Casio AP260 – REVIEW | Digital Piano at Costco | 2022

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The newer PX-870 has redesigned keytops and now has a smoother ivory & ebony texture design on the keys which gives them a much more realistic feel to the fingers when playing them. When you play on the keys then the touch and “feel” of those keys on your fingers can be critical when playing so unfortunately the keytop material in the older AP-260 is not what I would recommend because it does not feel like any other piano. So it was a very good move on Casio’s part to have redesigned their synthetic ivory & ebony material for the new model PX-870.

The AP-260 has a lot of built-in digital features so that you can do more than just play piano. Some people just want a digital piano to mostly play piano and they just use the built-in acoustic piano sounds of which this model has five stereo acoustic piano reproductions including concert, mellow, bright, jazz, etc. However, for those people who want to do more than just play piano and may want to get into the “menu” to edit or use other functions, there is a big list of those features which can be accessed off the front panel and additionally by using a function button and pressing an assigned key on the keyboard at the same time time, which makes it easier to do. 

These digital features include the following: 18 total instrument sounds including strings, harpsichord, organs, choirs, electric pianos, etc. The non-acoustic instrument sounds are definitely in a higher class of authenticity than some other brands of digital pianos in this price range including Yamaha and Roland, in my opinion. 

Other features include Reverb EFX, Chorus, Brilliance, Layer balance, Duet pan, Bass damper effect, Damper noise, Music Library song select, Tempo, Beat, Metronome tempo, Metronome beat, Concert Play song, Play/Stop, Lesson Play, Concert Play, Concert Play volume, Music Library volume, Metronome volume, Temperament, Temperament Base note, Temperament select, Touch response, Transpose, Keyboard tuning, Octave shift, USB device mode, Local control, Send channel, Operation tone, Back up, and Operation lock.

Beyond the long list of functions that I just mentioned, the most popular and utilized features on a digital piano that people ask for (which is on the AP-260) are being able to layer two different instrument sounds together at the same time (such as piano & strings), split two different sounds (one sound on left side, one sound on right such as piano and bass), be able to have two people (students) play the piano at the same time side by side playing the exact same part in the same octave (this feature is called, “duet”), and be able to record two separate tracks independently (left & right hand) and then play them back separately or at the same time and save that song. The 2-track MIDI recording (left and/or right hand or two independent sounds recorded on top of each other) is a great feature when trying to learn a new song or get a sense of how each hand sounds by itself when playing. The AP260 has all of these features but the newer PX-870 and all the new Casio digital pianos have a new proprietary app for tablets (iOS & Android) that allows the user to control all the features from the color touch screen on your tablet. 

This is a much more intuitive way of interacting with and controlling the piano functions than just off the piano control panel which is how you need to do it on the older AP260. In fact, some functions on the AP260 are not easy to get at and you need to look in the owners manual to try and figure it out. With the new Casio PX870, controlling the piano and its functions are so easy and fun a 3 year old could do it!

The AP-260 also has some good connectivity to headphones with two headphone jacks on the front of the piano for private playing and also a USB output connection for use with a tablet (iPad) or computer to extend the types of musical things you can do. The speaker system in this model includes two speakers going through 16 watts of stereo power which does an OK job of producing volume, but not for a medium to bigger size room The 16 watts of power is fairly anemic (low powered) and if you want a fuller tone you pretty much have to turn up the master volume all the way to make the AP-260 sound better and even then it sounds like it is straining to keep up. Getting a digital piano with at least 40 watts of power is a much better option and better for a long-term investment because the richness of fullness of piano sound will be a lot more like a real piano instead of a toy. 

The Casio PX-870 has a 40-watt stereo sound system with 4 speakers and it projects very well through a special piano sound projection system built into that model. There are no audio input or output connections on the AP-260 which I would have preferred because they can be useful and that may have been a solution to the weaker internal sound system of the AP260 in attaching an external sound system to it and still hear the internal speakers of the AP-260. 

But unfortunately that cannot be done. I do like the fact that the AP260 has 3 full size pedals for a realistic pedal movement experience which is important for players and for students who are progressing in their playing skill level.

However, the most important things in a piano are key action and piano sound, and this is where the AP-260 is good and not so good. The Casio AP-260 key action moves nicely and is balanced and weighted but on this older model the pedal sustain time (decay time) was somewhat short in duration but Casio has improved that aspect in the new “70 series” including PX-870. Nevertheless, I do like the key action movement in the AP260 better than the competitive Yamaha YDP-105 ($1099 internet price). The piano sound dynamic tonal range in the AP-260 is wider on this model than other piano brands I have played and that allows for greater tonal expression in the music you are playing. However, if you play piano pretty well you might be disappointed with the artificial response of the pedal sustain and the overly textured keytops along with shorter pedal sustain time of the AP-260, which make it sound more artificial.

One very cool feature that the AP260 offers is the “Concert Play” feature. There is a library of fully orchestrated popular classical songs that play back as audio wav files (like a CD recording) so that you can listen and play along to completely authentic professional quality music that sounds like the orchestra is inside of your piano. This is super fun, sounds great, and also allows the player to play along in a mode called “lesson play.” However, there are digital pianos which can do even more, sound even bigger & better, and have a more upgraded cabinet like the higher price Casio  Celviano AP-470, but that piano costs more money although we think it’s worth the extra expense.