Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kurzweil, Kawai & Other Leading Digital Pianos reviewed here
There are a lot of manufacturers who have an exciting range of electric pianos, ranging from the very basic to those that are loaded with several features.
Find out the best options that are available in different categories of pianos for various prices and budget.
Digital Piano Reviews
Review of popular portable & upright digital pianos with weighted keys, includes 88-key arranger keyboards (with built-in styles, education suite and other bells & whistles) as well.
Yamaha P35
For around $500, the P35 is a good portable 88-key piano with weighted (GHS) action.
Casio PX-150
For around $650, the PX150 is an excellent beginner piano from Casio.
Yamaha P105
For around $600, the P105 is for serious piano players looking for authentic piano sound and keyboard touch.
Casio PX-350
For around $800, the PX350 offers much improved sound quality and action compared to PX150.
Williams Overture
For around $600, the Williams Overture is a decent classic piano for a beginner.
Yamaha P155
For around $1000, the P155 (with no accompaniments) sounds and feels much better than the P105.
Yamaha DGX640W
For around $800 to $900, the DGX640W is a close competitor to the P155 but this one has accompaniments and others features.
Roland FP-7F
For around $2000, the FP-7F is the best of the lot with superb tones & features.
Casio PX850
For around $1000, the PX850 comes in upright design & sounds good.
Casio AP420
For around $1200, the AP-420 is an attractive upright piano with several features.
Yamaha Arius YDP-V240
For around $2000, the YDP-V240 is an excellent upright piano with everything you need on a piano.
Roland F-120
For around $1300, the Roland F120 comes with SuperNATURAL engine in a stylish cabinet.
Want more options? Here are some popular series of pianos:
Casio Pianos
Casio’s digital pianos include the portable Privia PX stage pianos and the Celviano AP upright home pianos.
Yamaha Pianos
Yamaha pianos include the portable NP, P & CP series, the DGX & YPG arrangers, and the Arius YDP home pianos.
Roland Pianos
Roland digital pianos include the portable F, FP, RD series pianos, and the DP series home pianos.
Korg Pianos
Korg pianos include the portable SP series and the SV series vintage stage pianos.
Casio PX series: Privia Digital Pianos
Portable stage pianos from Casio! The Privia digital pianos look great, have weighted keyboard, and their sound quality is much superior. Read more…
Casio AP Upright Pianos
Digital Upright Pianos from Casio for authentic piano experience. The Celviano pianos come with elegant design & authentic piano keys. Read more…
Yamaha NP Piaggero: 76-Key Pianos
If you are looking for a good practice piano, and don’t want to buy a keyboard, then these are good alternatives, Read more…
Yamaha P Series: Portable 88-Key Pianos
Excellent portable pianos for practice at home, or school or for the church, or for playing onstage. It doesn’t come with all the fancy features, styles and effects. You just get real piano sounds and an excellent piano touch. Read more…
Yamaha CP Series: Pro Stage Pianos
Yamaha CP series pianos are top notch stage pianos that feels just right, has full hammer action, is easy to use, and comes with an intuitive layout. Read more…
Yamaha Arius YDP: Upright Pianos
Yamaha Arius YDP series include top class upright pianos that not just sounds and feels great, but also looks like an expensive piano that will suit the surrounding decor. Read more…
When buying musical instruments online, you usually have the option of going to Amazon, which does offer some amazing deals, but then most of the user comments are from beginners or players who have only been playing for a couple of years or so. So you’ll find numerous comments where the buyer of a 400 bucks keyboard instrument would make statements such as “It’s better than most $3000+ digital pianos” and so on.
Now there’s no doubt that digital pianos are becoming cheaper and offer better quality, but in no way can a 400 dollar piano compare with a something that is priced 8 to 10 times more. So when reading comments, you’ve to take such statements with a pinch of salt.
And even though an entry level piano instrument may sound good, you need to ask questions such as:
Does it sound good across all the octaves?
How is the piano action?
How are the other instrument tones? Do they sound realistic or only the piano sounds are good?
How much is the polyphony?
How many track-sequencer does it provide?
Does it have built-in speakers, and a lot more
And we are not even taking about the aesthetics here. So there’s no doubt that consumers are spolit for choices, but if you’re really looking for a quality product (as an experienced musician), the least you should be ready to spend is at least around thousand dollars.
Having said that, every keyboard-instrument is built for a purpose and has a target audience to which it suits well!
Things to remember:
Every digital piano has different features: number of keys, key sensitivity, key touch, polyphony, availability of built-in speakers (and its quality), dimensions of the piano & its weight, music creation tools, computer access, warranty, and more.
Keep your current piano skills in mind & where you would like to go with your piano playing, and choose a piano accordingly.
Everybody has their own preferences (soft corner) for certain brands/models; happens if you have been playing them for years. so don’t let that affect your judgment.
Most brands have their own terms for weighted action. Yamaha use GHS/GH/GH3, Casio calls it scaled hammer action. Roland & Korg have their own terms. As a rule, the more expensive ones will have more realistic touch.
Every digital piano sounds & feels a bit different, so you really don’t have to agree with others (beyond a certain point).
To be truthful, most of the pianos listed here on this page are great options (for certain requirements) as each have their own benefits. We have selected these models based on several factors, such as sound quality, value and usefulness.
Here are few more important things to remember:
1. You can buy keyboards that have more than 61 keys for less than $350, but then they will not offer you proper weighted action, which is a must for serious piano playing.
You can still get started though on them, if budget is a constraint. Pianos in this price point are good to get started as a beginner, and probably a couple of years down the line you can upgrade to a better one.
2. The ones in the $500 to $600 are much better in terms of the action, if you’re looking for a practice piano. Though it may not have all the bells and whistles, you can definitely expect to get good key action and piano sounds. You’ll still need to get a decent stand and more importantly a pedal board.
Though these are good, you still may not be able to express yourself like on a real acoustic piano (if you’re an experience musician). These are good for beginners to less-than-intermediate level players.
3. The ones costing around $1000 are better and offers good value for money. Someone who is serious about learning to play the piano or someone looking for a good practice piano should definitely look in this range.
Most of the brands are the usual names, Casio continues to dominate the digital piano market in the entry-to-mid level segment (Williams has a couple of products in this range). Yamaha has offerings for players of all skill levels. Brands such as Roland & Nord have good products but at the higher price point.
You also get premium digital pianos for home use and/or for performance. Roland HP & LX series, Yamaha Clavinovas, Yamaha NU1 are some of the premium pianos but are priced much higher than most of the pianos mentioned here.
More on Digital Piano Brands
Some of the popular names that manufacture Digital Pianos are Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Casio, Kurzweil, Kawai, Nord and a few others.
Each of these has its own fan following and have a huge user base. Some of the names like Kurzweil, Kawai are not so well known to the general public, whereas brands such as Nord cater only to pro musicians.
Brands such as Yamaha, Roland, and Casio make a wide range of keyboard instruments and they also make (except Casio) a lot of music and recording related equipment, which explains their popularity.
Yamaha, Roland, and Korg have the biggest share of the Digital pianos market, more or less in that order, and then you have the rest of the brands. Out of these, Yamaha is the biggest manufacturer and has over 100 years of experience in making acoustic pianos. So definitely, their experience comes in handy. Yamaha, Roland and Korg also make some good keyboards and synthesizers so even that experience has been used to incorporate some amazing musical styles and effects in some of their digital piano models.
You can even have a look at Casio’s Privia & Celviano range of Digital Pianos for a cost effective option.
Here’s a summary of their strengths:
Roland: Probably the best Piano Touch that you can get on digital pianos
Yamaha: Brand Reliability, good support
Casio: Affordable
Kurzweil: relatively unknown but good sound technology
Korg: Good synthesizers
Nord: Pricey, for the Pros
Again, exactly stating which is the best brand or model is very difficult as almost all of these brands have a huge range of models, some of which, are very popular.
When somebody does a digital piano review and recommends a brand or a model, you have to take it with a pinch of salt as that person may be biased towards that particular brand if he/she has used it earlier.
So trust your ears and your instincts as well!
Range Of Digital Piano Prices
Normally the digital piano prices would vary depending on its look and the features available. As a general guideline, the following are the digital piano prices you can expect to pay –
Stage pianos – 1000 to 1500 USD
Upright Digital pianos – 2000 to 3000 USD
Baby Grand/Grand Piano – around 4000 USD and above
Almost all the brands mentioned above offer various models in these categories and the cost of these models may vary somewhat depending on the quality of the sound, the key action, the looks and the availability of musical styles and effects.
Choices Available for 1000 USD?
So what are the choices available for around 1000USD?
For 1000 dollars the options may not be too many but here is what you may get.
Yamaha P range of piano models
The Casio Privia range of pianos (good value for money)
Korg – SP series pianos
Roland V-Piano
Yamaha, Roland and Korg have other interesting models but those are on the expensive side.
Most of the weighted-key digital pianos have sound samples taken from a concert grand and the key action is also based on a concert grand action. So ideally you should not have any problem using inexpensive digital pianos for playing even the most difficult classical pieces.
Casio & Yamaha Digital Pianos
Here is an overview of the two most popular brands of digital pianos. You will find everything from 88 key keyboards to portable stage pianos and elegant looking home pianos.
Casio Digital Pianos
Yamaha Digital Pianos
Casio has been appreciated a lot for their recent line of digital pianos, namely their Privia and the Celviano range of pianos. So do check them out before you decide to give it a pass.
Casio Privia | Casio Celviano Digital Pianos
Here comes the hugely popular and trusted brand. Yamaha does have some professional stage pianos for the pro-performer, namely their CP series of pianos. Regarding home pianos, the Yamaha YDP series is the next best thing in case you find the Clavinova pianos out of budget.
Yamaha DGX | Yamaha YPG Piano Keyboards
Yamaha NP, P, CP portable pianos
Yamaha Arius YDP Upright Digital Pianos
Roland & Korg Pianos
Roland is another big player and has a range of pianos to offer, though not much at the lower price range. Find some good pro-pianos and some superb home digital pianos.
Roland FP, RD, V Digital Stage Piano Reviews
Roland Upright Home Digital Piano Reviews
Korg SP pianos are good for beginner piano students or for those who want a piano for practicing. The SV stage piano is apt for pros and has superb vintage sounds.
Korg SP, SV Digital Stage Piano Reviews
Kurzweil & Nord Pianos
Check out some top quality stage piano keyboards, especially the ones from Nord. Recommended for the working musicians!
kurzweil SP2 Digital Stage Piano Reviews
clavia Nord Digital Piano Reviews
Other Digital Pianos
Williams Digital Pianos
Checkout Reviews of the Williams Upright & Portable Digital Piano
Kawai Digital Piano Reviews
Reviews of Kawai Digital stage and upright Pianos.
M-audio Digital Pianos
M-audio Upright & Portable Digital Piano Reviews
Suzuki Digital Piano Reviews
To Conclude
Contrary to what a lot of people think, digital pianos can be used for playing even the most difficult classical repertoire. This aspect coupled with the fact that digital pianos are portable and affordable makes them an attractive alternative to acoustic pianos. Yamaha, Casio, Korg, Roland, Kawai are some of the major manufacturers of affordable and high quality digital pianos. Checkout reviews of the popular Digital Piano models here.
Your First Digital Piano
Still not sure what to choose? Looking forward to buy your first Digital Piano?
Want to know which are the major brands and what you can get for your budget?
Not sure if inexpensive digital pianos are adequate for working on serious classical pieces?
May be this article on Digital Piano Review will help you out, or feel free to write to us.
Need Help Choosing?
Check out our Home Piano Buying Guide
Related Topics
Piano Accessories & Supplies
Review of all the accessories that are available for your digital piano keyboard. You may not need all of them now, probably some essential ones to make it more enjoyable to play. The piano accessories that you will need will depend on what sort of piano you own. If you own a portable stage piano (the more high-tech ones), then your requirement will be a bit different from what you would need assuming if you have a home piano, read more…