The Best Digital Pianos of 2026: an honest comparison

The short version: our best overall pick is the Roland FP-30X at £649, because its PHA-4 weighted action and 22 W speakers are the best all-round package under £700. For the keenest balance of price, size and feel, the £599 Casio PX-S1100 is the best value. A serious player who cares most about the touch should buy the £729 Kawai ES120, which has the finest key action and the loudest 40 W speakers here. A first-time learner is best served by the £419 Yamaha P-145, and the £279 Alesis Recital Pro is the cheapest honest route to 88 weighted keys. Whichever you lean towards, start with the one thing that matters most: a fully weighted key action.

Digital piano: who it suits, and who it doesn't

A digital piano is the right instrument for almost anyone learning to play at home. It never needs tuning, it costs a fraction of an upright, it fits a flat, and you can practise silently through headphones at midnight without a single complaint from the neighbours. Every model on this page weighs between 7.5 kg and 14.8 kg, so one person can move it, and the slimmest cabinet here is just 23 cm deep. For a learner, a returning player or a parent buying a first instrument for a child, a weighted digital piano is the sensible, modern choice, and it transfers cleanly to an acoustic piano later because the touch is the same.

It is only fair to be clear about the limits, too. A digital piano is a recreation, not a real acoustic, and at the very top of the market a fine grand still has a depth and resonance that samples cannot fully match. The on-board speakers, ranging from 14 W on the Yamaha to 40 W on the Kawai, fill a room but will not match a PA at a gig. And if you mainly want hundreds of sounds, rhythms and song modes rather than piano practice, an arranger keyboard may suit you better, as we explain in our digital piano vs keyboard guide. For the great majority of people who want to learn or play piano, though, the trade-off lands firmly in the digital piano's favour.

The single most important thing: a fully weighted key action

If you remember one thing from this page, make it this: the key action matters more than the brand, the voice count or any clever feature. A weighted hammer action uses real hammers to recreate the resistance of an acoustic piano, so the keys push back under your fingers and reward proper technique. Every piano we recommend has 88 fully weighted keys, because that is what builds the finger strength and dynamic control a pianist needs, and what lets you move to an acoustic without relearning the touch. A lighter semi-weighted or synth-action keyboard is cheaper, but it teaches the wrong feel and is a false economy for anyone serious about learning. We explain the difference in full in our guide to weighted versus semi-weighted keys.

Not all weighted actions are equal, either. The best of them are graded, meaning the low keys are heavier to press and the high keys lighter, exactly as on a real grand. In our testing the Kawai ES120's Responsive Hammer Compact action came closest to that acoustic feel, with the Roland FP-30X's PHA-4 a very close second. The Alesis Recital Pro at £279 has a genuine 88-note hammer bed too, but it is lighter and slightly less even, which is the price you pay for spending less than half as much. The action is where the money goes, and it is the difference you feel within the first ten minutes of playing.

Sound: samples, voices and how much polyphony you need

A digital piano makes its sound from recordings of a real instrument, and the quality of that grand-piano sample is what you hear first. Yamaha uses its CFX concert-grand sample, Roland its SuperNATURAL engine, Casio its Morphing AiR system and Kawai its Harmonic Imaging samples, all drawn from genuine acoustic grands. In a quiet room the differences are subtle but real: the Kawai and Roland have the most convincing, three-dimensional grand voice, while the cheaper Korg and Alesis are a step behind but still pleasant. Voice counts range from 10 on the Yamaha to 56 on the Roland, but for piano practice the headline grand voice is the one that matters, and all six here have a good one.

One spec is easy to overlook and worth understanding: polyphony, the maximum number of notes a piano can sound at once before older notes are cut off. The sustain pedal and layered voices use it up quickly, so we treat 128 notes as a sensible minimum for anything beyond simple practice. The Roland leads with 256-note polyphony, the Casio and Kawai offer 192, the Korg 120 and the Alesis 128, all comfortable. The Yamaha P-145 has 64, which is fine for a beginner playing simple pieces but the one figure that gives it away as an entry-level instrument. If you expect to tackle dense, heavily pedalled repertoire soon, choose a model with 128 notes or more.

Speakers: why wattage decides whether it fills a room

The on-board speakers decide how an unamplified digital piano sounds in your room, and the spread here is wider than you might expect. The Kawai ES120 leads with a 40 W system (two 20 W drivers) that fills a large living room with body to spare, and the Korg B2 is the surprise of the test, packing 30 W into a sub-£400 piano. The Roland FP-30X's 22 W is ample for most homes, while the Casio PX-S1100 (16 W) and the Yamaha P-145 (14 W) are quieter, suiting a bedroom or flat rather than a big open-plan space. None of this matters if you practise through headphones, which every model supports, but for playing out loud it is one of the clearest dividing lines in our six.

How much should you spend?

The sweet spot for a digital piano sits between roughly £400 and £730. Below £300, the Alesis Recital Pro at £279 proves you can still get a real 88-note weighted action, but the refinement drops off and committed players will outgrow it. From £400 to £500, the Yamaha P-145 (£419) and Korg B2 (£379) are excellent, dependable instruments. The £599 to £729 band buys the Casio, Roland and Kawai pianos that most players will keep for years. Remember to budget another £40 to £120 for a proper stand and bench, as a wobbly table encourages poor posture from day one. Our full buying guide walks through every step in detail.

How we chose these six

We deliberately picked pianos that cover the full range of real needs rather than six near-identical £600 boxes. There is a budget starter, a dedicated beginner's piano, two value all-rounders, the best overall package and a key-action specialist for serious players. Every model is from a brand genuinely available and supported in the UK, every one has 88 fully weighted keys, and each earns its place for a specific buyer, so there is no padding. We bought the units, played each one for hours, and logged the action, the grand voice, the speaker output and the connectivity in the same way for all six. You can read the full method on our how we test page.

Verdict: which digital piano should you buy?

For most people the Roland FP-30X is the soundest choice: the best all-round blend of a convincing PHA-4 action, 22 W speakers, 256-note polyphony and Bluetooth, all for £649. If you want similar quality for less, or you are short on space, the Casio PX-S1100 is the best value at £599, and the cheapest honest route to 88 weighted keys is the Alesis Recital Pro at £279. A complete beginner should start with the Yamaha P-145, while a serious player who lives for the feel of the keys should buy the Kawai ES120 and its peerless action. Whichever you choose, the most important step never changes: make sure the keys are fully weighted, then match the sound and speakers to your room. To see exactly how we score these pianos, read our how we test page, and start your shortlist with our best digital piano for beginners guide.