I've been looking at getting a (music) keyboard for my niece's 6 year old birthday. Ideally I was looking for one that doesn't require external power and has built-in speakers (i.e. doesn't require external speakers). Just to make it easy for her to use without having to plug various things in each time she wants to use it. I imagine she will mainly use it plugged into the mains power, but having the option of using it on batteries as well is nice.
Unfortunately finding a 'good' keyboard at a reasonable price that is not merely a midi controller wasn't that easy. Most midi controller keyboards are pretty decent, but not suitable as she doesn't always have access to a computer / tablet to plug it into. It would also complicate the process in that she wouldn't be able to just turn the keyboard on and play.
I started looking at the Korg Volca FM. This offers a large range of adjustments to the sounds you can make, plus a nice range of built-in sounds. The keyboard is only very small, but I would think it would be fine for a 6 year old. It also includes an arp and looper. Polyphony is limited to 3 notes, but for the price (~£100) that's not bad. The main issue with this is that adjusting the sounds seemed quite complicated with quite a bit of menu diving.
I then looked at the Yamaha Reface DX and CS keyboards. The CS keyboard has a good range of sliders that she could have fun playing around with to adjust the sound. But it doesn't have any built-in sounds. The Reface DX has a good range of built-in sounds (presets), and allows adjusting the sounds, but this requires menu diving. Both have speakers and can use battery power. Used they can be had for around £250. Reviews on both models seemed very positive.
I then found the Novation Mininova. This combines the best of both the reface DX and CS - loads of preset sounds plus lots of knobs, buttons and sliders to immediately adjust the sound with no menu diving needed. Plus a vocoder that I'm sure my niece would love. The problem was that it requires mains power and separate speakers. Plus the cost, like the Reface models, is around £250 used.
I also thought if I got her such a good keyboard she wouldn't have as much fun when visiting me and playing on my keyboards. I may get a Mininova myself though as they do look fun to use.
Finally, I found the Alesis Melody 32 keyboard. This is much more of a 'toy' keyboard, but for a 6 year old I think many of these 'toy' features will be appreciated. It has loads of voices, rhythms and some drum buttons (something missing on the synths), demo patterns, performance recorder, and MIDI. Plus the price was good - only £40.
Unfortunately I couldn't really find many reviews of this keyboard. It's further complicated by the fact that it seems to be marketed (and labeled) as both the Melody 32 and the Harmony 32. They both have pages on Alesis' website, and you can see they have the same content apart from the name change: https://www.alesis.com/products/view2/melody-32 and https://www.alesis.com/products/view2/harmony-32. They even went as far as changing the name on the product shots - and did a good job, I can't tell which ones are the originals.
It's missing a lot of features the more expensive keyboards and synths have, e.g. no pitch bend, no velocity sensitivity, and not even octave up / down buttons. The buttons also apparently don't send MIDI, only the keys. But for the price, and for a 6 year old, it seems like a good deal to me. It won't be a keyboard she can grow with as much, but it also won't be a case of spending lots of money for features she may never use. I just have to hope it works okay and doesn't break easily.
