My digital piano just arrived a few hours ago.
I decided on the Roland FP-30X after trying several models in store.
Pro-tip: many of the big name digital pianos are half the price in the mainland China market than in the rest of the world. Often for an upgraded model as well.
FP-30X was 3850 CNY (~US$550) including the Roland KPD-70 three pedal unit and KSC-70 stand. Delivery (to Hong Kong) was ~400 CNY.
Another good option is the FP-18 which is a mainland market-only China model that's an upgrade overthe FP-10 in that it has more sounds and also supports three pedals. It's about ~1200 CNY cheaper than the FP-30X. Downside is slightly inferior sound and speakers compared to FP-30x
I also tried out the Yamaha portables...P-525 was excellent but about 3x the cost of the FP-30x. I didn't really like feel of the action of the cheaper Yamaha (P-225?).
So far FP-30X has been great...the bluetooth MIDI interface and bluetooth interfaces work seamlessly with my iPad. I haven't tried out Hanon Pro yet but it's been really thrilling to try out the various piano learning apps. If I had these back in the 90s, I'd probably be a much better piano player now! Better late than never!
Combined with a learning software that can control the light (Synthesia, or the one from Yamaha itself, maybe also the one in the original post), it creates a huge amount of fun and motivation. Also works very well for adults.
Keyboards like this do not give you proper hammer-action piano keys, but it makes you discover you /want/ to be a pianist, cheaper and with fun.
(There are also a few hammer-action lit digital pianos but they aren't as fun, and already quite expensive.)
Also consider Synthesia's short list: https://synthesiagame.com/keyboards/info
(I'd get the EZ-300 over the PSR-EW310 listed there for that price class, I believe it didn't exist when that list was written.)
Pop in songs they like (e.g. Disney or Pokemon) from a MuseScore subscription for engagement optimisation ;-)
But that is not such a bad thing:
* Muscle memory is part of the game, for any instrument (at least for the ones I know).
* Some of the muscle memory is transferable. For example, when you learn some chords on Synthesia, you can transfer many of them to other parts of the keyboard, also when you're not using the tool.
* For many people, motivation must come first. Learning a piece by muscle memory shows you that you can do it. Wanting to read sheet music naturally follows, from the fact that muscle memory is limited, and to play more stuff.
* Synthesia also teaches rhythm, which some people already have but others don't. You can learn rhythm because Synthesia shows how long each note is, and you can see it coming ahead of time.
* You should learn to read music notation in all cases. Learning the concept only takes 30 seconds: Remember where one note is and do the rest by line counting. The speed of reading will come automatically over time. Then for some songs, enable Synthesia's sheet note display and cover the falling notes from sight. It will show you whether you're reading it correctly. It'll be painfully slow at the beginning but improve over a couple days. It allows you to transfer over to just reading the sheets. Eventually that will become the more convenient way, as the need to download (e.g. from MuseScore and import into Synthesia) disappears; not that it's great effort, but eventually you can just browse easy pieces of sheet music and start playing the ones you like as you see them.
Tools like Synthesia help improve on some of the skill axes; use other methods for the remaining ones.
It's no different than picking up a ball and playing basketball on your own or tennis...or a simple coding book and making a CRUD app without all the best practices or Code Complete and your fancy frameworks.
I got the exact piano op mentioned on prime day for $150?. I have Simply Piano. My daughter will ask to play the "piano game".
Last summer I signed up my daughter for Ukulele class with a teacher. She barely touched outside what was required assignments.
Yes in the perfect world I have a real piano, with a real teacher who is great with kids who makes it so fun my daughter wants to practice everyday.
But I only have one shot to get her hooked and build momentum. IMHO passion comes first, then technique. Passion comes from having fun.