Top 10 Digital Pianos Under $2000 – REVIEW | Feb 2023 Update!

– The Kawai CA49 Digital Piano at $1999 price – Review  This impressive model is Kawai’s most competitive digital piano so far under $3000. This is because of Kawai’s proprietary wooden grand piano type key action movement. The CA49 has impressive stereo piano sound sampling and smooth sustain decay time and tone. But it’s really all about this outstanding key action that even an advanced player will be impressed by. The keys are designed, installed, and move in such a way as to make you believe you really are playing on a Baby Grand piano as opposed to an upright piano or keyboard.  The CA49 has a minimalist control panel and design and looks very much like a smaller acoustic piano.

Kawai CA49 Control Panel

The CA49 does have some additional instrument tones which are quite good and a few other cool features along with a simply designed but yet intuitive and easy to read control panel. But this instrument’s primary purpose is for piano playing. There are other good brands out there between $2000 and $3000 price range and many of them I like.

But in terms of a more advanced, natural playable piano style key action which comes closest to replicating a real acoustic grand piano, a responsive key action is the most important thing to get in a new digital piano in my opinion and it’s hard to beat this model in this $2000 price range.

– The new Yamaha YDP-165 digital piano at $1799 internet price – Review | This newer 2023 model is upgraded from the previous model YDP-164 in one main way…it has a new piano sound engine/chip using physical modeling technology which offers a noticeably better, more natural piano sound, so that’s a good thing. The speaker system is the same as before, the 192-note polyphony technology is the same, the cabinet design is the same, the operation of the piano is the same, the GH3 key action and the other sounds and main features are the same as before.

One of the things I did not like on the previous model was that the piano sound realism was more artificial without much as much dynamic tonal range and resonances and overall more artificial in its piano sound.

Yamaha calls their newer sound chip the CFX sampling sound with Virtual Resonance modeling which means that the source for their new piano sound comes from Yamaha’s best acoustic grand piano called the CFX model and they use a modeling technology to enhance that sound with more natural resonances. Beyond the change is where the piano sound sample comes from, there are more organic elements in the new piano sound such as string resonance vibration technology which makes the piano sound more natural which provides more “musical colors” in tone than ever before.

Yamaha did their homework, listened to people like us, and made the necessary changes in developing a much better piano sound, although the key action is still much too heavy and can be uncomfortable to play for some people and can cause hand, wrist, and finger fatigue when playing for a while.

This model YDP-165 including its newer brothers, the Yamaha YDP-S55 and YDP-145 are nearly identical in digital features but differ in cabinet design, speaker system, and a different lower level key action in the YDP-145. The YDP-165 is also different from the previous YDP-164 model in that it has the ability to play and record audio data. You can play back audio data on a smart device or a computer with this instrument and also record your keyboard performance as audio data to a music production app on a smart device or a computer.

Beyond this new feature, the YDP-165 can be connected to the new proprietary Yamaha “smart pianist” app with additional features as well as remotely control the functions and features in the piano. Without this app the YDP-165 features are not easy to use and somewhat  un-intuitve overall because the control panel has limited functions to control and access the many features in this piano.

– The newer Casio PX-S1100 at $699 internet price is new technology for Casio in this low price range. The top of this portable piano is completely flat except for a large round low profile volume knob. All of the functions use a touch sensor surface under the control panel to activate instrument sounds and other features.

The hi-gloss smooth top of the piano makes this instrument look sleek and modern and the PX-S1100 comes in either gloss black or gloss white top control panels and is surrounded by an aesthetically pleasing matching matte color finish with some well designed curves making this piano unique among its competition in this price range.

Casio has also redesigned the key action so it feels great with good balance, key response and key weight, along with improved piano sound chip, more robust internal speaker system, and other functions which makes this new model much more sophisticated in giving you a noticeably more authentic piano playing experience as compared with previous models. The PX-S1100 is just 25 lbs and even works on 6 double A batteries so you can easily take it anywhere and use it without having to plug it in. Take it to the mountains, to the beach, to the park, anywhere you want and you can play this new digital piano and it still sounds great.

Something else pretty cool about the new Casio PX-S1100 is that the touch sensitive panel buttons light up when you touch them and even have red lighted indicators when using specialized features on the piano. To access different sound and features you would touch a function button and then a specified key on the piano according to a chart in the owners manual.

Or…you can use a new proprietary app on your iPad or Android tablet that Casio created which makes it incredibly easy to use all the features in this model that the piano touch screen cannot access without needing to use the function button and certain key presses on the piano.

The proprietary app that Casio designed is called Chordana for piano and it’s pretty amazing. There are even educational music playing games in the app along with other useful content. We highly recommend this new model and also it’s “bigger brother” the PX-S3100 which is offered in the exact same cabinet but with a huge upgrade of additional technology including approximately 700 instrument sounds, interactive rhythm accompaniments and music styles, multi-track recording functions, and a lot more.

The new PX-S3100 is the next model up and definitely more exciting than the PX-S1100, and at $879 internet price it’s less than $200 more as compared to the PX-S1100, and in our opinion it’s definitely worth the extra cost for what you get. An optional well designed furniture type stand an independent modular triple pedal unit is also available for an extra cost on both the PX-S1100 and PX-S3100. You can learn all about the PX-S1100 in our new detailed review of that model in our more detailed review.

Kawai ES920

– Kawai ES920 digital piano at $1799 is a newer model and replaced the highly successful and very popular ES8 which was known as the premier instrument in its price range under $2000 for a Kawai portable digital piano since it came out a few years ago. The new ES920 has an even more realistic organic stereo grand piano sound along with a key action that plays like “butter” and its pedaling sustain response is excellent.

Not only that, but this piano is quite versatile in its ability to be taken off its optional stand and put on a portable metal stand and played it that way with a single sustain pedal because it only weighs 37 lbs but produces a beautiful piano tone because of its advanced sound and sampling technology. This ES920 is a very popular model in homes, schools, universities, churches, studios, and other popular venues just as the previous ES8 was.

It’s a great choice whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced piano player because the ES920 does such a great job in making you feel like you’re playing a real high quality acoustic piano.

Kawai ES920 Digital Piano Control Panel

This instrument is fairly intuitive to use, even for people with little experience on a digital piano because the control panel has direct access buttons to select the many features this piano has to offer including the sounds, transpose, rhythms, metronome, and recording features, along with displaying info on a new and easy to read OLED display screen. The reason a person would want this instrument is for its versatility in offering a contemporary compact cabinet available in either black or white that can look good in its optional cabinet or be played independently as a portable digital piano.

It has enough exciting digital technology to keep you busy including Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and provides an extremely satisfying piano playing experience that in our opinion is superior to any other self-contained, compact, and portable digital piano out there including the newer Roland FP-90X at $2199. In our opinion the Kawai ES920 is more authentic as far as the “piano playing experience goes  compared to any other brand and model of portable digital piano we have played under $2000…and we have played them all including Yamaha, Roland, Casio, and others. 

– The Korg LP-380U at $1349 price is a compact contemporary digital piano with a really nice feeling key action and good key balance and weight along with a number of great features, including a convincing grand piano sound. But what really sets this piano apart from all the others under $1500 is how big and full the sound is coming out of this smaller cabinet. By looking at the model you would think from its minimalist design that it might have a smaller piano sound. However, the internal speaker system that is housed in a separate acoustically tuned speaker box underneath the keyboard is very impressive and the sound coming out is like nothing else you have heard or will hear under $1500.

 Korg LP-380U matte black

The Korg LP-380U Air normally comes in 3 cabinet colors which include matte black, rosewood, and matte white. This model also includes a variety of acoustic piano sounds, strings, organs, harpsichord, guitar, vintage electric pianos and more. But what this piano is really all about is “playing piano” and if that’s what you are looking to do then in our opinion you cannot miss with the KorgLP-380U digital piano, both for looks and performance, especially the realistic key action “feel and response” in this model.

– The Casio AP-470 Celviano digital piano | $1699 internet price | This model is Casio’s most popular home digital piano for those people who want a more upscale traditional cabinet along with big, resonate piano sound, and the latest digital interactive technology. The AP-470 is focused mostly on piano playing and it all comes out of a 4 built-in speaker system going through 40 watts of power and it has a very wide dynamic tonal range when playing the responsive AP-470 key action.

The response of the piano type key action feels good under the fingers and the piano sound is resonate with better pedal sustain response than previous models. The piano control panel is minimal giving the AP-470 a more understated appearance which many people like to have. The AP-470 comes in 3 cabinet colors including matte black, walnut wood, and white. All cabinet color options include matching height-adjustable padded benches. The AP-470 also comes with a strong factory 5-year warranty including in-home service which is very unusual in this price range.

Casio AP470 “Music Space” Controller app

Casio also has a proprietary app for their AP-470 digital piano which is called “Casio Music Space” for piano. This iPad or Android app is designed to compliment the operation of the piano because although the piano itself can control the functions in the piano, some of those functions are not easy to navigate or to use that way, which is true of other digital pianos like the Yamaha YDP-165.

The Casio Music Space controller app allows you to control most of the very cool functions & features in the piano directly from your tablet device. As far as a comparison goes for digital pianos that focus mostly on the piano playing experience, the most popular digital piano under $2000 for Yamaha is the new YDP-165 which I talked about earlier, and the most popular digital piano for Casio is this AP-470.

Comparing the two together, although both pianos have good digital features, apps, and both have 40 watts of audio power, the Yamaha GH3 key action is noticeably firmer & heavier than the Casio AP-470 key action which can create hand, wrist, and finger fatigue after playing a while. It takes a lot more effort to press down the keys on the Yamaha than on the Casio and this true for many of the Yamaha pianos in the Arius series of pianos including the top-of-the-line YDP-184.

Most good acoustic pianos I have played have a medium to medium-light key action in terms of key-weight but the Yamaha is noticeably more firm/heavy. Some people may like this but most people will not based on our experience. So when it comes to key action movement, key-touch weight, and balance, I personally prefer the Casio AP-470 over the Yamaha YDP-165 and the other Yamaha Arius models for this reason alone, plus a couple of other good reasons…but both brands are well built.

 

Yamaha YDP-S35

– The Yamaha YDP-S35 digital piano at $1199 internet price is Yamaha’s newer compact contemporary furniture cabinet digital piano and is a newer entry for them. The YDP-S35 comes in either a matte black or matte white finish and can fit into smaller spaces, This piano uses the GHS standard key action which is found in the low priced Yamaha portable piano models P-45 and P-125.

Overall I do like this model and it has some useful features including the Yamaha proprietary app for iOS and Android tablets called Smart Pianist which allows you to control the piano functions in a much more intuitive way. The is the same app that controls the other Yamaha models such as the YDP-165 as I previously mentioned. However, the smaller internal speaker system is fairly weak in this model at just 16 watts of total power. So I was a bit disappointed in that way because it makes the piano sound more artificial and tinny, although for some people this many not necessarily be an issue. 

Yamaha YDP-S35 Digital Piano closed flat-top lid

The YDP-S35 is a good price point at $1199 in that it looks attractive, plays more like a piano than some other models, and has some compelling digital features. Yamaha is a well recognized brand which builds reliable products and this model is no exception. However, when compared with the very popular Casio PX-870 at $1199, the Casio has a much more natural key action movement, has a more robust speaker system with 4 speakers going into 40 watts of total power along with offering audio wav file recording & playing, as well as other useful features which I talk about below. 

 

Casio PX-870 Digital Piano

– The Casio PX-870 digital piano at $1199 internet price has been the most popular and successful furniture cabinet digital piano ever under $1200. This because it offers what is considered to be the most realistic piano playing experience you can get in its price range for a furniture cabinet digital piano. It has the highest rated internal speaker system with 40 watts of power going through 4 speakers which is very powerful in this lower price range.

With 256-notes of polyphony note processing power, simulated ivory & ebony key-tops, a 3-senor responsive key action with a noticeably natural piano-weighted key action that moves better and quicker than most of the other brands in this price range, the PX-870 is really in a class all by itself for under $1200 . The PX-870 also offers audio wav file recording so you can record and save your playing onto a USB flashdrive which can be inserted into the piano. No other model can do that in this price range.

Casio PX870 control panel

Although the PX-870 has a simple, easy-to-use control panel, the functions and features can also be controlled better and more intuitively with a proprietary app for iOS & Android devices (tablets, iPhone, etc) called “Casio Music Space” so you can trigger the functions in the piano from your device color touch screen. This kind of interface makes the piano much more enjoyable and more intuitive to play and use.

The PX-870 comes in 3 color choices including matte black, matte walnut wood-tone, and matte snow white. With a nice cabinet design, enjoyable key action feel, stereo acoustic piano sound, responsive pedaling, and other great features including some very natural string symphony, harpsichord, and organ sounds, the PX-870 is hard to beat in this price range. For more thorough and detailed review of the Casio PX-870, please click (touch) the following link which will take you to our other website where we do more detailed reviews of digital pianos: Casio PX-870 Review 

Lower price than Amazon or Internet

Have you met Professor Tim yet? Please click this link to meet the famous digital piano expert "Professor Tim" and hear his personal introduction to this site. You'll be glad you did! Thank you"