Digital Stage Piano Reviews: Best 88-key portable pianos with weighted keys for beginners

Here are the best portable digital stage pianos with weighted keys and great piano sounds, minus the size and weight of an upright piano. We cover a wide range of pianos here, for the beginners and for the experienced players. These are great for the serious piano students, for those who want a good piano to practice on, and can also be used for performance. An 88 key weighted keyboard solves the several challenges associated with upright and grand pianos, such as space and cost. There are many who prefer the portable nature of these keyboards, which makes it easy to use them in the studio or on the stage, and perfectly suits those who play the piano.

The best portable pianos with weighted keys for beginners…

Yamaha Piaggero NP32 76-Key Portable Keyboard

The NP32 comes with 76 keys so you can play a larger variety of songs. This does not come with the several built-in styles and voices, but has just electric piano, organ, harpsichord, strings and the vibraphone sounds. Read more…

Yamaha P45 88-Key Piano

The P45 is a good portable 88-key piano with weighted (GHS) action, great for the beginning student who want a decent piano for practicing and are not in a position to spend a lot of money. Its also perfect for those who want the Yamaha brand for a reasonable price. Read more…

Casio Privia PX-160 88-Key Digital Stage Piano

The PX160 is an excellent beginner piano from Casio. Its a great ‘value’ keyboard with several features, exceptional sound quality and sleek looks. The Tri-Sensor scaled hammer action keyboard gives you the perfect piano feel and at less than 25 lbs. it is quite portable. You get 128-note polyphony and 18 tones (with layer and split). You can use it at home, church or school. One of the best-selling portable pianos out there. Read more…

Yamaha P115 Digital Piano

The P115 is for serious piano players looking for authentic piano sound and keyboard touch. It replaces the outgoing P-105 model. This comes with 88-note, GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) weighted-action keyboard that any serious pianist would need. You get authentic keys, an excellent piano sound, built-in pianist styles and several built-in piano songs. Perfect for serious piano students or experienced pianists. You can even use it for piano practice. Read more…

Yamaha P255 Digital Piano

The Yamaha p255 combines concert grand sounds with digital piano portability. This one feels a lot more robust and much more like the real thing, compared to the lower version pianos in the p-series. If you are okay to spend a bit more, this one is definitely worth it compared to the other p-series pianos. Its one of the best 88-key digital pianos in its class, especially if you’re keen on top-notch piano sounds and a simplified feature-list. Read more…

Why Weighted Keys Keyboard?

So why would anybody be interested in a keyboards with weighted keys, when you can buy an inexpensive upright digital piano (there are some budget ones as well).

There are a few reasons for that.

Learning to Play Piano
There are many who get started on the keyboards, playing with accompaniments, and there are many who just start on a keyboard controller (because they are more interested in creating music). Somewhere down the line these guys realize the importance of improving their keyboard skills, and get interested in playing in the piano style.

That is when they start thinking of buying a piano.

There are several advantages of going for a digital piano over an acoustic one, but then even a digital piano is nowadays available in various styles, such as portable, upright and grands. Though buying an upright or grand piano is definitely an option, the challenges around space and cost still remain. And that is why many choose to go in for a portable option.

Suits Experienced Piano Players
The more serious keyboard players and professionals, who enjoy playing the piano, love to have a portable board that can be easily used in the studio or stage, as the requirement demands. And since they prefer piano style keys, an 88 Key weighted keyboard is much more convenient options to them.

Do You Need All the Bells and Whistles?

88 Key Digital Piano Keyboard – Do you want it with all the bells and whistles or just with good piano sounds and an excellent keyboard touch?

Even if you are convinced that you need a portable digital piano with 88 keys, you also need to understand that the contemporary keyboard instruments come with a lot of features.

Not that all those features are available on all the piano models, but then you can choose a suitable piano with those features if you are sure you want them.

Do You Need All Those Sounds / Effects?
If you are a piano player who wants an 88 key keyboard for practicing, then a piano keyboard with a good set of piano sounds and a few more orchestral sounds are god enough. The only other thing you will need is an authentic piano touch on the keyboard.

If you share similar thoughts, you will really not care about the hundreds of voices and effects that most boards have nowadays.

Accompaniments Doesn’t Mean Low Quality
There are many who are of the opinion that a keyboard with accompaniments is of low quality, compared to say an 88 key keyboard that has only piano sounds, and minimal effects.

This is however not entirely true!

Because of the overall competition, the current crop of keyboards anyways offers the end users many things, something that was definitely not the case several years back.

So for around 500 bucks, you can think of owning an 88 key keyboard, with weighted keys and several accompaniments, voices, styles, etc.

An 88-key piano, minus all those extra features, many not cost much lesser, assuming the piano sounds and the keyboard touch remains more or less the same. So why not get all those additional features?

But in case you are looking for a model minus all those features, so that you can save few bucks, by all means do that!

Piano manufacturers such as Yamaha, Roland and a few others do produce both acoustic as well as digital pianos. Their high-end digital pianos do use samples from their top concert acoustic pianos, and irrespective of what effects and styles they have, these are going to sound top class and can be used for practicing as well as for performance.

But as mentioned, having the various voices and styles, doesn’t make a keyboard low quality!

Do You Need Dual Headphone Slot?
Another thing that you need to consider is the headphone jack. Most 88 key digital piano keyboards nowadays (the better ones) come with dual headphone jacks. A good feature to have if you ask me personally!

You can have a nice time playing with your friend or with your teacher without disturbing others. So give a thought to this aspect. Do you need a digital piano with dual headphone jacks?

Is Portability Important to You?
If you’re going to use your 88 key keyboard at home, then portability may not be a factor as you will not move the location frequently.

But if it is going to be used for gigs, you will have to think whether you really need a heavier board. If you have recently started performing, you may not mind the extra weight as you will prefer the best sound and features over portability.

But if you have done it all and seen it all, and your body is not that strong as it used to be, then you may have to consider portability over other things.

You may want something which you can be carried out easily. This is perfect for users such as college students who have grown up playing on the piano at home. They may want a keyboard that can easily be shuttled between the college hostel and home.

Lots of Buying Options

When it comes to buying 88 key weighted keyboards, you will definitely be spoilt for choices as can be seen from the number of options that are available.

You do get models that come with plain piano sounds, without any bells and whistles, that is suitable for students and for practicing.

On the other hand you get models that come fully loaded with synth features, that is perfect for performing on the stage, or for recordings in the studio.

Recommended Digital Piano Series

Here are some of the popular 88-key keyboards, that come with great piano sounds and keyboard touch, and with minimum features (bells & whistles).

• Yamaha NP series 88-key keyboards
• Yamaha P Pianos: 88-Key pianos with authentic feel and sounds
• Williams 88-key keyboards
• Korg SP series 88-key piano keyboards
• Yamaha DGX: 88-Key weighted keyboards with accompaniments
• Controllers with 88-keys
• Casio Privia: Excellent value-for-money 88-key pianos
• Best budget 88-key digital pianos (several models for around 500 dollars)

To Conclude

One of the many advantages of digital technology is that it has made things portable, and the same applies to piano as well. A digital piano is much more portable than an acoustic one, and also has several features that make it a complete entertainment system and / or a music producing equipment. And now you also have the option of owning an 88 Key weighted keyboard that comes with real piano like keys. An 88 key weighted keyboard solves the several challenges associated with upright and grand pianos, such as space and cost. There are many who prefer the portable nature of these keyboards.

Manufacturers nowadays are offering all the possible options that a user may want in a musical instrument, but then not all of it may really be needed to you. If you are looking for a instrument just to play, so that you can enjoy playing your favorite songs, then you really may not require a lot of things on your keyboard instrument.

There are many who don’t even need the various sounds and styles, and are happy with just simple piano sounds of good quality, and a good keyboard touch. They want to just play the instrument like a real piano but do not want the huge size that is associated with acoustic pianos. They just want minimum stuff without compromising on the key touch, and would prefer the features to help it interact with a computer. In case, you are one of them, you can go for an 88 key digital piano / keyboard without all the bells and whistles.

Piano Keyboards: Complete Guide
More digital pianos here…
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