Digital piano reviews: 60+ units bought and tested

If you want digital piano and keyboard reviews, you’ve come to the right place. We review digital pianos and keyboards to suit all needs, ability levels, and budgets. More importantly, we will always give you our honest opinion to help you make the best-informed decision.

Even if an instrument is very good, it might not be the right one for you. That’s why our reviews also cover who it suits and why. Whatever you are looking for, we can help you find it.

You can check out our recommendations for:

• the best digital pianos and keyboards (for most people),
• the best keyboards and digital pianos for beginners and kids,
• the best 88-key weighted keyboards (most realistic feel),
• the best digital pianos and keyboards under $1000,
• the best cheap keyboard pianos,
• the best digital piano brands.

Reviews by brand

How we test and rate digital pianos and keyboards

In every review, we have the same goal: to provide accurate information and honest opinion. But, when dealing with such a diverse range of instruments in terms of price, versatility, and quality, we can’t judge them all by the same standards. So, our first task is to look at what the instrument does and who it’s most likely for, then focus on how it performs in the most essential areas.

When we review digital pianos, our most important areas are sound and feel. Digital pianos should be the closest you can get to playing a real piano. We score these areas is primarily based on the main grand piano voice and the feel and responsiveness of the keys. That means we generally place less importance on having lots of sounds, features, and functions. However, we do shift our focus slightly depending on the price of the piano in question.

Expensive digital pianos are more straightforward to review because they are aimed at serious pianists/students. In which case, we can focus almost entirely on the areas mentioned above. We also consider things like looks and style, as it’s likely to be on permanent display in the user’s home.

With budget digital pianos, we make some allowances. We do that because an absolute beginner doesn’t need to worry about the sound and feel quite as much. Beginners need the piano that helps them develop best, and that means we pay more attention to features like built-in lessons or things that make music fun. It allows us to be less harsh with our scores because we make value for money our priority.

When it comes to keyboard reviews, we cover the cheapest to the most expensive on the market. As with digital pianos, our focus at the high-end is largely on sound and feel but shifts towards value for money as the price goes down.

There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, we can split keyboards into three groups: best at home, best on stage, and best for beginners. With every keyboard we review, we discuss the pros and cons of using it at home and on stage. Many things like sound quality, feel, versatility, and integration with external software/hardware tell us where a keyboard is most suited.

Beginner keyboards, like budget digital pianos, get some allowances in our scoring. We might score a beginner keyboard 4.0 for sound quality while giving a high-end stage piano the same score. We do that because the cheaper keyboard most likely exceeds expectations, and the high-end keyboard falls short based on price. Beginner keyboards are about having fun while you learn, and if they deliver that, we will score them high.

It’s important to remember that the scores we give are directly relevant to the specific type of instrument. Beginner keyboards that score 4.5 aren’t going to be better instruments than a high-end keyboard piano that scores 4.0. If we didn’t score this way and judged everything by the same standard, only the very best (and most expensive) instruments would score well.

We believe our approach is the fairest to the manufacturers, and most importantly, to you, our readers.