Digital Piano under 1000 Euros: Piano Made Affordable

If you want to buy a digital piano for under 1000 euros, there is a diverse selection of portable pianos and home pianos. The closer your budget gets to the 1000 euro mark, the higher the quality of the keyboard and playback system.

Digital Piano for under 1000 Euros – for home or mobile use?

If you want to spend up to 1000 Euros on a new instrument, you have the choice between different models. If the future digital piano is to have a permanent place in the home, we recommend a home piano. Apart from a few low-budget exceptions, these instruments always come with a matching stand with a triple pedal and built-in key cover.

If you’re looking for an instrument to quickly take to a rehearsal, lesson or gig, you’re better off with a portable piano. A universal stand will complete the instrument, and in many cases, the included standard sustain pedal will suffice for now.

The appearance of inexpensive home pianos resembles that of a piano, but every extra drives up the price. Hence, manufacturing a digital piano for under 1000 Euros means cutting costs – beginning with the body. Commonly, the back of the stand is not the same height as the top of the instrument, creating a gap between the stand and the casing.

You can generally expect satisfactory digital piano qualities if you spend a minimum of 650 Euros. These features characterize good equipment:

• Convincing digital grand piano sounds
• Weighted keyboards with hammer action and a surface coating for better grip (“Ebony/Ivory-Feel”)
• Triple pedals (soft, sostenuto, sustain)
• Key cover – part of almost all current entry-level home pianos in this price segment
• Minimum of 10 sounds
• Polyphony ranges from a decent 120 (Korg) to a lush 256 (Casio) voices, depending on the manufacturer
• MIDI recorder with 2 tracks and practice songs
• Availability in two to three color variants

For a digital piano at an even lower price point, there is also a selection of good instruments. Find out more about this in the PIANOO Buyer’s Guide: Digital Pianos for under 500 Euros.

Ebony and Ivory, playing in perfect Harmony…

Even with a digital piano for under 1000 Euros, you are getting features such as a surface coating. This makes the keys feel almost like a real piano. Not all models that we recommend here have this Ebony/Ivory feature, nor it is the only decisive factor for a good playing feel on a digital piano. Without a doubt, the hammer action mechanism deserves more attention in this regard. Here, all recommended models feature an 88-key graded hammer action keyboard.

Good sound and playability

The quality of keyboards in this price range is generally good. We can say the same about the sounds, of which the offer is improved compared to the class below 500 euros. A digital piano for under 1000 Euros not only comes with more sounds but also with more depth and expressiveness.

Basically, a digital piano between 500 and 1000 Euros has a split or dual mode that lets you play two sounds simultaneously. The polyphony performance is correspondingly higher here with at least 120 voices, often 192 or even more.

In addition, digital pianos of this price range usually offer a duet or duo function. This divides the keyboard into two identical areas – ideal for playing with four hands in piano lessons.

Learning and practicing with a digital piano

Speaking of piano lessons – a digital piano for under 1000 euros frequently comes with helpful functions such as a metronome or a recorder. Furthermore, you’ll find rhythms and stored music pieces for learning and practicing.

Home piano design – traditional or modern?

In the case of digital pianos, the cabinets are relatively small but fully equipped with three pedals and a key cover. You can usually pull this out of the upper part of the case – at least of those in traditional digital piano design. Here, examples include the Yamaha Arius YDP-145 or the Casio AP-270. Opposing that, the Yamaha Arius S-35/55 or the Korg C1 Air are somewhat more compact and more modern in design: The key cover serves as a music stand when opened. This practical solution also looks a bit smarter overall. Matter of taste.

Made for home use: Digital piano for under 1000 Euros

Manufacturers such as Casio and Yamaha offer different home piano models in this price range. You can choose between spending around 700 Euros as well as around 1000 Euros. If you choose the more expensive model, you will almost always get a more powerful built-in playback system. On the other hand, differences in keyboard or grand piano sound are less decisive. Further, some of the more expensive models have additional sounds such as strings and pads, B3 organ or basses.

A weakness of almost every digital piano under 1000 Euros is the control panel which is reduced to a few functions: Due to the few control elements, you almost always have to adjust settings using the keys of the instrument’s keyboard. An example would be switching sounds (with the “Function” button pressed simultaneously). Only a few recommendable home pianos, which are usually priced around 1000 Euros, offer more comfort.

A good solution if you already have a smartphone or tablet: Almost every manufacturer is offering piano apps for their digital pianos – these make operation much more convenient. Further, the apps often add interesting features. For example, the Casio Music Space app focuses on learning functions, and Kawai’s Virtual Technician on adjusting the sounds. Yamaha offers the apps Digital Piano Controller and Smart Pianist for the Arius series.

Recommended Products – Home pianos between 500 and 1000 Euros

With their Privia and Arius home piano series, Casio and Yamaha in particular are targeting the price range up to 1000 Euros. However, Kawai, Korg and Roland also offer models that fit into the budget.

Homepiano Beginner Bundles at Thomann*

Yamaha Arius YDP-145

While almost identical to its predecessor YDP-144, the YDP-145 offers improvements in piano sound.

Kawai KDP-120 – Proper piano

Solid piano qualities and well-thought-out lesson functions characterize the Kawai KDP-120. Besides a MIDI and Bluetooth interface, it offers voicing and tuning functions for the grand piano sound.

Casio Celviano AP-270 – Solid low-cost piano

Casio’s classic Celviano home piano line is just above the Privia series in terms of performance. For around 800 Euros, the AP-270 is thus an in-house price sensation.

Casio Celviano AP-470 – All about design

The Casio AP-470 offers the best price/performance ratio just below the 1000 euro mark – given case design is important in addition to playing feel and sound.

Yamaha Arius YDP-S35 – Sleek design, full sound

For just under 1000 Euros, you can get the Yamaha Arius YDP-S35, equipped with a sliding key cover.

Thomann DP-51 – extensive equipment, best price

The Thomann DP-51 offers a lot of digital piano for little money: Classic home piano design with a high-gloss finish, hammer action keyboard with an Ivory Feel surface.

Thomann DP-140B U – Upright digital piano

With the Thomann DP-140B U, you get a lot of piano for a small price. At first glance, the upright digital piano looks confusingly similar to an acoustic piano.

Korg C1 Air – Classy look, powerful sound

A more elaborately designed case with additional front legs. Two grand piano sounds and a wide selection of additional sounds, MIDI as well as Bluetooth interface. The playback system is among the most powerful in this class.

Portable pianos between 500 and 1000 Euros

If you want to buy a digital piano for under 1000 Euros, you should take a look at portable pianos: While their compact design makes portable pianos suitable for mobile use, they also excel as home pianos. In most cases, manufacturers offer a stand and pedal unit as optional accessories.

With this equipment, a portable piano looks just like a home piano. After all, portable pianos are more similar to home pianos in terms of sound selection and functions such as metronome and recorder. However, due to their construction, music stores list them as “stage pianos”. Accordingly, we summarized them in a separate guide “Best Stage Piano for under 1000 Euros”.

Useful links

Portable Piano vs. Stage Piano – Pianoo Buyer’s Guide: Stage Piano for under 1000 Euros
Discussion in the ‘Musiker-Board’ forum: Digital pianos with piano look

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