wire protocol, ground and a shared positive / data line. But one wouldn’t do that if you had the option to just add another pin or two.
The FWL13, for example, uses 24 pins for its raw matrix alone. Not including capslock indicator, touchpad or backlight.
But, I would guess that we won’t get qmk or zmk for the FWL12 keyboard. At least not initially.
I use qmk, and I love the options it opens up, but I haven’t got the feeling that the FWL16’s qmk/Via firmware is currently as reliable as I would want for a device aimed at the market the FWL12 was made for, namely education / laptops for children potentially purchased by school districts and designed to be easy to use and easy to maintain, repair, and upgrade. Occationally someone posts a problem with a FWL16 keyboard that looks like a random malfuction, and the only solution is to smack it & hope that fixes it. Like Via just doing something it shouldn’t. Solution, presume Via randomly got itself confused and just clear Via’s persistant memory / EEPROM. And that fixes it sometimes… 
If it’s got a separate controller for the keyboard not going with zmk or qmk or something like that would be kind of extra effort.
Honestly not sure framework cares about that as much as you do (or at least doesn’t make decisions based on that). Maybe they ship qmk with a fixed config or zmk (that is fixed config by default) or something (though zmk doesn’t have mainline support for anti ghosting which you would kind of need for a diodeless matrix like a laptop keyboard).
We will see but if the keyboard is on a separate chip my bet is on qmk as they already did that and they tend to reuse/share stuff between models for better or worse.
Yeah same here. I just auto assume that all laptops have backlit keyboard these days. So as soon as i saw it doesn’t have a backlit keyboard I canceled my preorder. But I feel like they might add one on the future. For me a backlit keyboard is super important to me.
