This invention is a portable electronic device (100) including a display (212), an input device (210), a lighting circuit (204), a light sensor (206) and a control circuit (208). The lighting circuit (204) includes a light source (214) to illuminate the display (212) and the input device (210). The light sensor (206) determines the ambient lighting conditions about the display (212) and/or the input device (210) and generates an ambient lighting signal based on the ambient lighting conditions. The control circuit (208) is coupled to the lighting circuit (204) and the light sensor (206) and has a delayed operation mode in which a first activation of the input device (210) illuminates the display (212) without performing any other operation of the device (100) and a second activation of the input device performs an operation of the device other than illuminating the display. The control circuit (208) of the portable electronic device (100) may receive a reverse bias signal generated by the lighting circuit (204) when incident with ambient lighting about the user interface (202) to supplement or eliminate the light sensor (206).