Best Smart Keyboards 2025: PopuMusic vs ROLI — our response
We’d like to clarify some misconceptions from a recent post on a competitor’s site
This week, PopuMusic posted an article to their site entitled: “Best Smart Keyboards 2025: PopuMusic vs ROLI”, which compares the brand’s 2022 PopuPiano keyboard with our own ROLI Piano M, first launched as LUMI Keys in 2020. Naturally, we had a read (who wouldn’t?), and spotted a few inaccuracies and omissions in this post. So, we thought we’d jump in and provide a balanced, human-written reply to set the record straight.
You can read the original post here.
PopuMusic’s post begins with a discussion of “smart” keyboards, explaining what they do, who they’re for, and what makes them so useful for aspiring piano players. So far, so good — we agree, smart keyboards are a great way to learn.
This section is followed by a comparison table, highlighting PopuPiano and Piano M’s respective strengths and weaknesses in different areas, followed by some takeaways. Below, the author concludes that PopuPiano “excels at visual step-by-step learning” while Piano M is “designed for creative exploration, offers less formal instruction and more emphasis on sound manipulation”.
It’s true that Piano is designed for creative exploration. With polyphonic pitch bend and aftertouch on every key, plus the MPE-enabled ROLI Studio plugin suite included, it’s a portable, powerful instrument for composing, sound design, live performance, and more. You can learn more about Piano M’s creative potential here.
What the article misses, however, is that Piano M was also designed from the ground up to be the ultimate portable piano for learning to play. Paired with the ROLI Learn app, it unlocks access to an ever-growing library of more than 1,200+ contemporary and classical hit songs to learn and play along with. PopuMusic is comparing a free learning app, with a paid learning app with a library of licensed music from some of the biggest artists across countless genres— including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Coldplay, The Beatles and Beyoncé, to name a few. Your subscription also includes more than 200 interactive video lessons with real piano teachers, a host of engaging musical games and exercises, and an AI Piano Assistant that’s on hand 24/7 to answer your questions.
What’s more, it’s all part of a guided curriculum, developed by an expert team of educators, piano teachers, and professional musicians and designed to help you reach your goals while progressing at your own pace. New songs, content, and features are added regularly, so you’ll never run out of ways to challenge yourself. For a full overview of Piano M from a learning perspective, check out this page.
Lastly, we’d like to clarify Piano M’s pricing. It currently retails for $249.00 in the US, €229 in Europe, and £219 in the UK. A subscription to ROLI Learn starts from just $8.33, €8.33, or £6.67 per month.
We’ve reproduced PopuMusic’s table below, with corrections for Piano M. We’ll trust that the company’s claims about its own products are accurate and leave them unaltered.
The ROLI range
It’s worth noting that PopuMusic’s post seems to reference a few different ROLI products, so here’s a quick refresher:
Piano M
Piano M is a portable piano keyboard with expressive, glowing keys. For learners, it pairs with the ROLI Learn app to create an all-in-one music-learning platform ideal for beginners. To unlock two-handed songs and lessons in the ROLI Learn app, simply snap on a second Piano M using the magnetic DNA connectors.
Piano M also comes with ROLI Studio, a suite of virtual instruments, and works with standard music-production software, making it a great choice for artists and producers too.
ROLI Piano
ROLI Piano (pictured around half way down the page in PopuMusic’s article) is our forthcoming flagship piano-style keyboard. Think of it as Piano M’s bigger sibling, with 49 full-size, semi-weighted keys with full plunge depth. There’s also a dedicated sustain-pedal input for even greater expression. Thanks to the added space compared to Piano M, two-handed content in ROLI Learn is unlocked by default.
ROLI Piano also ships with ROLI Studio and its keys include the same expressive features as Piano M, making it ideal for use in the studio or on stage.
Airwave
Airwave, our latest innovation, is an intelligent practice assistant powered by Spatial AI. Its cameras see your hands in incredible detail in order to supercharge your practice sessions with timely, personalized feedback and advice across five dimensions of learning: postural, positional, harmonic, rhythmic, and dynamic. Paired with either ROLI Piano or Piano M, it helps you build better habits, improve faster, and have even more fun.
Like both ROLI Pianos, Airwave is also a powerful tool for creating music. Combine it with any MIDI keyboard, and it allows you to play the air above your keys, turning natural movement into unforgettable musical moments.
