The Kawai ES120 has the finest key action in our comparison and the loudest speakers, a 40 W system that fills a room with ease. At £729 it is the priciest piano here, but if the feel under your fingers matters more than anything, it is the one to buy.
Kawai is one of the few names on this page that also builds acoustic grand pianos, and that pedigree is the whole story of the ES120. Where rival makers engineer a digital action to feel piano-like, Kawai starts from the real thing and works back. After eight hours moving between this and the Roland, the difference was small but consistent: the ES120 is the one that most often made us forget we were playing a digital. For a serious or returning player, that is worth a great deal.
| Model | Price | Keys | Key action | Sound engine | Rating | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ★ Top pick Kawai ES120 Digital Piano | £337.00 | 88, fully weighted | Responsive Hammer Compact (RHC) | Harmonic Imaging, 192-note polyphony | ★ 4.6 | View → |
£337.00
88, fully weighted · Responsive Hammer Compact (RHC) · Harmonic Imaging, 192-note polyphony
The verdict from Anaya Iyer, pianist and keyboard reviewer
The choice for serious players. Kawai builds acoustic grands, and that pedigree shows in the ES120: the Responsive Hammer Compact action is the most convincing in this group, and the 40 W speaker system is the loudest and richest on test. If the feel under your fingers matters more than anything, this is the piano to buy. You pay a small premium over the Roland, but for an aspiring or returning player the action alone justifies it.
The keys move with the graded weight of a real grand, heavier in the bass and lighter up top.
| Keys | 88, fully weighted |
|---|---|
| Key action | Responsive Hammer Compact (RHC) |
| Sound engine | Harmonic Imaging, 192-note polyphony |
| Speakers | 2 x 20 W (40 W total) |
| Voices | 25 |
| Bluetooth | MIDI |
| Weight | 12.0 kg |
| Price | £729 |
| Cabinet depth | 28.6 cm |
| Sampled instrument | Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand |
The ES120 is aimed squarely at the player who cares most about touch and tone: the returning pianist who once played an acoustic, the grade-five-and-above student, or the serious hobbyist who wants the closest thing to a real piano without one in the room. The 40 W speaker system, the most powerful here, also makes it the best choice if the piano doubles as the main music source in a large living room of 25 m² or more. It is not the obvious pick for a rock-bottom budget or for maximum portability, where the £279 Alesis and the 11.2 kg Casio win, but for feel it is unmatched in this group.
Best for: the serious or returning player who will judge the piano on the action first, and wants room-filling sound to match.
The Responsive Hammer Compact action is why this piano sits where it does. It is a graded hammer bed, heavier in the bass and lighter in the treble, and across scales, arpeggios and a Brahms intermezzo it gave the most consistent, controllable response of any piano on test. The keys move with a settled, slightly weightier feel than the Roland's PHA-4, closer to a real upright, which rewards careful dynamics and makes soft, quiet playing easier to control. If you have played an acoustic piano, this is the action that will feel most like coming home.
Kawai's Harmonic Imaging sound engine is built from samples of the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand, the company's flagship instrument, and it shows. The grand voice is rich and resonant, with string resonance and damper effects that add depth when you hold the pedal, and it ties with the Roland for the most convincing tone here. The 192-note polyphony is ample for dense, pedalled repertoire, and the 25-voice list is shorter than the Roland's 56 but every voice is genuinely usable, from the electric pianos to the warm string pads.
The twin 20 W drivers give 40 W in total, the most powerful system in our comparison by a wide margin, nearly double the Roland's 22 W and almost three times the Yamaha's 14 W. In a large living room it fills the space with body and warmth and never sounds strained, even at high volume. This is the one piano here you can comfortably treat as the main sound system for a music room, and it makes the ES120 feel like a more substantial instrument than its compact cabinet suggests.
The ES120 has Bluetooth MIDI for connecting Kawai's PianoRemote app and notation software wirelessly, though not Bluetooth audio, so you cannot stream music through the speakers as you can on the Roland. The cabinet is 28.6 cm deep and 12.0 kg, sturdily built with the reassuring feel of a maker that knows pianos, and it sets up in minutes. There is a single 6.3 mm headphone socket on the rear for silent practice.
The ES120's drawbacks are price and a couple of small omissions. At £729 it is the most expensive piano here, around £80 more than the Roland and £130 more than the Casio, so you are paying a premium for the action and the speakers. It also lacks Bluetooth audio, offers fewer voices than the Roland, and has only one headphone socket. For a player chasing features or value, those count against it; for a player chasing feel, they barely register.
Kawai builds acoustic grand pianos, and the ES120's Responsive Hammer Compact action draws on that experience. It is graded, so it is heavier in the bass and lighter in the treble like a real piano, and it is the most convincing action in our comparison. For players who care most about feel, it is the one to buy.
Very. Its twin 20 W speakers give 40 W total, the most powerful system in our six and easily enough to fill a large living room without distortion. That makes it a fine choice for a home where the piano doubles as the main music source.
It has Bluetooth MIDI for connecting learning and notation apps, but not Bluetooth audio, so you cannot stream music wirelessly through its speakers as you can on the Roland FP-30X. For app-based learning, though, the MIDI link is all you need.
Buy the Kawai if the action and a 40 W speaker system matter most to you; buy the Roland if you also want Bluetooth audio and 256-note polyphony. The Kawai edges the Roland on pure feel and sound power, which is why it is our best key action pick, while the Roland remains the better all-rounder.
The Kawai ES120 is our pick for the best key action, full stop, and the most powerful speakers here make it the natural choice for a music room. If the feel of the keys and a rich, room-filling grand voice are what you care about most, the £729 is money well spent and you will not be disappointed. If you want a slightly more rounded package with Bluetooth audio and more voices for less, our overall winner the Roland FP-30X is the wiser buy, and the Casio PX-S1100 is the best value of all. But for the player who lives for the action, the Kawai stands alone. See how we score these pianos on our how we test page.