Top budget portable piano keyboards with 88 keys (for around $500), suitable for serious beginners to learn piano, and for experienced players for practicing. These come with fully weighted keys, and nice set of sounds.
Best Digital Pianos Under $500
If you have been looking for digital pianos priced under 500 dollars, the options listed here should serve your purpose. Whether you are a serious music student or a musician who needs a decent practice piano at home, pick one of these pianos, priced under 500 dollars. These pianos have decent piano action and sound samples, plus host of features.
If you are unable to afford an acoustic piano or a top end stage piano, this is where you need to look. Most of these pianos are priced around 500 dollars.
Please note, these are more of budget pianos; if you’re an experienced musician you may want to check out more expensive models.
Buying an inexpensive keyboard with light-weighted keys is how most people get started on the piano. However, if you’re serious about learning to play the piano, you will need an 88-key digital piano with fully weighted keys. An electronic keyboard, although cheaper, will only serve as a stop-gap arrangement and will not help you improve as a piano player.
Who should be interested in these pianos?
- Beginners who are keen to learn to play the piano and intend to take piano lessons, you will need an 88-key piano keyboard with fully weighted keys. The pianos listed here are much cheaper than what an acoustic piano would cost, and you would still have a nice instrument on which you can practice your piano lessons.
- There are some who buy an electronic keyboard initially and learn to play using one hand (many of them are self-taught and they use block chords with the other hand). Sooner or later, they also develop the desire to improve as a musician and become interested in learning to play the piano. If you’re one of these, you will need to upgrade to an 88-key keyboard with weighted keys.
- Intermediate players (or even experienced piano player) looking for a nice inexpensive piano to practice at home, or a college student looking for a portable and compact piano to practice in the college dormitory.
These piano keyboards are not really arrangers, so these will not come with lots of built-in styles, hundreds of voices and effects, and so on, but they have nice quality piano sounds and good keyboard touch (authentic piano action). These are budget digital pianos with fully weighted keys; the bare minimum you need on a piano as a piano student.
These pianos come with limited set of sounds, have built-in speakers, and will allow you to connect a piano pedal.
Top Choices (At a Glance)
Yamaha P-45: This is the entry level model in the Yamaha P-series. Excellent piano sounds and piano action. Buy on zZounds | Buy on Thomann
Roland FP-10: The FP-10 from Roland is another good option for someone looking for a digital piano that offers value for money. Nice weighted keys and a sturdy keyboard. Buy on Thomann.
Casio CDP-S150: A powerful digital piano from Casio with contemporary design and slim profile The CDP-S150 features scaled hammer-action keys. Buy on zZounds.
Pianos under $500: Detailed Review
Here are the best possible piano choices, with 88 keys, in the ‘budget’ price range (under $500). The focus here is more on the feel of the keys (authentic, weighted piano like action). These are suitable for serious beginners as well as experienced users.
Yamaha P45 Digital Pianos
The Yamaha P-45 digital piano is the entry level piano in Yamaha’s P-series, which includes portable practice pianos with excellent piano action. You get a piano that offers a real acoustic grand piano sound and touch, yet it’s lightweight and compact. Packed with more performance options, the P-45 can be used at home, in the studio, or for live performances. Read more…
Casio CDP-S150
The CDP-S series from Casio includes pianos with contemporary design and slimmer profile. These are more portable but do not compromise on the quality of the product.
The Casio CDP-S150 is a powerful digital piano and features scaled hammer-action keys. However, it weighs only 23.1lbs and can also be run on batteries.
Roland FP-10
The FP-10 is an entry level piano in Roland’s FP portable series pianos (with weighted keys). This one has nice piano action, feel and sounds. It also comes with Bluetooth functionality so that you can use the Roland Piano Partner App to improve your piano skills.
Thomann DP-32
The Thomann DP-32 offers good value for money, is available in an upright design, and comes with 88 Weighted keys with hammer action. It comes with a decent selection of 16 piano sounds including piano, electric pianos. Polyphony is 128. It is not an arranger and does not come with styles.
Yamaha P125 Digital Stage Piano
The Yamaha P125 costs a bit more than the other options listed here but is much ore robust and come with more sounds and features.
Alesis Recital Pro Digital Piano
Another nice, budget option. This keyboard comes with 88 Hammer Action Keys, 20W built-in speakers. It has 12 voices, features an headphone output and has a few educational features.
The piano is sturdy, comes with hammer action keys and more importantly, its cheap. The only negative is that the weighted keys produce a slight thump sound when played. Read full review.
Casio PX-160 88-Keys digital Piano
The new Casio Privia PX-160 redefines the digital piano category with unprecedented sound quality and performance in a sleek package that is supremely portable.
Korg SP-170 Digital Piano
The Korg SP170 Piano is an 88-key digital piano with a clean and simple design, minus all the bells and whistles, and perfect for playing the piano at home, church or even in the studio.
Recommended Accessories
Here are some piano keyboard accessories that you will need to make your piano playing more enjoyable.
Since some of these keyboards can be heavy, a double-x keyboard stand is preferable to single-x stands. A better option is a piano like stand.
A good piano style sustain pedal is also a must for piano players and if you are going in for a piano like stand, a pedal board for your stand will be a good option.
Finally, get yourself a good adjustable piano bench that will help you to maintain the right posture for your piano playing.
More Piano Options…
Looking for better pianos? Check out the best mid-range digital pianos (for around 1000 dollars).
Here are some more articles that should read. Checkout these popular series of digital pianos that make budget pianos:
- Yamaha P series 88 keys pianos
- Yamaha YPG 88 keys keyboards
- Yamaha DGX 88 keys keyboards
- Casio Privia 88 Keys Digital Pianos
If you are looking for arranger keyboards (with built-in styles) and more than 61 keys, here are some excellent arranger piano keyboards with more than 61 keys.
Digital Pianos: Modern & Convenient
If people have been advising you to buy an acoustic piano, remember by all means go for it, but remember, not only does it take more space, and difficult to move, there’s also maintenance efforts and costs involved.
And if you’re looking for a budget digital piano, chances are that you’re still learning to play the piano, or have been playing on 61-key arranger keyboards and are looking for your first 88-key piano (with fully weighted keys).
Today, its possible to find a good digital piano with nice action and lots of features for around $500. These pianos are suited more for beginners and intermediate players. While the piano action and the sound quality is good, the features available are limited. And these are also not very sturdily built (not built for the road).
Also Read: Getting started articles on electronic keyboards and digital pianos.
Digital pianos also offer several advantages, compared to a traditional acoustic — you get built-in metronome, digital display screen, several voices and styles, headphone outputs, midi, and more. You get a convenient and customized playing experience, in a more compact and lighter-weight version of a real piano.
The Popular Ones
The above are cheap digital piano with 88-keys that you can hope to find at this price point.
Yamaha and Korg have been around for some time now, especially their P series and the SP series respectively. So we are going to talk about the excellent sounding and sturdily built
yamaha p115 and the affordable korg sp170.
The Casio Privia pianos are obviously the dark horse here, with a couple of models mentioned here. That is because in terms of built they may not be the most robust, but the casio px160 and the casio px360 offer real value for money considering the sound and the keyboard touch are very good.
Also Read:
- Looking for a digital piano under $200 or $300? Well, you are unlikely to find one with fully weighted keys at this price, though you may get a 76-key piano keyboard. Best beginner piano keyboards (61-keys).
- Also read Best budget 76-keys piano keyboards
Detailed Piano Reviews
With these digital piano keyboards, available with 88 keys, if you are a beginner you can play many of the popular piano pieces, which you could not have otherwise played on a 61-key keyboard.
The graded soft touch piano-style keys on these keyboards are suitable for beginners, and will be liked by experienced players too.
If you’re in the market for a digital piano keyboard with 88 keys, you may wish to consider these models.
Here are the top ‘budget’ piano keyboards with 88-keys.
The Keyboards summarized here:
- Yamaha P45 Digital piano
- Casio PX160 88-Keys Scaled Hammer Action
- Yamaha P115 88-Key
- korg sp170 88-Keys
- Williams Allegro 2 Digital Piano
Digital pianos have got better over time, and more affordable. Digital pianos nowadays has a fantastic range of features, the quality of sound and the piano action has improved a lot. We have listed some great digital pianos here, so choose one and get started on the piano.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
I would not advice Williams pianos, they are horrible and should be avoided at all costs. I teach in a music store where these pianos are sold, and their sound quality is horrible, really bad samples. Even the keys break easily. These are economical, but you will not get much for it when you want to exchange it for another keyboard in the near future.
Agree, but these get sold in good numbers. There are many who are looking for an inexpensive digital piano to start learning the piano. they are not going to use the keys roughly in the beginning, and their ears are not that developed to distinguish between good and bad samples. In fact, many don’t even go to a store to check different pianos. So for such users, these pianos work (Many of them don’t even upgrade to a better piano).
I was considering Yamaha and Williams, but eventually went with the Yamaha P115. It was expensive but plays beautifully.
Caught up in my work life, I had taken a break from playing the piano, wasn’t getting time for it. Have recently started playing again, and nothing beats jamming the keys on a good piano after a long day of work.
I have the Privia PX-360 (one model above the PX-160) and it has a it of everything, including a nice touch. I could have bought an acoustic piano but wanted something portable. My privia has several features, including including rhythms.
While playing these pianos, you will recognize that the keys feel like those on an authentic acoustic piano. The 88-key hammer-action keyboard is perfect to start learning the piano on these digital piano. The hammer system provides firm resistance to the note when you press them. Its also graded, which means the lower notes require more pressure to make a sound whereas the higher notes need little pressure as they are more sensitive. And this mechanism is similar to playing the real grand piano.