REVIEW - Casio PX350 & PX150 Privia Digital Pianos - New & Improved - The Best Low Priced Portable Digital Pianos Yet

UPDATED REVIEW- November 1, 2013 - I recommend the 2013 Casio PX350 ($799US internet discount price) & Casio PX150 ($499US internet discount price) digital portable pianos. After 30 years of producing digital pianos & keyboards, the Casio piano company continues to improve their digital piano models using the latest technology and keeping prices low, which is what they are known for. The PX350 (upper left pic) has a interactive LCD display screen, 250 instrument sounds, 17 track General MIDI playback & record functions (no one comes close to that), 128 notes of polyphony which is twice as much memory as the Yamaha DGX640, 360 drum patterns and auto chord styles, and many other useful features including midi in/out & stereo 1/4" audio outputs & inputs which the Yamaha DGX640 and some other pianos do not have in this price range for full featured digital pianos. Also, it weighs just 25lbs which is very light but it's still a solid instrument and easy to move if necessary.

The Casio company has its worldwide headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (left pic) and has been producing digital pianos for over 30 years. They also produce keyboards, pro synthesizers, as well as being famous for calculators, advanced digital cameras, sports & consumer watches, advanced digital technology for communication devices, and some very impressive new digital computer technology. Casio produces their own computer chips and proprietary micro technology and is able to do it at a fraction of the cost of some of it's biggest competitors. That is why Casio tends to have lower prices. Some people equate lower prices with lower quality but in my opinion these new Casio digital pianos are quite impressive. Beyond that, Casio has a new 3-year parts & labor warranty  which shows they are serious about giving consumers product protection and have confidence in their new pianos. Most warranties on digital pianos under $1000 have no more more than 1 year labor or maybe 2 at the most, so 3 years is outstanding in my opinion.

Casio PX350 w/stand & pedals

The noticeable upgrades on the PX350 are a much improved acoustic piano reproduction over previous models with way more realism and better overall sound and decay times, improved & upgraded key action, ivory & ebony feel keys (very nice & no one else has that in this price range), USB flash drive device input (in place of SD card), digital audio wav file recording of your performance to USB flashdrive (no one else has this in this price range and it's very cool), and more. Take a look at some videos of the PX350 being played live at the bottom of this review. Notice that one of the videos has an internationally famous Jazz & blues musician playing the PX350 in his hotel room while on tour. His name is Joe Sample and according to Casio (I can only take their word for it), Joe thinks this is one of the best portable digital pianos he has ever played and has since ordered two of them. I personally wouldn't have believed a musician of his stature would even want to play a low priced digital piano from Casio let alone own one, but seeing is believing.

I have personally played this piano from top to bottom and not only has the piano sound and key action been substantially upgraded over the previous model as I mentioned earlier, so have some of the additional instrument sounds, drum rhythms, arrangement styles, and other features including digital storage to USB flashdrive capabilities. 

Casio PX350

The PX350 control panel (left pics) is similar to the discontinued PX330 but with a modified button layout which is more intuitive to use and sleeker looking. An optional Casio furniture style stand & 3-pedal unit especially made for the new PX portable pianos is available for an extra cost. The Casio factory warranty on this model is 3 years parts & 3 years labor which is more than sufficient in the world of digital pianos and actually quite long compared to other brands in this price range. The closest competitor to the Casio PX350 that I recommend is the current model Yamaha DGX640 as I mentioned earlier. Although both the Casio & Yamaha are fun to play and work good, the new Casio seems to be a superior instrument in many ways including acoustic piano sound & much more realistic graduated hammer key action, wider piano dynamics, longer decay/sustain time, double the polyphony, and many other functions. Yamaha uses their basic standard GHS action in the DGX640 as compared to the more realistic (in my opinion) Casio upright piano feel hammer key action. It is noticeably different than the Yamaha although some people may like a lighter weight key action, I prefer the Casio type of piano weighted key action for my piano students and for people interested in reproducing the acoustic piano key weight and action as closely as they can. Just for the record, sound and key action is subjective and not an exact science. While there are many people who will think the Casio is fantastic for the price in every way, others will be more critical and want to hear even better sounding instruments, chord arrangement styles, and drum patterns which are the other parts of the PX350. But for the money I believe most people will think the PX350 is the best "portable package" in the marketplace at this moment for all that it does and has at a selling price well under $1000. When you attach the optional furniture stand and 3 pedal unit to the piano it looks like a smaller compact piano and behaves just like a real upright piano which I like.

Casio PX150

The Casio PX150 (left & upper left pics) replaces the older PX130 and is upgraded in some big ways, most notably the piano tone & piano key action which is identical to the new PX350. The PX350 has four speakers and 16 watts of power and the PX150 has 2 speakers and 16 watts of audio power which is generally sufficient for portable and cabinet digital pianos. The PX350 however does sound better than the PX150 because of its two extra speakers. The cabinet on the PX150 as well as the PX350 has been slightly redesigned in styling & colors (both available in satin black & also satin white - above left pic) and I like those improvements. The PX150 has 18 instrument tones as opposed to 16 in the former PX130 and although that's only two more sounds than the PX130, they are the most important sounds that people ask for...which is the acoustic piano sound. In all, the PX150 has 5 acoustic piano reproductions incl classical concert piano and pop piano among others. The PX150 also has a core compliant USB/MIDI plug & play connection to iPad or laptop computer (as was in the PX130) which is a very useful feature especially with so many people wanting to connect to iPad/tablet or laptop for educational and/or music composition software & apps. Also very nice are the new ivory & ebony feel key tops which the PX130 did not have. This gives the fingers a better playing surface on which to play on which is way cool. It even makes the keys look classier instead of just having white plastic like the Yamaha's still do in this price range. The PX150 also has key transpose, duet/4-hand playing mode, 2 headphone jacks, a 2-track MIDI song recorder, and other features. An optional furniture style stand and 3-pedal unit is also available for this model.

Yamaha P105

The nearest price and piano quality competitor to the Casio PX150 is the Yamaha P105 for $100 more ($599US internet discount price). The P105 is the replacement for the Yamaha P95 which has been out for quite a while and recently discontinued. The P105 is a huge upgrade over the older Yamaha P95 (I have the P105 extensively and listened to one in person), but even with the big upgrades in features including much improved piano sound, as far as reproducing realistic acoustic piano key action and acoustic piano sound with a much greater range of tonal dynamics, it's my opinion the new Casio PX150 is noticeably better. This is because it has a higher level of acoustic piano sound realism and 3-sensor weighted hammer key action technology over the Yamaha for faster repetitive action recognition. Also, the Casio offers five different acoustic piano tones (which is a lot in this price range) whereas the Yamaha offers just two acoustic piano selections. The P105 is still using its standard GHS key action (even in this new model) which they have had out for years. While it is adequate in its price range, the GHS action is somewhat light (and a bit noisy-plasticky) in key movement and response as compared with Yamaha's better GH action in their higher priced digital pianos. But even the Yamaha GH key action in my opinion does not simulate playing an acoustic piano as well as the new Casio 3-sensor (Casio calls it tri-sensor) key action. However, the new Yamaha P105 has a few cool features over the Casio PX150 that I really like (basic drum rhythms & piano chord styles) but I don't think I would sacrifice the higher quality and more realistic piano sound and key action on the Casio's for a few of the "cool" digital features the Yamaha has. I can always get some exciting musical & educational features off my iPad or laptop connected to the Casio PX150 if I needed or wanted to. I will say that the internal speaker system of the Yamaha P105 does sound a bit fuller & richer than the Casio PX150 so that is a plus for Yamaha since having fuller internal sound is usually a good thing. But when you listen through headphones, the Casio PX150 does sound noticeably better to me and you can connect to external powered speakers if you wish.. The Casio PX350 has four independent speakers as opposed to two in the PX150 so the PX350 sounds better than the PX150.

I have played and listen to both of these new Casio models and as I just mentioned, I was personally impressed by the upgraded piano sound & key action from previous models, especially for their low prices. Unless you were a fairly good piano player, you might not be able to tell much difference between an actual acoustic piano and these new Casio models as far as touch & piano tone, especially when listening through a good pair of headphones (the on-board speakers are good for a portable piano, but connecting to an external speaker system through audio outputs would be even better). I have played all of the new pianos out there including other brands not mentioned here and you can have satisfying playing experiences on many Yamaha's, Kawai's, Roland's, and other brands. But if you want a relatively inexpensive digital piano that sounds & plays great (for the money), is lightweight to carry or store (25lbs for the piano itself), and has lots of useful features including plug & play USB output to iPad & computer (see iPad music app pics at left and above), then I recommend the new Casio PX150 & PX350 for people looking in these price ranges and wanting something with higher quality technology.

Is it worth buying the PX150 & PX350 since they are $100 more each over even less expensive more basic digital pianos (and there are some out there)? It really depends on your budget and your musical goals? However I believe there are compelling reasons to purchase either of the new Casio models and spend a bit more money because if you plan to own the piano for awhile and want to grow into it instead of "out of it," you might as well beahead of the curve in terms of technology and getting much closer to replicating the piano tone & key action of a real acoustic piano. If that's important to you then I believe getting a the PX150 or PX350 and spending a bit more will worth it in the long run:). 

Note: There are some people out there who think I purposely favor the Casio brand over others, but I do not. I like all of the major brands including Roland, Kawai, Casio, and Yamaha, and a couple others. In the lower price range under $1100, there is really nothing else right now that comes close to the new line of Casio Privia pianos and that includes Yamaha, one of my favorite brands. Take a look at these new videos (down below) I found of the PX350 in action from Casio's main US product designer & specialist, Mike Martin as well famous Jazz pianist Joe Sample, and a classical concert artist by the name of Anthony Patterson. Once you hear the stereo multi-sampled acoustic grand piano sound on the PX350 in these videos, you will know why I am impressed with these new models at their low prices and being a piano teacher and musician myself, lower prices always make me smile:)

Casio PX750

  
If you want more info on these and other pianos and lower prices than internet or store discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call me direct at 602-571-1864

CASIOPX350/PX780 DEMO SONGS BELOW - Please listen to them as everything is played live without overdubs. I made a few live playing mistakes but that's what you get sometimes when you improvise with no sheet music. I made up the songs as I played them but the point was just to show off some of the rhythm accompaniment style features along with a few of the other instrument sounds including acoustic grand piano. Hope you enjoy:)

   Dynamic Grand Piano Pop by Tim Praskins on the Casio PX350

   Organ-piano Jazz Groove by Tim Praskins on the Casio PX350

   Light County Rock by Tim Praskins on the Casio PX350

   Acoustic-Elec Piano rock by Tim Praskins on the Casio PX350

 






Legendary pianist Joe Sample playing a Casio PX350 live in his hotel room impromptu and not rehearsed, and on camera too... that's called being brave:)


Joe Sample showing off his piano playing skills in Concert with George Benson