Casio CDP-S110BK Digital Piano with Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard, 88 Keys, 10 Tones, Portable Design, Includes SP-3 Pedal and Music Stand

How it compares

These are the Casios worth weighing against the CDP-S110. Prices and differences below update from the current variant prices.

Buy the PX-S1100 instead if you already play, or if you can see yourself still playing in three years. The step up to the PX-S1100 buys triple the polyphony, a better action, Bluetooth audio and MIDI with the adaptor in the box, and an onboard recorder. It weighs 700 g more and takes up the same footprint, so you give up nothing physical. It is also the natural next step up in the same shape, so if the money is there now it is cheaper than buying twice.

Buy the PX-770 instead if the piano is staying in one room permanently. You get three real pedals bolted under a cabinet — damper, soft and sostenuto, with half-pedalling — and that is the single thing the CDP-S110 cannot give you at any price. If there is a student working towards graded exams, that is the honest recommendation. It weighs 31.5 kg, costs more, and it does not move again once built.

Buy the CT-S1 instead if nobody has committed to piano lessons and what you actually want is good sounds in something a songwriter or a busker can carry one-handed. It is 4.5 kg and costs less. But be clear about what you are giving up: 61 keys, no hammer weighting, no pedal in the box. It is not a piano-lesson instrument — a student on a CT-S1 will need to replace it the moment a teacher asks for weighted keys, and that is worth knowing before you buy rather than after.

The detail

Action and feel

Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II is a real hammer action, not a spring-weighted imitation. There is a physical hammer under each key, and the weighting is scaled — heavier at the bass end, lighter towards the top — the way an acoustic behaves. That is the whole reason to choose this over a basic keyboard: a student who learns on unweighted keys has to relearn their hand strength later.

What you are not getting at this price is the third sensor. The PX-770's tri-sensor action detects the key before it has fully returned, which is what lets you repeat a note rapidly and cleanly. The CDP-S110 will do fast repeated notes at early-grade speed; it starts to feel its limits when the repertoire does.

The key tops have a fine-grained finish rather than a simulated ivory texture. Its job is to stop your fingers slipping when your hands warm up, and it does that.

Sound

Ten tones, 64-note maximum polyphony. Ten is honest for what this is — a couple of grands, electric pianos, strings, organ — and the useful one is the first one. Casio has put the money into the piano tone rather than into a tone count.

Sixty-four notes is the number to think about. For single-line and early repertoire it is plenty. It gets consumed faster than you expect once you hold the damper down through a texture, because every sustaining note keeps a voice until it decays, and layering two tones halves your headroom. If you are grade four and climbing, that is the ceiling you will hit first, before the action.

Two 12 × 6 cm oval speakers at 8 W + 8 W. That is a bedroom and a small living room. It will not carry a hall.

Portability and power

This is where the CDP-S110 wins outright. At 10.5 kg and 232 mm deep it is lighter than any other weighted Casio piano we stock — the PX-S1100 is 11.2 kg and the PX-770 is 31.5 kg — one person can genuinely carry it, and it sits on a table, a desk or an X-frame stand and slides away flat when it is not in use.

It also runs on six AA batteries for around 13 hours — no power point, no adaptor, no extension lead. Very little else with 88 weighted keys will do that.

Connectivity

Casio specifies one multi-use PHONES/OUTPUT jack, a 3.5 mm stereo mini socket, plus a separate 3.5 mm AUDIO IN. That is quietly practical: ordinary headphones plug straight in with no adapter, and the same socket doubles as an output into an amp or an interface. What it is not is a dedicated line out — there is one socket doing both jobs, so running into a PA means unplugging your headphones. Real 6.3 mm line outputs start at the PX-S1100.

The audio in earns more attention than it usually gets. Because the CDP-S110 has no Bluetooth, that socket is the only way to play a backing track or a lesson video through the piano's own speakers — a cable from a phone or laptop, and you can practise along with it.

USB to Host (Type B) handles computers and tablets as a class-compliant MIDI device, with no driver install. See the FAQ below for the cable and adapter you will need.

There is no Bluetooth, and no port to add it. The CDP-S110 has USB Type B only, and Casio's WU-BT10 wireless adaptor needs a Type A port. If wireless matters, that decision points at the PX-S1100.

Casio's app support for this model is CASIO MUSIC SPACE, which replaced the older Chordana Play for Piano named on some spec sheets still in circulation. Connection is over the USB cable.

What you'll also need

The SP-3 pedal, music stand and adaptor are in the box. These are the usual additions:

• A stand. The CDP-S110 does not include one. An X-frame is the cheap and portable answer; a fixed four-leg stand is steadier for daily practice and looks like furniture. → Keyboard stands
• A bench or stool, adjustable if a child is using it. Playing at the wrong height is the fastest way to build bad technique. → Piano stools & benches
• Headphones. Closed-back, for quiet practice. Ordinary 3.5 mm headphones plug straight in — no adapter needed on this model. → Headphones
• A bigger sustain pedal. The SP-3 is a small footswitch that slides on a hard floor. A heavier piano-style pedal stays where you put it.
• A USB A-to-B cable for computer or tablet connection — not included. → Casio PP16 Plug & Play cable pack
• Piano method books for a beginner starting cold. → Piano sheet music & tuition books

Australian availability and delivery

Stock: The black on this page is not on our Footscray showroom floor — it comes in to order. The white (CDPS110WE) is the finish we currently keep in store at 284–288 Ballarat Rd, Footscray VIC, and the action is identical across the two — this is a piano you should feel rather than read about. The badge above is the live figure, so check it before you make the trip in.

Click & Collect: Free from Footscray.

Delivery: Standard shipping is $7 and free on orders over $150, except where a regional freight charge applies to this item. Only ABS Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote postcodes can attract that charge. Freight costs of $100 or less per item have no bulky surcharge; above $100, the full freight cost applies, rounded up to the next $10. Check the delivery calculator above. The checkout delivery charge is the amount you pay. Express shipping is not available for this item. See the stock panel above for dispatch timing. Estimated standard delivery is 4–9 business days after dispatch, depending on location. Orders over $30 are tracked and insured.

Warranty: Five-year conditional Casio Australia (Shriro) warranty on the instrument; one year on accessories including the power adaptor, pedals, stands and carry bags.

Scarlett Music is an independent Australian retailer at 284–288 Ballarat Rd, Footscray VIC, trading since 1997, with a physical showroom and in-house technicians.

Related reading

• Casio digital pianos and keyboards: which one is yours?
• 61 keys or 88? How to choose
• How to Choose a Digital Piano or Keyboard
• Digital piano accessories
• Casio Privia PX-S1100
• Casio PX-770
• Casiotone CT-S1
• Casio CT-S100