Two Great Pianos That Disagree About What "Best" Means

Two flagship portables. One price bracket. Completely different answers to the same question: what should a premium portable piano actually do?

What you're really asking isn't which is better — it's which brand's philosophy matches your piano life.

Kawai's answer: the best portable is the one that feels most like a real instrument under your hands. The ES920 is built on that conviction. It has 38 sounds, no guided learning lights, no auto-accompaniment. What it has instead is Kawai's Responsive Hammer III action with let-off — the same action class as their CN console series — in a portable body with 40W speakers.

Yamaha's answer: the best portable does the most and connects you to how people actually learn in 2024. The P-S500 has GH3 action (excellent, ivory-feel), 660 sounds, Stream Lights via the Smart Pianist app, auto-accompaniment, and spatial headphone optimization — all of it engineered to make the practice experience richer and more connected.

The Detail That Changes Everything: Let-Off

If you've played acoustic piano seriously, you know this sensation. Pressing a key very slowly near the bottom of the stroke, you feel a subtle resistance — a gentle notch before the key bottoms out. That's let-off: how grand piano hammers mechanically disengage from the strings. Pianists use it to control their softest passages with precision.

The ES920's Responsive Hammer III includes let-off. Kawai's editorial describes it directly: a gentle resistance partway through the stroke that helps you control the softest passages with precision. For a classical pianist returning from years on an acoustic instrument, this is often the first thing they notice — and the first thing they've been missing on every digital piano they've tried.

The P-S500's GH3 is excellent — three sensors per key, proper graded weighting, ivory-feel surfaces. But Yamaha's editorial for the P-S500 doesn't describe let-off simulation. For most players, this is academic. For someone preparing for acoustic performance or returning from years of acoustic practice, it's the single most important technical difference between these instruments.

If let-off matters to you, the ES920 is the answer before you read another word.

Speakers and Real-World Sound

The ES920 has 40W speakers. The P-S500 has a four-speaker 20W system. That gap has real consequences.

The ES920's 40W fills a room. Play without headphones for guests or a small gathering and the sound has genuine presence. The P-S500's speaker configuration is engineered for the player at the keyboard — optimized for the person playing, not for projecting into the room. The P-S500 editorial acknowledges this: it "won't fill a room like a console piano." For home practice that's largely fine; for any situation where the instrument needs to project acoustically, the ES920 is in a different category.

Stream Lights: Genuinely Useful, Not for Everyone

The P-S500's Stream Lights are unique at this price. Via the Smart Pianist app, they project visual cues onto the keys to guide you through songs from your own music library — not preset exercises, but actual songs the app analyzes in real time. For an adult learner who wants to play music they love rather than études, this is genuinely compelling. No Kawai portable offers anything comparable.

The ES920 buyer gets no learning guidance tool. What they get instead is an instrument that assumes you know what you want from a piano — and delivers it without distraction.

Who Each Instrument Is Really For

The ES920's editorial describes its buyer plainly: someone who took piano lessons years ago, stopped, and is returning. They remember what a real piano feels like. The cheap keyboards at the electronics store feel wrong to their hands. They want an instrument that rewards existing skill, not one that treats them like a beginner. The let-off action, the 40W speakers, the OLED display, the line out for occasional gigging — all designed for the player who already knows what a piano should feel like.

The P-S500 is for the player who wants premium touch and everything else — late-night headphone sessions (the Stereophonic Optimizer is excellent), Smart Pianist integration as part of their routine, and 660 sounds when the mood strikes. The P-S500 also fits tighter spaces: at 295mm deep and 13.8 kg, it's more apartment-friendly than the ES920's 375mm depth and 14.5 kg.

The Clear Recommendations

Buy the Kawai ES920 if you are a returning or experienced player who wants the physical connection to acoustic piano intact. The Responsive Hammer III with let-off is better preparation for acoustic performance and more satisfying for players who have developed real technique. The 40W speakers mean the instrument sounds genuine in a room. If app-based learning tools aren't part of your practice life, nothing the P-S500 offers improves your experience.

Buy the Yamaha P-S500 if you want structure alongside quality — if Stream Lights and Smart Pianist are actually how you intend to practice, if late-night headphone sessions are core to your routine, or if you genuinely need 660 sounds and auto-accompaniment for your musical life. The GH3 action is excellent; it's only a meaningful step behind the ES920 if let-off specifically matters to you.

At $1,200–$1,300, both will serve a home pianist for five years or more. The difference is which five years of piano life you're planning to live.