Top 5 Best Digital Pianos 

Every passionate musician deserves to have the best digital piano. For sure, you are familiar with brands like Roland, Casio, Yamaha, and more.

A high quality digital piano can really make a huge difference when it comes to creating music. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pianist, it makes sense to consider the best digital pianos.

One of the best notable digital piano makers in the world is Yamaha but, other than Yamaha, you can also find other great brands.

Not only do the best digital pianos create wonderful music output the same way as the grand piano, but these best instruments also deliver a plethora of options to mix and even share your beautiful compositions.

What to Look for in Digital Pianos

Learning how to play the best digital pianos is something that is highly recommended to everyone. These intricate instruments come with moving parts that work together precisely to produce incredible music.

About two decades ago, instruments like prototype electric pianos were introduced to the market. Digital pianos integrated with modern technology are competent alternatives to acoustic pianos.

The good news for the fans of electric pianos is that they do not need to break the bank just to own a high quality one. To ensure that you will end up with the best electric piano(s), make sure to consider the following factors when purchasing it.

Check out our menu, equipped with a list of factors before buying electric keyboards and piano with similar pure cf sound engine, high-end music, impressive keyboard action, and other qualities as concert grand piano or contemporary grand pianos.

Types of Digital Pianos

Mind that several styles and types of electric pianos are on the market. Each of these instruments has different needs and functions.

Console Pianos

This type of digital piano can sit up against the wall. While these instruments are easier to move and lighter than acoustic pianos, they are designed to remain stationary.

This instrument has all the essential features to replace the function and form of an acoustic piano. Besides, a console piano come with switch base, pedals, speakers, weighted key action, and realistic sound that intends to mimic acoustic pianos.

Portable and Stage Pianos

A best portable and stage piano is designed to use with a live band or on-the-go. It has many similar features to a console piano such as real piano sound and weighted keys. However, a best stage piano looks more like synthesizers or keyboards than an acoustic piano. It has no pedal or base, so a stage piano does not require you to get a folding stand and pedal unit. Additionally, a stage piano comes with a built-in speaker.

Budget

Premium-grade digital pianos are incredibly expensive. In fact, some of them cost equivalent to a brand new car. While average electric pianos cost approximately mid three figures, those advanced digital pianos are very expensive.

High-end stage pianos like Nord Stage 3 and Roland R-2000 will cost even more. If you are a beginner, it is best to go for a digital piano that will help you improve your overall performance. So, no need for you to purchase a variant designed for playing on a stage or studio recording.

Features

If you are about to start your journey as a pianist, a digital piano designed for facilitating the practice of proper technique is what you need. An experienced pianist prefers a digital piano with detailed recording, great sound quality, or sound-shaping facilities.

Thankfully, a number of digital pianos today offer extra options to ensure an easier playing experience. Most of them come with recording playback, Bluetooth connectivity, LED displays, and many more.

Portability

In case you have enough space at home, or you wish to use a home digital piano, you can go for a heavy-weight digital piano. However, if you are commuting to and from your classes or studio, then it’s best to choose a lightweight digital piano.

Portable keyboard and digital pianos are the perfect solutions if you have space constraints. In fact, some of them can be broken down into separate parts to promote easy storage and transportation. It’s good to know that most digital pianos today are more compact and lighter than acoustic pianos.

Goals

The bad thing about beginning pianists is that they are a little apprehensive about not getting and starting with expensive digital pianos. As a result, some of them end up with digital pianos that are not right for their requirements.

It is best recommended for beginners to start out with cheaper digital pianos. Besides, upgrades are available later on.

Now that you are aware of the factors to consider when buying the best digital pianos, let’s get into our lists for you to choose from.

The TOP 5 Best Digital Pianos

1. Roland RD-2000– Best Overall Digital Piano

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Among the Roland RD piano lines, the Roland RD-2000 is considered the most advanced option and our top pick. The PHA-50 progressive hammer action of this digital piano is a hybrid of plastic and wood combined with a synthetic ivory feel. For maximum expression, the keys come with a realistic weight and fantastic action like Yamaha.

If you are looking for a digital piano that sounds like an acoustic piano or a synthesizer, then this digital piano is worth the try and is our top pick. It is portable and versatile for any stage performance. It features two sound engines: V-Piano technology and SuperNatural engine.

This digital piano also comes with a high-end 24-bit audio interface for full quality external sounds. It features 100 user slots so that you can save custom patches and four multi-function pedal inputs. You are also allowed to playback and record a performance as high quality WAV.

Performance

The Roland RD 2000 V-Piano engine of this digital piano delivers wonderful grand piano sound quality together with full polyphony. As for the SuperNATURAL engine, it offers electric piano and acoustic piano voices, and more than 1100 other sounds together with 128-note max polyphony.

This digital piano can recreate several classic analog effects. These include Boss CE-1 as well as Roland Dimension D. It also delivers onboard effects such as tremolo, delay, reverb, amp-simulations, 5-band EQ and 3-band compressor.

Through the nine faders and eight dynamic encoders, this digital piano offers ultimate control over performances. You can use the eight zones to achieve layering sounds. It’s a lot easier for you to adjust the layered sounds and massive sound on the fly.

2. Casio CT-S300 – Best Budget Portable Digital Piano

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If you are looking for a budget-friendly portable digital piano, then the Casio CT-S300 is one of the best options that suits your grand feel compact needs. It is the top digital piano option under $150.

The CT-S300 is part of the classic Casiotone line. It includes 400 sounds that are fair enough for practice purposes. It comes with stripped-down accompaniment and basic rhythms. The same way as other digital pianos, this one offers a headphone jack for silent practice and is powered by 6 AA batteries.

This electric piano includes a pitch bend wheel so that you can practice synthesizer-focused techniques. Through the USB host port, you can record MIDI on devices as well as use the Chordana Play app, which allows you to add the graphical user interface.

Performance

The CT-S300 might be the cheapest option in the Casiotone line, but it includes those amazing velocity-sensitive keys.

Although the synth-style keys are very basic, which do not deliver piano-focused proficiency, they are still good enough to develop important muscle memory like Yamaha. Compared to other entry-level digital pianos, the keys of this digital piano do not feel cheap. This is thanks to the block-end-piano style keyboard action and textured keytops.

Interestingly, this portable keyboard comes with a few options for touch sensitivity. This means you can use it as a MIDI controller with impressive velocity other than the included sound sets. It features an easy to read small LCD screen, and there are only few controls and buttons to fiddle about it, which ensures easy navigation.

In case you wish to add some sort of basic electric piano to a mix, then simply use the DAW plug. This best piano provides a 5-octave keyboard, 48-note polyphony, and two more octaves. With the two built-in speakers, you can easily bypass with an audio output to the mixer, audio interface, powered speakers, or MIDI control over USB.

3. Nord Stage 3 – Best Stage Piano

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Most professional players looking for impressive sound and fantastic build quality choose Nord Stage 3. While it is one of the most expensive digital piano options on our menu list and its keyboards action is not everyone’s cup of tea, it is the right choice if you want a professional stage piano like Yamaha.

Other than the fully-weighted keys combined with aftertouch, the Nord Stage 3 delivers a max polyphony of 120 notes for piano as well as 34 notes for synths. Compared to other high-end stage pianos, the keyboard action of Stage 3 feels a little different. Besides, it is a compromise between the smooth action for organs or synths and the realistic acoustic piano or concert grand piano sound and feel.

Performance

When it comes to sound, this digital piano is our top pick and will not disappoint your expectations. You can enjoy about 400 presets split between organ, piano, and synth sound engines. It offers a rich piano sound with real depth.

Since the synth sounds are produced by the Lead A1 engine, you will get amazing bass, pad, and lead sounds. In terms of organ engine, you can achieve surprisingly good quality. As a true performer’s digital piano, it comes with a wide array of performance-ready effects. These built-in effects include the speaker simulations designed for organ sounds, ring mod, phaser, and more.

While the buttons everywhere look a bit intimidating to most beginners, the layout is very easy to use. In fact, each section is well-defined and nice. This digital piano is integrated with an external MIDI keyboards gear for improved performance.

4. Roland FP-10 – Best Cheap Digital Piano for Beginners

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Is your budget for a digital piano under $500? Don’t worry, the Roland FP-10 master the right piano technique without over-stretching your pocket.

While its price range is under $500 on this list, the Roland FP-10 justifies the cost with great sounds and excellent key action. This latest addition to FP portable line of Roland digital pianos is perfect for beginner and intermediate pianists.

In addition to modern and sleek design, this digital piano is more compact and lighter than other Roland’s FP series. This makes it a nice choice for those who live in a small apartment or on-the-go.

Performance

The FP-10 comes with triple sensor hammer action keys, which are well-received PHA-4 Standard. These triple sensors are also found on Roland’s more expensive digital pianos, such as FP-30 and FP-60.

Through the triple sensors feature, you can get more accurate detection of the keypresses. So, you can perform even better when it comes to pieces with quick note repetitions. In terms of escapement, this digital piano delivers extra level of authenticity. This occurs by stimulating its slight notch every time you press the keys nearly halfway down.

As for the white keys, they are covered with a textured material simulating ivory. This helps you not to worry about excessive moisture produced by your fingers.

This digital piano also features the iconic Roland’s SuperNATURAL sound engine. This technology helps in achieving an authentic and quality piano playing experience. In addition to its dynamic and rich piano sound and feel, this digital piano also stimulates subtle acoustic piano elements, including key-off resonance, damper resonance, and string resonance.

5. Roland FP-30 – Best Digital Piano for Intermediates

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Are you an intermediate player? Do you want an upright piano for under $700? If yes, the Roland FP-30 is right for you.

For a price range of $700, the FP-30 is one of the bestselling and the most favorite intermediate digital piano. It offers great PHA-4 Standard weighted action key and an impressive expanded sound palette.

The FP-30 is known for its powerful yet compact action keys that are suitable for stage and home use. Compared to the previous Roland models, this digital piano offers plenty of new features like MIDI and Bluetooth connectivity, a redesigned speaker system, new PHA-4 action, and more. It is also more compact and lighter than the FP-60, making it ideal for musicians on-the-go.

Designed to be portable, this digital piano can fit into smaller spaces like Yamaha. You can even put it on a table or desk without any issue. This contemporary-looking digital piano offers a clean design and a fresh look.

Performance

The SuperNATURAL sound engine in this digital piano merges the audio samples with software modelling. As a result, you can get a malleable sound palette.

The FP-30 offers a solid main piano sound while recreating the feel of an acoustic piano. Sounds are among the factors that the Roland FP-30 excels. Since the PHA-4 Standard key action utilizes triple sensors, accuracy, and precision of the keypress detection are increased.

You can feel that the weighted action keys are the same to those on acoustic pianos. They also recreate the physical mechanics.

Honorable Mentions

Kawai ES8 – Best Digital Piano for Professionals

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For professional pianists, the Kawai ES8 is a safe choice when it comes to satisfying piano playing experience. This professional digital piano is known for its well-made music on this list.

While ES8 is not quite compact, it is still a very elegant and decent digital piano. It features a long speaker-grill and a glossy metal cabinet. The plastic side panels are very sturdy and are similar to a Yamaha.

This digital piano comes with a number of fancy features like high quality graded hammer-action keys and built-in speakers. It features a Responsive Hammer III action that comes with a Let-off simulation.

With the triple sensor detection system, accurate capturing of each keystroke and facilitation of fast passages are very easy. As for the Let-off mechanism, it produces a little clicking sensation close to the end of the key travel, which is like an acoustic piano.

Performance

While rookies will hesitate with the RHIII action of this digital piano because it is made of plastic, it is still one of the best features of ES8. The keyboards are at the top of their class and feel great. Its dual 15W speakers offer very clear sound even at high volumes.

This digital piano might offer only 34 tones, but you cannot underestimate their quality. In addition to 10 great and quite natural piano sounds, modifying the piano parameters is possible. All you need to do is to use the Virtual Technician to get the ideal sound.

Kawai KDP110 – Best Natural Sounding Digital Piano

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Kawai KD110 combines quality and affordable price tag for entry-level players. As this electric keyboard piano replaced the discontinued Kawai KDP90, great set of features and important upgrades are available.

This digital piano is a wonderful addition to the great feeling and sounding digital pianos of Kawai. With its very dark brown color, it can remind you to the looks of traditional Yamaha acoustic pianos.

It comes with a Grand Feel Pedal System, which is intended to recreate both the position and weight of the pedals of Kawai SK-EX concert grand pianos. As a result, you can get a realistic pedaling experience.

Mind that furniture-style digital pianos like KDP110 is that they have a keyboard cover. The KDP110 comes with a sliding key cover to ensure that the keys are protected against dirt and dust when not in use.

This electric keyboard piano has a full-size 88-key keyboard, while the action of this keyboard is known as Responsive Hammer Compact II action. It might be an entry-level piece, but the keyboards feel is almost like those in premium pianos. Besides, RCHII does not fall into an entry-level action.

Performance

As expected, the sound quality of this electric keyboard piano is topnotch. It features a sound engine called Harmonic Imaging, which utilizes stereo samples from Kawai’s Shigeru SK-EX g-foot grand piano. So, each sound is captured from each key at varying velocities.

Since the sound of the SK-EX grand piano is the major piano tone found on the KDP110, you can enjoy a very deep and nuanced tone through its feature called Virtual Technician, which allows you to alter the character of each tone. This results to better suit your personal playing preferences, especially in different music genres.

When you use the Smart Mode of Virtual Technician, you can get preset settings that adjust the different characteristics of the piano sounds. These include Brilliance, Hammer Response, Damper Resonance, Touch Response, and more.

Casio PX-870 – Best Furniture-Style Digital Piano

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Are you familiar with Casio Privia PX 160? Are you a fan of Casio Privia PX 160? If yes, you will also like Casio PX-870 the same way.

With Casio PX-870, you can have a furniture-style digital piano without spending over $1000. This instrument is designed for beginner and intermediate players with a pure cf sound engine.

The Casio PX-870 is designed to be compact. So, even if you have some space constraints, this digital piano will still fit well and part of our list. When it comes to assembly, everything is very easy. Since this instrument is almost like your favorite flatpack furniture, it can improve the overall look of your interior.

Even of this digital piano mimics the feel of textured ebony and ivory key tops, the touch still feels great like Yamaha. This is all thanks to the Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II. Although the keys can be a bit noisier compared to other key actions, the internal mechanisms tend to be very responsive.

This digital piano has a total of 60 full songs to play along with as well as to assist the learning process. When you choose the Concert Play mode, other 10 orchestral compositions are available to play along with. You can even slow down the recordings to match your playing style.

Performance

Some people find the sound of Casio keyboards a major sticking point. However, this has changed in recent years because the PX-807 was introduced to the market. The sound is excellent, and the keyboards feel great.

Another interesting thing about this digital piano is the Casio AiR sound engine. It comes with a dubbed Multi-dimensional Morphing that can utilize modifiable parameters like hammer response and resonance to mimic real piano sounds.

The Casio PX-870 provides 19 various instrument tones together with 256 note polyphony. Even if you are playing complex or fast melodies, you can expect for true, natural sound the same way with acoustic pianos.

This instrument is also possible for you to layer these different sounds as well as split across the keyboards. Meaning, you can play piano style melody with your right hand and string style melody with your left.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it your first time to purchase a digital piano? Not a problem! We hope that the following frequently asked questions can improve your shopping experience.

Q: What is the best digital piano on the market?

A: Different models and brands of digital pianos have different values, which will depend on the player. At the same time, some people focus on the feel, while others prefer sounds or price. Apart from Yamaha, you can also rely on other brands.

The best thing you can do is to go for a digital piano that has a fair balance of feel, sound, and value of money. You can try brands like Casio, Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai. Since our first pick can be your last pick, we provide you a list above where you can choose the best one that suits your preference.

Q: What digital pianos do professionals use?

A: Depending on the needs, professional players have different things to consider when choosing digital pianos for their professional skill levels. Some of them prefer digital pianos that can mimic the look, feel, and sound of acoustic pianos, while others focus on the portability. You can go for brands like Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, and Casio.

Q: Are digital pianos any good?

A: Yes. If you are on a budget or just starting out, getting yourself a digital piano is a smart decision. The best digital pianos of today come with graded hammer action weighted keys, which can give you the feel similar to acoustic piano keys. You can choose from different brands like Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, and Casio.

Q: What is the best digital piano to buy?

A: When buying the top digital piano, one of the considerations is your skill level. For example, if you are a beginner, you have different needs compared to intermediate and professional players.

You do not have to spend thousands of dollars on a professional stage piano when starting out. You can always go for a digital piano that offers a perfect mix of value and features and is qualified enough to improve your playing skills. You can choose and account from different brands like Roland, Yamaha, Kawai, and Casio.

Q: How many keys does a digital piano have?

A: A full digital piano keyboard has 88 keys. In case you want to play complex piano pieces, you can go for a full range of keys. However, if you wish for more portable digital pianos available, you can find one with less than the full 88.

Conclusion

Getting the right digital piano with all the essential features and the right price range that matches your budget can be overwhelming. This is because there are plenty of models and brands available in the market. As a result, you might find it hard to find the digital piano that suits your playing needs and budget.

Don’t worry! Whatever your needs are or whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or a professional pianist, you can count on our best digital piano list will help you a lot. Continue creating great music!