Duolingo, best known for its language-learning app, has teamed up with the instrument brand Loog to offer a beginner-friendly portable piano. The $249 Loog x Duolingo Piano is meant to complement Duolingo’s similarly gamified music course launched last year.
The keyboard is essentially a co-branded version of the portable digital piano that Loog launched on Kickstarter last year, featuring a near-identical wooden design, 37 keys, and a volume adjusting knob. Beyond the green color there are some additional aesthetic differences. The knob on Duolingo’s version is a lighter wooden finish, and it comes with a matching phone stand to follow the company’s music lessons as you play, for example.
The most notable feature shared by both models are velocity-sensitive keys that allow for dynamics, meaning the volume output is adjusted depending on how hard or softly the keys are pressed.
The Loog x Duolingo Piano is 18.9-inches (480.8mm) long and weighs 3.64 pounds (1.65kg), with built-in stereo speakers and a rechargeable battery that lasts up to eight hours on a full charge. There are also octave shifter and sustain pedal ports on the rear of the device, a USB-C jack for charging and transmitting MIDI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack to keep everyone else in the home sane when practicing.
Duolingo’s music course only provides piano lessons right now, and will work with any piano — not just the new Loog collaboration. The Loog x Duolingo Piano does ship with beginner-friendly flashcards though, and dynamics are nice to have on a piano that’s small enough to be stashed away in a drawer when not being used. Just be aware that this is only a preorder and won’t be shipped out until November.
