An electronic device (1) provides for the selective illuminating of an associated display (5) thereby reducing battery power consumption. The electronic device (1) provides for detecting an event that will trigger an update of the display (5) and activation of illumination elements (27) for illuminating the display and determining whether the information to be displayed will occupy a region (B L) of the display. If so, the region of the display is selectively illuminated by one or more of the illumination elements. The predetermined illumination time period may depend on a selected combination of a size of the region, a location of said region and/or a priority associated with the event.