This is not toy. By comparison to really pricey electric pianos and arranger keyboards it might be considered "entry level" and seem toy-like to pros, but it is NOT a toy. This keyboard rocks. There is so much more here that its price might indicate. And that equals an incredible buy. If you buy it as a toy for a kid learning, well, they will hopefully someday learn to appreciate all this thing can do besides play 'Mary had a little lamb'. Consider this the little brother to the E473 and the really little brother to the DGX-670.
I will not bore you with rehashing all the bullet point facts you can read above in the listing, like "650 voices", "on-board lessons", etc, I will assume you already know all of that so I'll now skip to my "pros & cons" thoughts based on how I personally use this. It is not an exhaustive list of features, it's the ones that matter to me so I'm highlighting them:
Pros:
~37 different piano, piano-style, and organ voices. While I am not crazy about the overall tone of the default piano voices (but don't let that sway you, read on) it's easy enough to tweak them and save your tweaks, which is what I have done. The "DSP" button allows you to turn on/off a preset effect to each voice, and you can edit that effect as you wish and save it in the registry. A couple DSPs I wasn't crazy about, so being able to tweak them and store is great. You can also bypass having a sustain pedal if you want by going into the settings and turning "Sustain > ON" and there will be permanent sustain to any voice you do that to. Of course that means you then cannot play staccato since the sustain is on. If that matters then plan on getting a pedal, that's what the pedal of for as we all know. With some brightness added, some reverb, and sustain>on, I have a couple really nice piano sounds that I LOVE. And the touch sensitivity (3 levels of that, by the way) really adds some authentic nuance to your playing and takes this above toy level.
~The piano+pad voices are really great. A very light press allows only the pad to play, a normal press plays the piano sound too, and holding the key/s allows the pad to sustain indefinitely after the piano voice fades, so you're able to mix the level of ethereal sounds and morph into different pad chords in this manner as you play. I love that. There are 3 stock pad+piano voices onboard.
~The weight. For its size --and it's not "small", it's got some size to it-- it's very lightweight. You can easily carry this with one hand if you were able to get a good grip on it.
~The keys are "synth action", meaning they are not weighted. To me personally that's a downside but that also keeps this keyboard AFFORDABLE and very lightweight as mentioned. If you like playing voices other than piano, you likely appreciate synth action keys maybe for a little extra speed or if you're learning and don't want even more sore hands. Synth action vs weighted can be a pro or a con depending on who you are what you want.
~The sound is really good. I have read some folks say that the speakers are a slight downgrade from the previous 373 model, but not having heard a 373 I can't tell. They sound great to me. They have great stereo sound and decent low end and crispness when playing beats. They're fine. And this thing is actually louder than my Alesis Recital Pro with 20w speakers. How that's possible I don't know. Granted, being a total of 5w speaker power, you won't be fooling anyone in another room that you're playing a real piano in every sense, but it does a darn good job at sounding good.
~USB out, for connecting to your computer for recording and mixing. Although it's an archaic USB-B, otherwise known as a printer cable hookup, at least it's there and they still make USB-B cables for a good while, being a legacy connection. You'll need a USB-B (for this) to USB-A or USB-C (for your computer) if you intend to connect this to your computer, it is not included.
~Can run on batteries, 6-AAs to be specific. Great, since it's light enough to be portable you can actually use it in a truly portable fashion and take it where no power cords live. Although don't plan on setting this on your lap, it's a touch large for that.
~Power adapter and detachable sheet music stand come with it. No other accessories are included, but they sell stands, sustain pedals, cases, and covers.
Cons:
~The screen. It's an archaic, small, dot matrix LCD screen reminiscent of 1990-whatever when were just happy to have a screen to begin with. It's too small to be useful. Every single voice, beat, and effect is abbreviated oddly because normal words will not fit on it. What the? When they upgraded this from the 373 would it have killed them to add a 1" wider screen for Pete's sake? And it's BRIGHT! You cannot adjust the screen brightness, sadly. If you're playing in a dim room wear sunglasses for the screen, you'll see. Again, would it have killed them to add this adjustment? , just show you care about real world usability, Yamaha.
~No dedicated quick effect buttons, aside from the DSP button hidden way up top in the middle of other buttons. One thing I wish this had that many other makers have, such as Alesis and Casio, is a dedicated reverb button, easy to see and get to and not crowded in with other buttons. And while we're at it, a sustain button too. It's cumbersome to have to dive into menus and sub-menus, especially on the tiny screen which I've already complained about. A simple on/off dedicated toggle button for both of these highly used effects would be nice.
~The secondary label colors on the buttons is a dim grey. In a bright room there's zero issue reading them. In a dim room, as most stages and jam rooms are, they're nearly impossible to read. Add in the ridiculously bright screen when you're in such a dim environment, like a bright sun blinding you, and you'll see what I mean.
~No wireless or Bluetooth connectivity. But again, for the price, you're not buying this for that stuff, you're gonna pay for that stuff!
~Yamaha's website doesn't list the Yamaha Steinberg USB driver (to connect this to your computer to record and mix songs) on their site for this keyboard, but it is on the predecessor E373's page. Here's the latest Windows 11 driver link from Yamaha if you need it: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/portable_keyboards/psr-e373/downloads.html
I could say more, but if you're even still reading this then I think I've touched on enough to hopefully steer you in the right direction. Despite its flaws, I still give this a 5-star rating and I do not for one second regret purchasing this.
