Acoustic & Electronic Instruments, Musicians, News, Tutorials, Videos & Interesting Finds
Acoustic & Electronic Instruments, Musicians, News, Tutorials, Videos & Interesting Finds

Casio intros two new Privia digital pianos: PX-720, PX-120

Casio has today announced the arrival of two new “world class” digital pianos in its Privia range.

View Casio PX-720 and Casio PX-120 on Amazon.

The PX-720 and PX-120 both feature 88 scaled hammer-action keys, and boast a slim design. In fact, the PX-120, which comes in a choice of silver and dark grey or silver and light brown colouring, is supposed to be the world’s smallest digital piano, measuring just 298mm (about 11.7 inches) slim.

The PX-720 comes in subtle ash-walnut, cherry, or maple shades.

Both digital pianos feature Casio’s Acoustic and Intelligent Filtering (AIF) technology, which produces sounds that resonate smoothly when played. The new Privias also come with tri-element sampling, which uses three real piano samples for each note, making it possible to reproduce real sounds in response to different key pressures, delivering the sound and expression of an actual acoustic piano.

Casio PX-120 digital piano
Casio PX-120 digital piano

It’s hard to tell immediately from the technical specifications posted on Casio’s site what other differences there are between the two models, other than the finish and a slight size difference. However, the specs don’t look quite complete. Though it’s possible to see that both come with a generous 128 notes of polyphony, plus layer/split, auto-accompaniment, 2-track recorder, transposition, tuning, and such like, there’s no mention of pedal options, for example.

The PX-120 has a retail price of £549.99, with the PX-720 coming in at £649.99 (UK prices).

Casio seems to load its digital pianos with more features than many of Yamaha‘s Clavinova and P-series digital pianos (though some of Yamaha’s contemporary stage pianos have features such as accompaniment).

Whether you actually want these features if you’re shopping for a dedicated digital piano is another matter. You could argue that you might as well have the extra features, but I’m always concerned that additional features either push the price up, or detract from the “core value” of a digital piano — how it feels and looks.

Though, between the two manufacturers, Yamaha often has the name and the edge over Casio, these look like smart, decent instruments at a reasonable price. The truth will out in the playing, though.

View Casio PX-720 and Casio PX-120 on Amazon.

Casio PX-720 product page
Casio PX-120 product page