Best Casio Digital Pianos (88-Key console and stage pianos) available for players of various skills and levels. A Casio digital piano offers great value for money, feature fully weighted keyboard action, improved sound system and come with several pro-level piano sounds, all these available for fraction of the cost of a grand piano. Skip to the best Casio digital piano on Amazon.
Introduction
Casio’s digital pianos have undergone a sea change in recent years in terms of the sound quality, keyboard touch, and in general, the overall quality.
Casio has also been quite aggressive with its piano launches in the last few years and has been regularly introducing newer models. While Privia was its only range of pianos until a few years back, they have a few more series of pianos now.
Casio has expanded their 88-key digital piano range and now offers three series of pianos – Privia, Celviano, and the CDP (contemporary digital pianos). These all come with fully weighted keys.
Casio pianos have vastly improved in terms of the quality of sound samples used, and the quality of the built-in speakers.
The pianos in all series come with 88-keys and have fully weighted keys but the top models may have synthetic ivory tops for a more realistic feel. The graded hammer action keyboards are heavier on the left side and gets gradually lighter as you move to the higher registers. This is how the keys on an acoustic grand piano feel.
You can expect the following features on Casio pianos:
- Better sound due to upgraded sound engine and better on-board speakers
- Available at competitive prices.
- Nice weighted keyboard touch
- Great set of Features
A Casio piano is the perfect piano for a beginner who wants to learn to play the piano and is looking for an affordable piano with weighted keys. Even experienced piano players can consider owning one of the top models to practice or buy one as an additional piano-keyboard. As always, Casio Pianos offer value-for-money without compromising much on the looks, sound and the keyboard touch.
Casio Digital Pianos: Summary of Various Series
Casio Console Pianos (Traditional upright design)
- Celviano Grand Hybrid (GP series): Console (traditional upright) pianos with good looks, authentic piano action and grand piano sounds.
- Celviano (AP series): Traditional pianos with authentic piano action and grand piano sounds.
Casio Stage Pianos (Portable pianos)
- Privia (PX series): Portable pianos with excellent piano sounds and performace features
- CDP series: Compact/slim portable pianos with excellent piano sounds, suitable for home use
Popular Series & Popular Products
- PX series: Privia Portable Stage Pianos
These are the portable stage pianos from Casio! A Privia piano looks great and their sound quality is much superior.
- Casio Celviano Upright Home Pianos – AP Series
Casio Celviano Digital Upright Pianos – Elegant design & authentic piano key touch
- Casio WK 76 Key Piano Keyboards
These are keyboards with 76 synth action keys. The WK series music keyboards have fairly advanced features and 76 keys that gives you the flexibility to play piano pieces as well.
- Checkout Casio Keyboard Accessories.
Best Casio Digital Pianos (At a Glance)
Best value-for-money portable stage piano: Casio PX-s1000
A more recent model, this one has a slim, compact design, features app intergration and bluetooth, and has fully weighted keys.
Best budget portable stage piano: Casio PX-160
Entry-level Privia model, weighted hammer action, dual headphone outputs for practicing with teacher. Great for beginners. Packs a huge sound into its 11.5kg case. Pianos, EPs, Organs and String patches sound big and have plenty of bite.
Best stage piano for performance: Casio PX-560
Portable stage piano with 5.3″ Color Display, and several features to make live playing easy.
Best value-for-money Upright (Console) Casio digital piano: Casio PX-870
Digital piano in the traditional design, 88-key weighted keys, 256 Note Polyphony. Comes with piano bench.
.Casio Digital Pianos: Reviews
Casio PX-160 88-Key Privia Digital Stage Piano
The Casio Privia PX-160 88-Key full-size piano is a great piano for serious students looking for an affordable product, and even for gigging musicians (as an add-on board). This 88-key digital piano comes with USB MIDI and a fully weighted scaled hammer-action keyboard. Read more.
Packs a huge sound into its 11.5kg case. Pianos, EPs, Organs and String patches sound big and have plenty of bite.
Features 88 weighted-key digital piano that utilizes Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action II keyboard. 8w x 8w powerful speaker system. The PX-160 is the perfect piano for the home, or for playing out.
Overall, a great beginner keyboard with fully weighted keys.
Casio CDP-240 Compact Digital Piano
Casio CDP-240 piano is from the CDP series (contemporary digital pianos). Its compact, comes with a simple design, and comes with nice set of features including multiple sounds and accompaniments/rhythms.
It has built-in speakers and is a great option for beginners who want an affordable piano with fully weighted keys to learn and practice the pianos.
88-keys scaled hammer action keyboard, Touch Response : 3 sensitivity levels, USB MIDI, Maximum Polyphony 64, 700 tones, 200 rhythms, 8W+8W speakers.
Another good option for beginners, its lightweight and great for piano practice.
Casio Privia PX-870 Home Digital Piano
The Casio Privia PX-870 is designed more like a upright, console piano. It looks like a much more expensive piano, but with most things Casio, the price of this piano is also reasonable.
The flagship model in the Casio’s Privia series, the PX-870 produces room-filling grand piano sound, comes with hammer-action keys, and USB connectivity so that you can get more creative using your computer or tablet.
Casio Privia PX-560 Pro Digital Piano
A recently introduced digital stage piano, its slightly on the expensive side, but there’s a reason for its. Besides having excellent keyboard action (fully weighted), it has the features of an arranger keyboard (several styles & voices), and features of a stage piano (17-track sequencer, tone editing, etc.). Use it for practicing at home or for performing on stage.
Features Hex Layer synth engine, colour LCD display. You can change the string resonance, damper noise, hammer response. live control knobs. While backing a singer with solo piano, you can assign Reverb, Mid EQ, and High EQ to one of each of the 3 knob controls, giving you easy access to match the piano tone to whatever style of vocals they’re going to use.
Several musicians use this as a gigging keyboard as it comes with several buttons and knobs, comes with color touch-interface. However, unlike other stage pianos, this one comes with built-in speakers.
Hammer Action Keyboard, 3 sensitivity levels, Maximum Polyphony 256. 650 tones, 220 rhythms, built-in Recorder.
Casio PX-360 88-Key Privia Digital Stage Piano
The Casio PX-360 Key Digital Piano has great keyboard action, and a great selection of tones and rhythms. Its lightweight and compact, and can be used for gigs as well.
If you want something with more features compared to the Casio PX-160, this is the model you may consider.
It features a 5.3 inch Color Touch Screen and has Maximum Polyphony of 128 notes. Features 550 tones, 200 rhythms, Recorder, Lesson Function. Split points and effects is quick and easy. USB Audio, audio input jacks.
Casio PX5 Pro Digital Stage Piano
The Casio PX-5 is perfect for the onstage performer looking for synth and performance features at an affordable price. Excellent sound quality and quite portable. The layout comes with lots of buttons to make it easy to select the various things, saves time when on stage.
I guess the only downside to it is that it doesn’t come with built-in speakers (though its not really a downside because most stage pianos do not come with built-in speakers).
Features tone editing, insert effects, MIDI controller capabilities, an Ivory Touch 88 note scaled hammer action keyboard. USB MIDI interface for connection to your computer without the need to install drivers. Authentic sounding piano tones are sure to impress.
Weighs only 10.8kg! Lots of knobs and sliders for great live control over your patches. Programmable arpeggiator, phrase sequencer and incredible MIDI control.
Casio AP-470 Celviano Upright Digital Piano
The Casio Celviano AP-470 is a great opportunity to own an upright digital piano. Good combination of elegance and performance. The Casio AP-470 Celviano features Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II, Simulated ebony and ivory key touch for authentic feel of the keys.
256-note polyphony, audio recording and midi-recording (2 track), Duet function, USB/MIDI connection, powerful built-in speakers.
Checkout ALL Casio Celviano Pianos here…
Casio CGP-700
The CGP-700 is a great sounding piano with great-feeling keys; You get and pro-level piano sounds and you can record your performance on the user-friendly color touchscreen.- Pros: Sleeker and compact (less deeper), Color touch interface, powerful 6-speaker sound system, great piano sound and realistic hammer action keys, the piano detaches from the stand to make it more portable
- Cons: Not all the sounds are great, not the sturdiest of pianos but great for home/studio use
The CGP-700 is also well suited for a teaching/educational environment. It has Duet Mode so that two people to play side by side. The Classroom Mode configures the CGP-700 to work with third party piano software. It comes with two headphone jacks – perfect for teacher and student.
The CGP-700 uses impressive grand piano samples that can be used in stereo or mono, and even includes damper resonance simulation. You’ll find settings to adjust the piano’s tone for rock, jazz, classical, and other styles. You can use the optional SP-33 3-pedal system (charged extra) with this piano.
- Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action II keyboard with ebony and ivory tops.
- 5.3in Touch Screen Interface. Powerful Speakers
- Max. Polyphony: 128, 550 instrument tones and effects.
- Built-in 3-way sound system – powerful 40 watt speakers.
- Easily connect other audio devices to the Casio piano and play your favorite songs to play along
- Includes MIDI and USB audio recorders
- 1/4″ outputs to connect to a mixer, amplifier, or PA system.
- USB port (to Host), USB flash drive port
- Included Accessories: Score Stand, Pedal (SP-3), AC Adapter (AD-E24250)
Buying Links
Casio Pianos: Buying Guide
We all know that Casio offers more value for your bucks, but would you accept a digital piano that does not score well on sound quality and keyboard feel – two important aspects in a digital piano, even if it were offered to you dirt cheap?
No way!
And that is precisely what Casio has improved in a big way in their range of digital pianos. Sound quality, key touch, and looks…all have been significantly improved.
Until a few years back, Casio had this image of a company that only produced entry-level keyboards for beginners and intermediate players. However, things are different today.
There Privia range of digital pianos was a massive success and gave the brand an image boost. Today, Casio has an impressive line up of keyboards and pianos that can compete with other leading brands
Casio now offers a stylish range of home & portable stage pianos – Privia, CDP, Celviano series.
Experienced players may be satisfied with the key touch on Casio, but may feel that the one offered on Yamaha, Roland or Kawai are a notch better. On the entry level models, it may not possible to get a very delicate touch, as in a piano.
Though value for money, some of you may not find the bundled pedal to be of top quality may. Some models (like the Privia px-350) support half-pedaling, but only if you buy the Casio pedal board.
Nevertheless, most of these models are an excellent step up from non-weighted or semi-weighted keyboards.
Don’t carry any preconceptions about Casio. Casio has successfully reinvented their piano business and you, as users, are definitely the beneficiaries.
Best if you want to learn piano or if you need a portable piano that doesn’t take much space and will easily fit in your apartment.
An excellent set of features for the money! You will definitely not be disappointed.
Recent Improvements To Casio Digital Pianos
Casio pianos now use a new sound source and use high-precision stereo samples that deliver the sound quality and playability of a fine grand piano.
Though the keys are weighted on all the models, the keys on the more expensive Casio pianos resemble the keys on a real acoustic piano.
In terms of features, you can expect to find all the digital piano related features on a Casio piano: Powerful built-in speakers, LED display, Lesson Function, Song Sequencer, Song memory, Digital Effects, Line in/out, Pedals, USB connectivity to Computer…
A high-end model would have all these features and would usually come with free accessories like score book, music stand, headphones hook, and CD-ROM (USB driver and SMF converter)
Does it appeal to the Pros?
Casio has been introducing new stage pianos and synthesizers in the market, and to be frank, they are better than most of the popular brands out there in that price range.
So, Casio should not be seen as just as a producer of cheap stuff.
Casio stage piano such as PX-560 is great for stage use (performance) and comes with several “pro” features (without much addition to the cost).
Most of the models listed here fall in the sub $1500 category, so it may not feel as robust as some of the more expensive offerings from Roland, Yamaha or Kawai.
More than the sound, it will be things like the key touch and pedals, that some of the more accomplished players may still not be totally convinced with.
But even if you are a connoisseur and try out some of the top Casio piano models, I am sure you will appreciate what is offered, especially when you look at the price tag.
Most of them do end up buying the Casio piano, in addition to their primary piano at home, so that they can use it while on the go.
While die-hard fans of Yamaha and Roland may still not be convinced into buying a Casio, the fact is that you should at least try out a Casio digital piano before you decide to buy another brand.
If you are a parent looking for a piano for your child, or if you are an adult beginner, or if you have played keyboards before and looking to supplement it with a good piano, then you should definitely consider a Casio.
Closing Thoughts
Known primarily for its music keyboard, Casio has introduced some great digital pianos over the last few years that have made people sit up and take notice.
Though they carry a wide range of models, beginners who are keen to learn to play the piano but do not want to spend a lot, will find some of the Casio piano models simply irresistible.
Do not be tempted to pass on the Casio digital pianos, just because you have some impression about the Casio brand of keyboard instruments.
Buying Links for Casio Digital PianosYou can buy your favorite Casio digital piano here.
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.
Leave a Reply