Deciding which Keyboard to Buy - Yamaha PSR E353

I would like to share my personal experience, which I had while choosing to buy a Keyboard. I started learning the piano when I was 16-years old. Initially, the keyboard I was using to learn was a very small and portable keyboard. It had 28-keys on it, but, it was very portable and apt for a beginner. I progressed from a novice to an early pro stage on this small piece of instrument. However, just as I was entering into my final year in school, study pressure piled up and I was rather forced to stop progressing with it.

Recently, after a gap of 4 years, I yearned to go back to learning the piano. I was divided and confused about which keyboard to buy. The pre-requisites included – portable, light-weight, not to be easily damaged while travelling and good sound quality. This is because I travel a lot and hence, all these are an absolute must. I started off my search for the perfect match. The primary thing which must be underlined at the beginning is the price range for the keyboard. I had a price range of a little above 10k in Indian rupees, which roughly amounts to $150. It must be noted Casio keyboards are the best for a price range of $100. However, since I had a little extended budget, I explored a variety of options:

·         Casio CTK-2400 (61 keys) – This is a good choice for beginners, but, I crossed it off the list primarily because the keys are not touch-sensitive and hence, has a negative effect on the sound while playing.

·         Yamaha NP-12 (61 keys) – Very portable and light. However, this lacks extra sound types and could not record pieces of music being played. Also, the price is way above the budget, $299.

·         Yamaha NP-32 – Very large and not suitable to be carried to different places, albeit, a perfect piano.

·         Casio LK-280 (61 keys) – Good built and perfect to be carried to different places. However, as with most Casio keyboards, the feeling while playing the keys is too childish and hence, this seems more like a toy than an original instrument.

After a lot of searching and analysing the pros and cons of each different models, I was finally able to come up with the following two short-list:

·         Yamaha EZ-220 (61 keys) vs Yamaha PSR E353 (61 keys)

I was lucky enough to test and play each of these two pianos before I bought the PSR E353, which has been recently released as a pre-cursor to the E453 and an advancement on the E253. The E453 was out of my budget, apart from the fact that it is not portable also. The EZ-220 is comparable to the E353 is all aspects, including, sound quality, touch sensitive keys, weight being light and looks. However, the only region where I felt the E353 scored over the E220 is that it was lighter than the latter, weighing about 4.5kgs without a cover and 5kgs with a cover. I also felt that since I travel a lot, mostly air travel, the E353 was more resistant to any damage than the E220.

Finally, I bought the Yamaha PSR E353 from Amazon and it took about 15 days to deliver the product at the residence. I have been playing it for quite some time now and I have not been disappointed. The sound quality is beautiful and the touch-sensitive keys make you feel as if you are playing a piano.


Yamaha PSRE353