Here's a question worth sitting with before you choose: of these two pianos at roughly the same price, which one was designed around the assumption that you'll practice alone — without a teacher and without always reaching for your phone?
The Yamaha P-225 is built around the idea that you'll supplement it with an app or a teacher. The Kawai ES120 bets differently: that the beginner who practices consistently is the one whose piano gives them structure and variety without requiring a phone. That philosophical gap is the most useful thing to understand about this comparison.
What the Yamaha Leaves to Apps
The P-225 is a genuinely well-made instrument. Its Graded Hammer Compact action has a pleasant weighted feel, and its four-speaker system — two tweeters, two woofers within a 14-watt envelope — creates more spatial depth than the watt count suggests. Sustained chords with the damper pedal sound richer in a room than you'd expect from a portable at this price.
But the P-225 has no built-in lesson function. It has 71 demonstration songs, but nothing that guides you through practice material. Yamaha's Smart Pianist app fills that role — and it's capable — but Smart Pianist requires a phone, and the P-225 lacks Bluetooth MIDI. Connecting your phone to Simply Piano, Flowkey, or any app that needs MIDI input means using a USB cable every single session. It's a small friction. Small frictions are exactly what derail a beginner's daily practice habit.
Both headphone jacks on the P-225 are 3.5mm. If you own studio headphones with a 6.3mm plug, you'll need an adapter.
What the Kawai Builds In
The ES120 includes 393 built-in lesson pieces — more than five times the P-225's 71. It has a proper onboard lesson function that guides practice without a phone. And its 100 built-in rhythm patterns are genuinely unusual at this price.
That last feature sounds like a gimmick until you think about what solo practice actually feels like. Scales and simple pieces in silence, day after day, get boring. The rhythm patterns give solo practice sessions the feeling of playing music — pick a style, set a tempo, and your five-finger exercises have something to push against. It won't replace a teacher, but it makes the daily fifteen minutes you might otherwise skip feel worth sitting down for.
Bluetooth MIDI on the ES120 means your phone connects to Simply Piano or Flowkey without a cable. One less friction point every practice session. The ES120 also includes Virtual Technician — 17 sound parameters including touch sensitivity — which is particularly useful for returning players who want to customize how the piano responds.
Actions and Key Surfaces
Both pianos use their brand's entry-level graded hammer action. One misconception worth addressing: neither piano has an ivory-feel textured key surface. The ES120's keys are matte, the P-225's are matte black. Kawai's ivory-feel surface appears on the ES-320 and above. At this price point, both brands are at parity on key surface material.
The feel difference between the two actions is subtle but genuine. The ES120's return feels slightly more substantial to some players; others prefer the P-225's lighter overall touch during long sessions. This is personal preference rather than a quality hierarchy, and you're unlikely to form a strong opinion in a single store visit.
A Clear Recommendation for Each Buyer
If you're a self-directed learner — someone practicing primarily alone, who wants the piano itself to provide structure — the ES120 is the right choice. The 393-piece lesson library, the rhythm patterns, and the cable-free app connection are things you'll use every week. The Yamaha's spatial speaker depth is pleasant, but it doesn't help you practice.
If you already have a teacher, or you'll consistently use Smart Pianist with a USB cable and don't mind that workflow, the P-225 is a cleaner, simpler instrument. Just sit down and play. The four-speaker depth is genuinely lovely for playing chords in a room, and the P-225's minimal interface makes it a better gift for someone who wants to play without configuring anything.
Both carry a committed beginner through two to three years before any limitation becomes relevant. The deciding factor isn't brand loyalty — it's practice infrastructure. How much of your learning support do you want coming from the piano itself?