Review:
$200 USD
In August 2020, Yamaha released their 61-keys, portable Yamaha PSR-E373 which in my opinion, makes for the best portable keyboard piano for beginners and hobbyist musicians alike.
Build Quality
The Yamaha PSR-E373 portable keyboard comes with 61 full size keys which are touch sensitive, meaning the keys respond to how softly or how hard you play. On the keyboard, you can find the usual headphone output for quiet practice or to connect the keyboard to a PA system for a bigger audience and a USB output. If you want to play along with songs you have on your phone, you can use the auxiliary audio-in port to stream music to the keyboard speakers.
For ultimate portability, you can choose to power the light-weight PSR-E373 with AA batteries where an electrical outlet may not be available. It also comes with a music stand for you to attach to your keyboard if you want to.
Built-in Features
The Yamaha PSR-E373 is an arranger keyboard. Arranger keyboards allow you to play along with rhythm accompaniment so you can sound like an entire band. On the PSR-E373, you get 205 rhythm styles encompassing pop, rock, jazz, latin, electronica & world music. Each style comes with an intro, an ending, rhythmic fills and 2 variations so you can sound polished without the need to be an advanced musician.
With many possibilities in configuring this keyboard, you will want to save your user registrations, the PSR-E373 comes with 9 user registration memory slots for you to do this. Also, if you enjoy electronic music, the 150 pattern arpeggiator on this keyboard is a great feature.
One of the biggest upgrades in the Yamaha PSR-E373 over its predecessor is the default grand piano voice which can be conveniently called up via the “Portable Grand” button. This high quality sound is recorded from Yamaha’s quarter million dollar CFX Concert Grand Piano and is also the piano sound on Yamaha’s $5,000 flagship Tyros 3 keyboards.
For those new to playing on the keyboard, the Yamaha PSR-E373 also comes with a Music Database containing 170 Popular Songs that have been Pre-programmed with appropriate voices & rhythm settings. With this keyboard’s One Touch Setting you can just select a rhythm and suitable voices will automatically be matched to your selected rhythm. Moreover, 11 of the included voices comes with Yamaha’s latest Super Articulation Lite technology which gives you more expressive options with a press of the button. Although this keyboard comes with a Lesson Feature, there are tons of better piano learning apps out there that you can use on your phone or tablet.
This keyboard comes with a song recorder for you to record up to 5 of your own performances. You can record up to 2 separate tracks in each of your songs. More advanced music producers can use the USB MIDI port on this keyboard to connect to your phone, tablet or computer for advanced music production.
One of the biggest advantages of the PSR-E373 is the built-in audio interface. An audio interface allows you to transmit audio data between your keyboard and your computer and mobile devices. This is a feature which you won’t find in competing brands at this price point.
Sound
In addition to the deep sampled and highly detailed, rich grand piano voice, the Yamaha PSR-E373 keyboard also contains more than 620 voices ranging from acoustic to electronic instruments.
Electric Pianos
Guitars
Organs
Strings
Saxophones
Harmonicas
Flutes
Synths
Various Drum Kits
Sound Effect Voices
For further creative possibilities, you can apply more than 50 different digital signal processing, reverb and chorus effects to these voices. These voices can also be layered and split.
For those who live life on social media, you can use Yamaha’s Rec ‘n’ Share app on your phone and record videos and high quality audio of your playing for sharing directly onto your social media accounts.
That's all for the review of the Yamaha PSR-E373 and I hope that it was useful for you in your search for a new portable keyboard. Do click on the links provided in this article for the latest prices and updated information, and check out my beginner step-by-step course in learning how to play the keyboard!