REVIEW – Roland RP201 & F110 Digital Pianos

UPDATED REVIEW – Feb 10, 2014 – All of the Roland digital piano models below are discontinued. The Roland RP201 & F110 are now discontinued. Roland has  updated versions now called the RP301 & F120 (the same as each other except for cabinet). I have played those pianos and was not impressed with the ivory feel G-keyboard key action with escapement, but the piano sound is overall better than previous models. Click on the following link to see my REVIEW of the the new RP301 and F120:

Roland RP301/F120 Review

Since all the Roland digital pianos below are discontinued, in this same price range for 2019 we recommend looking at some of our top picks including the Casio AP470, Korg C1 Air, and Casio PX870 at the following links:

Casio AP470 Review
Korg C1 Air Review
Casio PX870 Review

This is my review from the now discontinued RP201 & F110: Roland is famous for musical instruments of all kinds and I have been playing and using them for years. In fact, that’s all Roland does; they make high quality digital home and professional music products. From pro digital drum kits to digital accordions, digital pianos to home and pro digital organs, guitar amps to multi-track recorders; pro synthesizers to special effects, they pretty much do it all. In fact the Roland company owns and makes the BOSS guitar products and Edirol audio & digital computer music products lines which are used by music professionals and recreational music lovers all over the world.

Roland RP201

Roland has a big line up of cabinet digital pianos that cover all music levels in various price ranges. Their lower priced pianos (under $2000) are limited to the RP201 ($1599 to approx $1999 depending on the store) – pictured left) & F110 ($999 closeout price at Costco – pictured below left). Essentially, these two pianos are the exactly the same instruments having identical an control panel, key action, and speaker & audio systems (24 watts each) in different cabinets (the F110 is in a compact contemporary cabinet). Just like auto manufacturers, they can make pretty much the same piano in different body styles and that’s what these pianos are. The RP201 & F110 are entry level pianos for students and beginners who want a nice digital piano at a lower price. Realistic piano tone, 128-note polyphony (for better and smoother sound), over 300 nice sounding instrument tones and the ultra cool “jazz scat tone”, good half-pedal response, 3-track recorder in the F110 and 1-track in the RP201, 4-hand twin piano function, split & layering of tones, and a few more cool features. These pianos are easy to use, very reliable, and sound good.

Roland F110

But as with every piano, people want to know how the key action feels and responds to touch? Roland currently makes 3 key actions with a couple of variations in them. The best way to describe these key actions is (without getting technical) …basic, better, and best. The Roland RP201 & F110 (pictured left) pianos have the “basic” key action and the key touch and movement is somewhat lighter and also less natural feeling than the other Roland key actions in their models over $2000. So the main downside to the Roland F110 and RP201 is the fact the key action does not really feel like an acoustic upright key action in my opinion, although the key action in the cabinet version RP201 seems solid and the white keys have a very quiet movement (much quieter than the higher priced Roland HP302 cabinet model) but the black keys tend to be noisy as you play them, especially when they go back up.

If you want to stay in a price range under $2000 I would suggest you also consider Kawai, Yamaha, and Casio digital pianos in similar price ranges as the RP201 and F110. Make no mistake though, the piano sound on these Roland pianos is very good, although the built-in audio system is only 24 watts of total power which is OK but not great as compared to built-in speaker systems (40 to 60 watts) in other digital pianos at similar prices that I have played.

Casio AP620

If you want a good, realistic key action with great piano tone but need to keep the price down closer to $1000 range, I would instead look at the Casio Celviano AP620 (pictured left) for $1399 internet discount price, Kawai EP3 with stand at approx $1259, Yamaha YDP141 at $1149, and the new Casio PX750 at $799 internet price. The Casio AP620 has realistic piano tone, is 128 note polyphonic, has a more realistic upright piano touch in my opinion along with the new ivory feel keytops, better audio-speaker system (60 watts on the AP620), SD card memory function, 16-track recorder on the Casio AP620 (as opposed to 3 track or 1 track in the Roland’s), 360 drum patterns, bigger full size cabinet, lots of built-in music education features, direct to computer or iPad USB connection for instant plug & play to interactive software programs available for piano education, and more (Roland does not have this useful plug & play USB feature). The Kawai piano has very good piano tone & touch (much better than the Roland in this price range) with very useful features and a USB computer output, and the entry level Yamaha’s do a very good job as basic pianos with a better piano key touch than the Roland’s (although the Yamaha piano does not have a USB computer output or audio outputs. I have reviewed all of these models on my blog so take a look when you have a chance.

As far as Casio goes, it is not the only option, but I am not comparing Casio to Mercedes Benz either:) However, in my opinion it offers the most quality & features for the money in a lower price range and that’s what we’re talking about here. A Casio digital piano is a very good choice and the company is known for producing some fine electronic products including digital pianos for over 30 years. Once you get up towards $2000 and beyond in a digital piano, then there are definitely other good options including the Roland HP & Yamaha CLP Clavinova, and Kawai CN series of digital pianos.

Learn more about these pianos from my blog reviews at the following links:

Casio PX780 review – very hot product!

Kawai EP3 & Yamaha P155 Reviews 

Yamaha YDP141 

For more info on digital pianos and how to get one of these models for LESS than any advertised US price on the internet, please contact me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864