Casio CT-S100 61 Key Electronic Keyboard

Description

• 61 piano style keys
• The world’s most portable piano
• 122 voices and 61 rhythms
• 60 accompaniment songs
• Setup function to save settings
• USB connection to tablet, desktop PC or laptop
• Integrated carry handle for portability
• Headphone connection (mini jack)
• AA batteries – 16 hours playing time
• 32-note polyphony

Casio CT-S100 61 key portable keyboard review

The Casio CT-S100 is an ultra thin slim-line keyboard and sits in a very unique musical space. It’s completely geared towards those on the move that would benefit greatly from being able to transport a keyboard anywhere and everywhere.

But does it sound any good and is this the keyboard for you? I went to test out the Casio CT-S100 to see what it had to offer. Read on to find out how I got on!

Casio CT-S100 Sound

The Casio CT-S100 boasts 122 different voices/tones, so starting off with the piano I made my way through as many as I could. Most keyboard enthusiasts use the piano sound mainly, and I always find that the strength of this voice gives you a good idea of how the rest will go.

So it got off to a good start because it was quite solid. It was bright and snappy, and I enjoyed listening to myself play through the small but fairly powerful speakers. At around £93 it offers a solid performance throughout all the voices I tested. You can get a better sound for this price, but not by much – and the portable nature of this keyboard must play a small part in the design and have a factor over the sound.

Features

There aren’t many features on this keyboard when you compare it to others within this price range, but again, we must focus on the portability side of things with this keyboard and forgive it a little.

There are 122 voices which is obviously quite a lot. The one frustration I did have however was trying to cycle through them all and figure out what I was on. There isn’t an LCD screen on this particular model and this doesn’t come into play until the S200 and S300 model, so if this is a problem for you then consider upgrading to those models.

However, you can save your settings which makes for quicker access to your favourite voices, so Casio have clearly tried to combat the issue of the lack of LCD screen with this handy feature.

There are 61 keys which makes sense if you are trying to keep things as portable as possible. I am glad to see that they didn’t go for 54 keys as this would have put me off this keyboard – unless the price was dramatically less. 61 keys is certainly a must for this portable concept.

You also get some nice additional features, like sustain, transpose and reverb. All quite standard and expected, but I am happy to see they didn’t skimp on these functions and give everything to the portability side of things.

The main feature of the Casio CT-S100 is the integrated carry handle. It’s quite a neat idea and not something I’ve come across before. You can buy a special case for this which means you can easily carry it around – to your music lesson, on the bus, around the house, or to a friend’s house.

Price and summary

This is a tricky one to sum up, because whilst I know you can get more for your money as far as sounds, rhythms and other features go; the Casio CT-S100 does have a great sound, is probably the lightest keyboard I’ve ever picked up, and is completely designed to be extremely portable. So whilst it does push this keyboard into a fairly niche market, it does do a great job of offering something which was needed.

I often see students walking to school or uni and they have a guitar or violin on their back in a carry case. Unfortunately if you wanted to learn how to play the piano or keyboard it wouldn’t be possible to carry one around with you. But now you can! So if you were in need of a keyboard you could take anywhere you wanted without breaking your back, then this is it.

If you are looking for something less portable for the home and has more features and a lower price – then check out the Alesis Melody 61.