The market is flooded with digital pianos these days, so finding the most suitable one for you, is a tedious task. Digital pianos come in various shapes, sizes, and forms, along with a wider range of prices. In this article, we will mainly be focusing on the best digital piano under $1000.
Choices of the digital or electric piano will also vary on the stage of learners. For example, the entry-level products might fulfill the requirement of new aspirants with all the basic features at a bargain price whereas the advanced level players want their piano to have features using the most advanced technology, with a wide range to select from without compromising on the aspect of looks and design.
Despite this fact, we hope that our in-depth study will at least enable you to get a better picture of the available products and help you find the perfect digital piano that comes under $1000 and meet your expectations.
Top 10 Best Digital Pianos under $1000 Reviews
1. Yamaha P115 88 Weighted Key Digital Piano Bundle Review
Features
The bundle is designed to be used by individuals at the intermediate level, in-built with some advanced features. The bundle includes Yamaha’s P115B GHS Digital piano. With as high a polyphonic note as 192, it makes it possible to play even the dropped notes very clearly with various other modes. Duo mode makes it perfect for being used side by side, ideal for schools or group lessons.
In addition to the basic features of any P-series piano by Yamaha, this bundle comes with a Knox double X Keyboard stand and a Knox bench, giving it a sturdy and stable base. The stand can be adjusted to any height as per your requirement and the knox bench also comes with 3 height adjustments.
- Equipped with Pure CF piano sample for the great sound quality
- GHS weighted digital piano with 88 full-size keys action for the complete feel of a pure acoustic piano
- In-built pianist style and drum rhythm to give an accomplished piano performance.
- Digital Piano Controller App for iOS devices for giving a personal touch. Allowing you to use and save your own setting as per your requirement
- Comes with a PA 150 Power supply
- Keys are made of plastic and not synthetic ivory
- Knox bench fails to be sturdy and stable
- Device seems expensive for new aspirants when compared to other similar contenders
Final Words
Meets up the expectation of all the P-series pianos by Yamaha, making this device our runner-up product when it comes to the rating. The only disadvantage is the way the bundle has been designed. If you look at only the keyboard, it is our second-best option for Digital Pianos under $1K.
2. Casio Privia PX-160 Digital Piano Review
Features
- The advanced version of Casio`s PX-150 series
- Works on Casio`s best sound source AiR (Acoustic and intelligent Resonator)
- 88 full-size keys digital piano with Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action II Keyboard
- In-built recorder, dual headphones jacks
Casio has prepared this complete package, keeping in mind all the pre-requisite of an individual to start playing its device almost immediately. At a price tag of under $1k, it’s a great catch in the category of digital pianos under a certain budget. The package includes a furniture style bench to go with your home décor, a stand, an instructional book for practicing, and an Austin Bazaar instructional DVD for better understanding while practicing and also, an Austin Bazaar polishing cloth for keeping your piano brand new.
- Gives the sound and feel of a real acoustic piano
- Bestselling product of Casio
- Package deal includes almost everything you need to quick start
- The bench is not stable, piano wobbles
- Music Sheet stand is of poor quality
- Bench height cannot be adjusted
Final Words
Being the best-selling product of a brand like Casio, the Casio PX 160 beats its previous versions of the Privia series. But as the price is below $700, we cannot ignore the fact that the accessories are of not up to the mark. So overall, little expensive compared to other pianos of the same category.
3. Yamaha P-115 Digital Piano (Yamaha L-85 Stand)
The free app “Digital Piano Controller” for iOS devices helps in smoother operation of the device, giving it a personal touch. Allowing you to use and save your own setting as per your requirement.
The current deal of this digital piano comes along with a PA 150 Power Supply and a sustain pedal, which in itself is a very lucrative and accomplished offer.
- Pure CF piano sound quality
- Digital Piano Controller App
- Power supply
- Keys are made of plastic and not synthetic ivory
- Confusing instruction manual for assembling stand
- Bundle comes with a low quality bench and stand
4. Yamaha P-45 Digital Piano Review
Features
- P-45 piano included in this bundle is great for pianists of every level
- GHS weighted keys
- In-built sound system enables it to be moved anywhere
- Slim and stylish weigh only 25lbs
- Light in weight, easy to transport
- Comprises basic features for new aspirants
- Bundle comprises all the necessities required to start at once
- Not meant for advanced level pianists
- Polyphonic notes as less as 64, it’s not meant jamming or layering
- Not worth at this price range
Final Words
If you are a beginner, Yamaha’s P-45 is the best choice available for you under $2000. Although this particular bundle is priced a little higher for beginners or students, it’s still among the top choices available in the market.
5. Casio PX770 BK Privia Digital Home Piano Review
Features
- Comes with a built-in library of ten classical pieces
- 88 full-size keys digital piano with Tri-Sensor scaled Hammer Action II Keyboard
- Compact slimline space-saving design, adding glam to the decor
- Stereo speaker system in-built into the stylish wooden cabinet
The Casio PX 770 is a combination of a slim and modernized digital piano with the sound and feel of a grand piano. It’s elegant and adds brownies to your home décor. The Casio PX 770 comes with a built-in library of 10 classical pieces, enabling you to play along with the recorded orchestra. It uses the same highly acclaimed 88 full-size keys with a tri-sensor scaled hammer action II keyboard.
- Slim, stylish and compact design
- Tri-Sensor scaled Hammer action II Keyboard
- 2 track MIDI recorder
- Comes with 3 pedals
- Comes in a console or a cabinet and cannot be traveled with
Final Words
Casio PX 770 is an affordable, console or cabinet style Digital piano priced under $1000. However, it is not the right choice for you if you are looking for handy and portable pianos.
6. Yamaha P45 88 Weighted Keys Digital Piano Review
Features
- Yamaha’s P-45 piano included in this bundle has the feel of a real grand piano
- AWM sampling and in-built speakers give the realistic feel of a grand piano
- Compact and lightweight, therefore easy port
- Light in weight, easy to transport
- Uses AWM Sampling to give a closer feel to the grand pianos
- Bundle comprises Yamaha L85 Furniture Stand, Knox Bench and Focus Music Book/CD
- Not meant for advanced level pianists
- Bundle not worth at this price range
Final Words
Overall the bundle here costs a little bit high and doesn’t seem to be as promising when compared to similar products within the same range. It’s still amongst the top 10 rated products of many e-commerce sites.
7. Casio Privia PX-870 Digital Piano Review
Features
It comes with 19 inbuilt sounds, is authentic in its own ways, and can be synthesized as per your requirement. With as high as 256 Polyphonic notes, you can jam and layer as many sounds as possible to create your own Sound Bank.
The digital piano bundle comes with a Casio PX-870 along with a furniture-style bench, headphones, instructional book, Austin Bazaar Instructional DVD, and a polishing cloth.
- Works on Casio`s best sound source AiR (Acoustic and intelligent Resonator) with multi-dimension morphing
- 88 full-size keys with Tri-Sensor scaled Hammer Action II Keyboard
- 40 Watt Four speaker system for powerful sound projection
- Stylish, modern wooden cabinet with sliding key cover
- Hammer action Keyboard with Ivory and ebony feel
- 19 beautiful sounds
- Comes with 3 pedals
- Newly improved piano tone
- Slim, stylish and modern design
- 40 watts sound projection system
- Concert play feature
- Inbuilt MIDI and Audio Recorder
- Noisier key action
- Expensive when compared to other contenders
Final Words
If money is not a concern for you, then this is the best home digital piano for you. Although the piano is available at an expensive price tag, it has still managed to secure a place within our top 10 rated digital pianos under $1000. A digital piano at this price with these many features is a great catch.
8. Korg B1SP 88 Weighted Key Digital Piano Review
Features
- 88 full-size keys with Natural Weight and Hammer action
- 120-note polyphony
- 8 sounds, 8 demo songs
- Headphone and pedal connections
- Includes damper pedal, AC adapter, and music stand
The best part about Korg is they always come in an affordable price range for Digital Pianos. Korg B1SP is a Compact Digital Piano with plenty Key features. The product is easy to get hang on and not too technical, therefore, it works best with beginners.
The bundle comes with a Korg B1SP Digital Piano, Knox stand, and a damper with 3 pedals attached.
- Very basic and limited features, therefore, great for new aspirants
- Easy to understand
- Sleek and stylish, therefore easily portable
- High quality sustain pedals
- Only one output jack, which makes it difficult to connect to MIDI sound devices.
- Very basic and limited features
Final Words
Overall a Digital piano with minimal features, easy to understand as it’s not too technical.
9. Yamaha DGX-660 88 Key Grand Digital Piano Review
Features
- Equipped with Pure CF piano sample for creating the tone of Yamaha concert grand piano
- GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) weighted digital piano with 88 full-size keys action for the complete feel of a pure acoustic piano
- In-built with a “Piano Room” where you get to choose your own piano environment
- Score Display to view lyrics
The Yamaha DGX-660 is a contemporary Digital Piano but also versatile at the same time. It has a lot to offer to all the categories of people from beginners to experienced pianists.
It comes in a Kit, comprising, Yamaha DGX-660 Portable Grand Electric Piano, Knox full-size bench, Dust Cover, FastTrack Keyboard 1 DVD & Focus on Piano – A Concise Approach to Learning & Playing (with CD).
- With a higher polyphonic Keynote of 192, you can freely play and layer multiple sounds
- Score Display or LCD Screen
- Keyboard with 88 full-size keys with hammer action
- A wide range of connectivity
- MIDI recording is also feasible
- Not so portable as its heavy
- Headphone jacks at the back
- Speakers are not up to the mark
Final Words
Overall a good product to start up. But if you are an intermediate-level pianist, this is not meant for you. In my opinion at this price range, it’s an expensive deal for beginners too.
10. Yamaha P115 Digital Piano Review
Features
This is a well-equipped bundle designed by Yamaha, comes with Yamaha’s one of the best P-115 series piano assemble with Gearlux accessories, by keeping an advanced level pianist in mind.
- Meets up the expectation of all the P-series pianos by Yamaha
- Bundle fulfills all the basic necessities
- Stand doesn’t really support the keyboard well
- The bench provided is non-adjustable
Final Words
Overall a good starter package assembled with all the basic necessities. Price slightly on the higher side, it works fine for advanced-level pianists.
What is a Digital Piano?
Let’s first start with the very basic understanding of what a Digital Piano is and how it functions. Digital Pianos are basically the technologically advanced (developed) version of Traditional Acoustic Piano, designed to recreate the same sound and feel, at a much cheaper price and convenience. Having a Traditional Acoustic Piano is a costly affair in itself, as it’s highly expensive and requires a lot of tuning. Being structured so, they are also very heavy and therefore, it’s very difficult to move them from one place to other places. Digital Pianos, on the other hand, were developed to overcome such difficulties without compromising on the feel, sound as well as looks (in some cases) that of a traditional acoustic piano.
Traditional acoustic pianos are the original form of playing piano, invented in Italy around the year 1700. The term acoustic was added only after the invention of digital pianos. The acoustic piano basically refers to the piano that makes sound through vibrations caused by the hammer hitting a string. The vibrations are then amplified by the “soundboard”, which evenly distributes the sound either via cabinet or the top lid depending on the kind of piano you’re using.
Digital pianos, on the other hand, are made in such a way to give the exact feel of an acoustic piano. The advanced features provided by the digital world make the Digital Pianos an easy, cheap, and most portable replication of traditional pianos.
Advantages of Digital Piano:
- Cost– Digital pianos are less expensive when compared to their acoustic counterparts. Where an acoustic piano starts from $3,500, you can find simple Digital pianos with basic features for around $500.
- Portability – the most important and prominent benefit of Digital pianos is, they are extremely user-friendly when it comes to moving from one place to another. They are much lighter and compact when compared to acoustic piano Even the consoles of the digital pianos these days are designed in such a manner that they can be easily folded either for storage or to move from one place to another.
- Tuning/Maintenance: Since the Acoustic Pianos works upon strings and hammers, it requires tuning at least two times a year (which in itself is a costly affair), whereas no such professional tuning is required in Digital Pianos. Just clean the dust and you’re good to go with the digital ones.
- Space: Digital pianos anytime take much lesser space when compared to acoustic pianos. Because of its very simple design. Digital piano doesn’t really need to be set in a given space, rather it can be fitted anywhere.
- Sound Settings: The traditional acoustic piano will generate only a certain volume depending upon the way you hit the keys, whereas digital pianos are enabled with sound control settings, the ability to connect to all sorts of speakers, and also going silent while practicing with the in-built headphone jacks in the digital pianos.
- MIDI Connectivity: The most prominent and technologically advanced features of the modern digital pianos, enabling your keyboard to connect through various other sound sources (devices) and produce a massive soundbank. It also enables you to connect to the computer by way of USB Ports or some modals also accept flash memory cards to transfer music to other devices or computers.
- Learning Tools: Some digital pianos are designed for beginners or for school teaching purposes are also enabled with built-in lessons, exercises, note/chords displays, as well as giving access to online resources. You can use various learning apps available online by connecting them to your computer.
Types of Digital Piano:
Console Type: Console style Digital Piano is the closest replica of an acoustic piano as it mainly focuses on recreating the same sound and feels as that of an acoustic piano. It comes with a cabinet, hammer-action keyboard, and 3 pedals. Digital Console pianos are mostly built to appear as an attractive piece of furniture and due to the very same reason it is best for Home or Studio usage, and not intended to be moved from one place to the other. Console style Digital piano being most suitable to be used at Home is therefore also commonly known as “Home Digital Pianos”. Another Home-based Digital Piano is “Upright Type”, it can relatively be called as a subtype of a console Digital Piano as even it has a contemporary design most suitable for House use. Upright digital pianos are designed to sit up against the wall; therefore the name Upright is given.
Grand Digital Piano: The Classic grand piano is like a traditional acoustic piano; they will show their presence but are very high in maintenance and cost fortune. These unusual models are designed with such precision using modern Digital Piano, to give a high-quality sound system built into the cabinet in a similar fashion as the strings on an actual grand piano. These are premium products offered by very few manufacturers, costing fortunes.
Stage Piano: As the name suggests, they are designed to be mobile and versatile, to be used for live stage performances. They usually have more connectivity options to be used on stage with other sound devices. However, Stage Type Digital pianos are available at a wider range of prices depending upon their capabilities. So it will depend on the individual to find the best Stage Type Digital piano meeting performance requirement as well as being budget-friendly.
Portable Type: The Portable Pianos are the lightest amongst all. It comes with a stand, rather than legs. The keys and exterior of Portable Pianos are usually made up of plastic. Designed to perform various functions at any given place such as home, school, classroom, studio, stage, or any other personal use. As the name suggests, they are light in weight and compact in size, therefore, can be easily moved with.
Things to look for when you are shopping for a Digital Piano:
- 88 Hammer-Action Weighted Keys: A full-size piano has 88 keys, and the hammer-action or weighted keys give the pure feel of an acoustic piano. Once you learn to play an instrument with these features, it develops the technique and strength of your fingers to play on any given keyboard. Nearly all modern digital pianos now offer hammer action, to imitate the sound and feel of an acoustic piano. Therefore, it will be advisable to opt for the digital piano that offers 88 full-size keys supplemented by hammer-action or weighted keys.
- Built-In Speakers: Digital pianos with built-in speakers are ideal for personal use as it removes the unnecessary baggage of carrying bulky speakers (also expensive), just to hear the instrument. Almost all digital pianos now come with an “audio out” jack for you to be able to connect to large speakers, whenever required.
- Headphone Input: A well-equipped digital piano also features headphone jacks, in some cases dual headphone jacks, which means that they give you the independence of time as well as a place to practice without disturbing others. This also means that the Digital pianos can be placed right in the living room, so that it be used more often, than placing it in one corner of the house.
- Touch Sensitivity: This feature is usually included in all modern digital pianos, but not always. It allows you to change the dynamics of the sound by way of pressing the keys. For example, pressing the keys firmer for loud sound and gently for the softer sound. Getting to touch and feel the keys yourself will give you a broader idea of this particular feature of the digital piano.
- MIDI Interface: MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It was invented to facilitate communication between electronics or digital musical instruments and to ensure internal control between instruments that also leaves scope for your keyboard to interact with the computer. So what it basically does is to connect various different sound devices and access all the sound on each device, thereby creating one massive soundbank. Further, this can also be connected to your computer to either record or even to get a print of your musical notes.
- Polyphony: Another very important feature of the digital piano, which enables it to play multiple notes at once, without sound cutting. Digital pianos these days come with up to 128-note polyphony for playing different sounds and notes at the same time. Starting from entry-level products with 32 to the highest of 128-notes, the higher the number is, the maximum layering or multi-tracking is possible.
Apart from these technical aspects, there are some necessary considerations you might want to keep in mind before finalizing the best for you:
- Level/Experience of Skill: this basically refers to your stage of learning. If you are a beginner, a low-cost model with some inbuilt features may fulfill your requirement, whereas if you are an intermediate or an advanced pianist, you would definitely be looking for the utmost quality product covering all the features.
- Size or Dimension: Please be sure of the space you might want to use for keeping your piano along with the adjustable stand or size of pedals to be used by an individual.
- Portability: If you intend to use the piano while traveling, please do not forget to check for the weight and comfort with which it can be broken down and stored.
- Accessories Required: we are talking about Piano stands, headphones, speaker systems (most of them have it inbuilt, but not of that great quality), sheet holders, etc
- Budget: The range of Digital Pianos will vary to a great extent, you need to keep in mind your budget and your requirement and find the one best suited for you within your Budget.
