Best Digital Pianos Under $300: 6 Great Keyboards for Beginners and Pros

In this article we’re looking at the best digital piano under $300. These pianos can be a great way to get started without having to invest the money in a fully acoustic digital piano. If you’ve fallen out of playing piano over the years since having lessons or just want to get started and have an affordable model available to practice at home, one of these pianos could be a fantastic solution.

We’ve looked at the important features of digital pianos when creating our product reviews. Some of the functionality we’ve picked out as being vitally important includes the number of keys (this impacts the size of the piano and how many notes you can play). We’ve also looked at whether the keys are touch-sensitive and responsive to how hard you are playing them. Other features include whether you can connect to MIDI devices or computers, the speakers and sound of the piano itself, and the multiple power source options. The Yamaha PSR-EW310 has come out on top of our list due to fitting the majority of these features exceptionally.

Our team has spent many weeks researching the top digital piano options on a budget. The research is presented as a simple overview table showing the best options. These options have then also been individually reviewed in detail and ranked based on quality. Finally, a buying guide will help you to understand the features and which you should prioritize when making your final choice on which affordable piano to purchase.

Top 6 Digital Pianos Under $300 Review 2024

What can you expect to get from a piano keyboard under $300?

300 dollars is not a massive budget for a digital piano keyboard, but for beginners, or a basic practice model of piano or keyboard, you can still get plenty of features. Unless you are planning to use your piano for performing to big crowds or taking into a recording studio, you won’t necessarily need a model with a huge amount of features. Something on our list is bound to fit your criteria.

You won’t find models with fully-weighted keys at this price point, so the feel of your keyboard or digital piano will be a little different from if you were playing an acoustic piano. Also, many of the options at this range don’t have the full 88 keys of a piano.

Some of the features which are pretty common include many different sounds, inbuilt lessons to help beginners and plenty of compatibility with other devices.

Features to consider when choosing a digital piano

The following features are those we’ve picked out as being the most important when it comes to finding a great digital piano for your playing. Depending on the type of music you want to play and whether you need lessons or just want a practice model, you may want to choose different features and functions to prioritize.

Number of keys and polyphony

A standard acoustic piano such as an upright piano or a grand piano will have 88 keys. There is only one model on our list which replicates this, the Alesis Recital 88-Key Beginner Digital Piano. You don’t necessarily need all of the keys, unless you are going to play complex classical pieces! You can certainly learn all of the basics on a keyboard with 61 or 76 keys.

Polyphony refers to how many notes can be played at the same time, or very closely after one another. If you play really complex pieces of music, you will find that a digital piano with low polyphony will start to drop some of the notes. The higher polyphony on offer, the better.

Key action and sensitivity

The keys feel different depending on how they have been built. Some are made to be weighted to replicate the way acoustic piano keys feel, but this is rare to find at this price point. Instead, some are velocity and touch sensitive, meaning that the speed and force at which you press the keys will impact on the volume, this is designed to replicate the feel of an acoustic piano and give dynamics to your performance.

Connections and ports, including MIDI and pedal ports

A good digital piano can act as a central hub for lots of other music equipment, or to control other music gear. For instance, MIDI ports or MIDI to USB can allow you to control music software. Some of the best digital pianos include connections for aux cables to play along to music, XLR connections for microphones and pedals such as a sustain pedal to add more attenuation to your playing.

Power

The way the piano is powered has a big impact on how portable it is. Most of the products on this list are powered with mains power, but some also have the option to use batteries, which can mean you can play any time and any place.

A power adapter is certainly more reliable, and batteries can be used up pretty quickly by a product like a digital piano, so you should always make sure you have the option to connect to mains power. The best portable options have both types of power available, such as the Casio WK-245 PPK 76-Key Premium Portable Keyboard Package.

Pre-loaded songs, sounds, and rhythms

Buying a digital piano doesn’t mean that when you play the keys it will always have to sound like a piano! All of the options on this list have the option to play different sounds, with some of the options from Casio and Yamaha having 400-600 different sounds or ‘voices’ as you may hear them referred to.

These can vary from different types of piano and keyboard to other acoustic instruments, synthesizer style sounds and even drums and sound effects. The more choice you have, the better, especially if you want to experiment with a lot of different sounds when writing and playing songs. This can also add some exciting variation to your practice as you can play songs you know with different voices.

Pre-loaded songs and rhythms work slightly differently. The songs are usually full pieces of music which you can play back through the piano, but you can also play along to these. Sometimes, the keys which are being played will light up to indicate which notes are playing.

Rhythms are very useful, too. These are simply drum backing tracks that you can play along to, and this is a great way to get used to how it feels to play in rhythm and keep your timing as a pianist.

Dimensions, weight, and portability

Obviously, the dimensions and weight will play a huge part in deciding how portable a digital piano model is. If you opt for a big and bulky digital piano, it is going to be much harder to take to practices or performances.

If you want a full-sized, 88-key keyboard then it is inevitable that it is going to be quite large. This is just the price to pay for having a full sized keyboard.

Some 61 and 76 key models of keyboard are a little less bulky. In fact, our recommended portable digital piano model weighs under 10 lbs which makes it pretty simple to take from place to place. This model is the Casio CTX700 61 Key Keyboard.

If it is important to you to have a keyboard which is portable, think about whether or not you need 88 keys or you can get away with less. As a keyboard is just a pattern which repeats and goes up on pitch (octaves), then you don’t necessarily need a full-sized keyboard. If you can get a 61 key keyboard it will be easy to take out of the house.

Playing modes

The standard playing mode of a piano is sometimes accompanied by a split key mode. This is a way to split the keyboard in half, and play one sound (voice) on each half of the keyboard, two in total. This means that your left hand could be playing a bass sound and your right could be playing piano, or that you can play a drum pattern while playing a melody.

This is a bonus feature and it may be useful for performances, but it isn’t necessarily essential.

Some keyboards also have a teaching mode. This means the keyboard splits into two identical halves which means that a teacher can show something on one half that the student can replicate on the other half.

Extras and accessories

A lot of the digital pianos you can find under $300 are aimed at beginners, and the manufacturers assume you will need other piano accessories along with the keyboard itself. They are often sold as bundles. Some of the bundles include a huge amount of extra accessories including music stands, stools, a keyboard stand, headphones and more. The RockJam 61-Key Electronic Keyboard Piano SuperKit includes all of this and even has a stool, and it comes at a very reasonable price.

Another useful extra that some of the digital pianos include is subscriptions or trials to music lessons and apps, which can allow you to start either online course or face-to-face lessons to learn how to play your piano. If, however, the model you bought doesn’t offer such a bonus, we suggest you checking out this list of online piano lessons websites:  https://musicgroupies.com/best-online-piano-lessons Trusted Source The 10 Best Online Piano Lessons Sites In 2021 - Music Groupies An online community for music fantatic musicgroupies.com . Here, you’ll be able to find the service that will suit your needs perfectly in all aspects, including price and interface. By the way, most of the listed sites include free content or trial periods so that you could choose your ideal digital teacher without spending any extra money.

FAQ

Our Verdict

Our top-rated product is the Yamaha PSR-EW310. It is almost full-sized and has some great features. It can be bought bundled with a stand and includes access to the Yamaha Educational Suite. It also has over 500 sounds to choose from. We’ve rated it 9.9/10.

The Casio WK-245 PPK 76-Key Premium Portable Keyboard Package is second placed and is similar in terms of features, but this has a brilliant multi-track recorder. We’ve rated it 9.7/10, just missing out on top as it doesn’t have the same educational features as Yamaha models.

In third place, rated 9.5/10, is the Casio CTX700 61 Key Keyboard. This has 600 sounds to choose from, and is the best digital piano under $300 for portability as it weighs in at under 10 lbs, and is smaller than many others due to its 61-key design.