Casio Privia PX-S1100 Portable Digital Piano Black

How it compares

These are the Casios worth weighing against the PX-S1100. Prices and differences below update from the current variant prices.

Buy the CDP-S110 instead if the price gap is what is standing between you and buying today. It's the same 232 mm depth, it's actually lighter, and it's a genuine 88-key hammer action with the same included SP-3 pedal. You give up two-thirds of the polyphony, Bluetooth, both recorders, the line out, eight of the tones and the second headphone jack. For a beginner who mainly needs weighted keys and headphones, that's a fair trade — and the battery life is more than three times longer.

Buy the PX-770 instead if the piano is going to sit in one spot for the next ten years. It costs more and it arrives with three real pedals bolted under it, half-damper included, and a sliding key cover. Once you add the CS-68P stand and the SP-34 pedal unit to a PX-S1100, you end up spending more than the PX-770 costs on its own. Choose the PX-S1100 for the slim depth, the Bluetooth and the ability to pick it up; don't choose it to save money on a home piano.

Buy the PX-S7000 instead if the piano is the furniture. It's more than three times the price, and what you're paying for is a genuinely different instrument: a spruce-and-resin hybrid action with counterweights, ten-level resonance modelling instead of four, 256-note polyphony and 400 tones instead of 192 and 18, a four-speaker 32 W system with a piano-position function, and a colour-matched stand with a fixed three-pedal lyre in the box. If you already know you want the S-series look but you found the PX-S1100 underpowered in a big room, this is the answer. It is far more instrument than a first purchase needs.

The detail

Action and feel

Smart Scaled Hammer Action is Casio's compressed hammer action — a real hammer mechanism engineered to fit a 102 mm-tall body. Each of the 88 keys is individually weighted and individually timed for sound production and damping, so it scales heavier in the bass and lighter at the top the way an acoustic does. Note what it is not: this is not the tri-sensor action from the PX-770. Casio doesn't publish a sensor count for the Smart Scaled Hammer Action, so we won't quote one.

Where it beats the console models is touch response granularity — five sensitivity levels plus off, against three plus off on the PX-770 and CDP-S110. If a student is fighting the keyboard for volume, there's more room to dial it in.

Sound engine

The same Multi-dimensional Morphing AiR source as the console Privias, but with 192-note maximum polyphony against the PX-770's 128 — enough that layering two tones and holding the damper through dense writing won't clip notes. Eighteen tones, with layer and split both available.

The acoustic simulator is the part worth spending an afternoon with. String resonance, damper resonance, key action noise and damper noise each have four settings or off; above them sit a four-type Hall Simulator and a two-type Surround mode.

Speakers are two 16 × 8 cm ovals at 8 W + 8 W — honest for a bedroom or a small studio. In a large open-plan room it runs out of headroom before the piano runs out of expression, and that's the gap the PX-S7000's four-speaker system fills.

Portability and design

232 mm deep, 102 mm tall, 11.2 kg — the same depth as the CDP-S110, and 67 mm shallower than the PX-770.

Six AA batteries give about four hours, which makes it usable at a rehearsal, a school hall or an outdoor gig with no power. The top panel is flat and mirror-finished with capacitive touch controls rather than physical buttons, and there is no display screen — six touch buttons and key-combination shortcuts, or the free Casio Music Space app over Bluetooth for anything deeper. If you want a screen, that's a real trade-off, and the PX-S7000 is the model that has one.

Connectivity

Two headphone jacks, both 3.5 mm stereo mini — the opposite of the PX-770's two 6.35 mm jacks. Most consumer and studio headphones plug straight in without an adapter, and two jacks means teacher and student can both listen.

There are two full-size 6.3 mm line outputs (L/MONO and R), separate from the headphone jacks. Neither the PX-770 nor the CDP-S110 has dedicated line outs — on those models the headphone socket doubles as the output, so you are unplugging your headphones to use it. If the piano will ever go through a PA, an amp or an audio interface, that is the biggest single reason to pick the PX-S1100.

USB Type B handles class-compliant MIDI to a computer or tablet with no driver install. USB Type A is where the included WU-BT10 adaptor lives, giving you Bluetooth 5.0 audio in — stream backing tracks through the piano's speakers and play along — plus Bluetooth MIDI.

There is one Type A port, and it is worth understanding what that means. The WU-BT10 occupies it, and the audio recorder writes to a USB flash drive in the same socket — so it is Bluetooth or audio recording, not both at once. Casio never words it that way, but its manual documents both functions as using that one port, and unlike the PX-S7000 there is no internal memory to record to instead. Recording regularly means unplugging the adaptor each time.

What you'll also need

The PX-S1100 ships with a pedal, a music stand and the Bluetooth adaptor. It does not ship with anything to put it on.

• Casio CS-68P stand — the colour-matched wooden stand designed for this piano (sold separately, priced on its page). A generic X-frame stand works and costs far less; the CS-68P is the one that makes it look like furniture and holds the SP-34. → Casio CS-68P stand
• Casio SP-34 3-pedal unit (sold separately, priced on its page). This is the upgrade that matters musically, not cosmetically: the included SP-3 is damper on/off, and half-damper only works with the SP-34. If anyone in the house is working through graded repertoire, buy it. → Casio SP-34 3-pedal unit
• Headphones — 3.5 mm plugs straight in. Closed-back for quiet practice. → Headphones
• A USB A-to-B cable for computer or tablet MIDI — not included, and an iPad also needs a USB-C adapter. → Casio PP16 Plug & Play cable pack
• A padded gig bag or case if it's going to move regularly. Eleven kilos is carryable; a bare piano in a car boot is still a bare piano. → Keyboard bags & cases
• A 6.3 mm TS lead pair if you're running the line outs into a PA or interface. → Casio PP16 Plug & Play cable pack

Australian availability and delivery

Stock and colour: shown live in the stock badge above. Stock moves, so if you're planning a trip to the Footscray showroom, call us on 03 4151 5751 first. The black, white and red are the same instrument in a different finish.

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.

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 warranty on the instrument; one year on accessories including the power adaptor, pedals, stands and carry bags. Australian stock, official distributor.

Related reading

• Casio digital pianos and keyboards: which one is yours?
• How to Choose a Digital Piano or Keyboard
• Digital piano accessories
• Casio PX-S1100, white
• Casio PX-S1100, red
• Casio CDP-S110
• Casio PX-770
• Casio PX-S7000
• Casio SP-34 3-pedal unit