Beginners piano - where to go, what to look for

[Miocene]

Daughter has been sticking with her piano lessons at school for the past year and is keen to continue. Frankly, she's well past the point where her pink toy keyboard will do the job for practicing at home so we're looking to get a digital piano for her, but would appreciate some advice from those that'll know significantly more than I do.

We went to a local music 'superstore' at the weekend and looked at the following:

Yamaha P145
Yamaha P223
Yamaha P225
Kawai ES60

The only discernible difference I could tell was the feel of the keys - the Kawai had a more matt finish and felt nicer to the touch, whereas the Yamaha felt more plasticy.

What should we be looking out for - budget is in the region of the pianos above, so very much entry level. However, as with cars, there's always room for scope creep if its worthwhile in terms of features.

What are essential features and what are the nice to haves?

I'm guessing one 1 pedal is really needed at this stage? Can you add a 3 pedal box later if needed, or would you have to change the piano itself?
Is there any models that can pair with a tablet to help her learn, or is this all a bit crap in reality?

I've looked at second hand locally, but there's nothing reasonable at the moment locally. I'm guessing it's more the tech / linking side of things that has moved on, rather than the piano itself in recent years?

Unfortunately there's not a great selection of shops around here to try and find a Roland or Casio to compare - there's a couple of higher end shops, but way beyond what we want to spend at the moment.

[LunarOne]

I bought a digital piano a few years ago and ended up buying a CP-300 as the music store I went to had one on offer and I wanted one with decent speakers. It's actually a stage piano which I think is the sort of thing used by touring musicians, as opposed to something you'd keep at home. But it feels like a real piano to me with its weighted keys and it sounds like one too, which various effects including string harmonics. It came with one pedal but you can always add the others as required. I'm sure the P range is the same. You probably get two or three pedals with the Clavinova (CLP) range. You should ask her music teacher if she needs more than one pedal now, but I'd say probably not yet unless your daughter is precocious.

Anyway I think any beginner would be more than happy with the pianos you've mentioned. I can't speak for Kawai as I only have experience with Yamaha.

Edit: I think pretty much all digital pianos can interface with any tablet via the USB MIDI port so that she can use one of the piano teaching apps. There are some pianos which have the ability to light keys to make learning easier, but I don't know which brands and models do that, nor whether that's genuinely useful or just a gimmick.

Edited by LunarOne on Tuesday 22 April 18:36

[Miocene]

Thanks for the reply.

Had a chat today with a local higher-end piano dealer who only deals in acoustics, thinking they might be able to suggest a suitable shop given my budget isn't in the thousands. Nope, they recommended a second hand one from themselves for £3k - perhaps I was being a bit too optimistic that they'd be able to help!

I watched a number of the videos from Andertons last night which were really helpful. Worst case, they're about 80mins from us, so perfectly doable in a day trip. I've sent an email to my daughters teacher asking for any suggestions, but am going to try to see a Roland FP-10, ideally a Casio and then go from there.