I wrote my experience elsewhere but I don't know if I can refer to external forums via links; if so, I can point out a couple of discussions where I spoke about my tormented choice, which I will summarize below. Maximum price: €1000.
After long research in the shops in my area and reading on the internet, I personally arrived at having to choose between 2 pianos: Roland F140R and Casio Celviano AP-270 (before discovering this new instrument, I was being directed towards the Privia PX-860, equivalent but cheaper than the AP-460 - saving on the cabinet). Idem: the Roland 501 should be identical to the F140R, differing only in the cabinet.
I had dismissed brands like Casio from the start because for me it was a brand that produces watches and, at most, keyboards that no one I know uses. Roland, praised for light music, didn't seem to me suitable for classical music.
Long readings and visits to shops led me to having to choose between these two models. Note that we are taking into account the €1000 available; re-note that I haven't tried everything and I am not a professional.
The prestigious brands at those prices offer very little beyond the keyboard and the piano sound, which is what everyone looks for at the beginning. But then, you look around and notice that the Casio and Roland keyboards are not bad (on the contrary...) and are equipped with 3 sensors per key (the possibility of re-striking the key without it returning to the resting position or almost), things that other companies provide but at higher prices. The Casio sound is not bad and has a polyphony of 192 sounds which, in its category, including the cabinet etc., no one else offers. Larger models reach 256, once again more than their price-category colleagues.
All good models offer: hammer action keyboard, heavier in the bass registers, more or less excellent instrument voices; many models have synthetic ivory/ebony, so in a certain sense every choice is the right one. Therefore, you must let your touch and taste, needs, and wallet decide.
Below is a comparison between the two mentioned instruments.
Casio Celviano AP-270
I recommend it if you want to play/learn within the classical/jazz scope; you can record both hands separately; you can connect a tablet with an educational application that Casio promised to release in November '17; it has few sounds (22) but all of excellent quality, improved with the x70 series; it has the Concert Play functionality (also present in previous Casio models) which allows you to play with a recorded orchestra, replacing the pianist; greater polyphony (192 notes). Compared to previous ones, it has a new Steinway New York piano alongside the already existing "European" piano - a bit of news because everyone samples European or Japanese instruments.
Roland F140R
If you also want to play light music, it has rhythms; it has many more musical instruments, and you can connect via Bluetooth if you use other devices with educational functions, so you don't need wires like in the aforementioned piano; it has more powerful speakers, a feature that allows for acoustics specifically designed for headphones (when they are plugged in, obviously); the tactile simulation of the escapement that a pianist feels when pressing a key on a grand piano (double escapement); recordings of Czerny and Hanon.
In summary, the Casio is more essential, but what it has is oriented towards the piano and its study, while with the Roland you can do anything, even light music; it has hundreds of instruments but not all at the same level (it costs a bit more but offers more).
Not being able to compare the models on the same day/in the same shop, I won't include in the comparison above the feeling that the Casio's half-pedal is better; to be sure, I would need to have them side by side. Despite not completely giving me a "wood" feeling like higher-end models, they are well above keyboards that give a "plastic" feeling.
For my needs, I will almost certainly buy the AP-270 in the coming months. I live abroad but an Italian online shop offers me the best price, shipping included.
There are many other noteworthy ones, I wouldn't want to repeat what I have already written in other virtual places... noteworthy are the Kawai DP90, the Yamaha Arius... and there are many brands, good or bad...
The Kawais and Yamahas, suggested to me in many places, gave me inferior tactile sensations in this price category; obviously, it is necessary in these cases to reiterate that these are personal sensations that might not be shared (de gustibus non est disputandum), moreover I am not an expert.
If one has enough money, one can think about hybrids: Casio mounts Bechstein keyboards, Kawai and Yamaha presumably their own. We go beyond €2500, and in this category I liked a Kawai with a wooden soundboard at the back, I don't remember the model but you won't have difficulty in
...finding it.
No digital or hybrid piano gives me the sensations of a real piano, whether upright, which is why I consider the "identical" keyboard to the grand piano to be a myth. But as an amateur, I probably will never play a grand piano...
