I started learning at 25, I'm 2 and a half years in and I love it. Wished I started sooner.
I started off with a digital piano, an expensive Yamaha, it was fantastic. My teacher had a baby grand, and playing on that every week made me want an acoustic. Even though my Yamaha was great, I still wanted an acoustic. So I got one in December of last year and I love it, although it does mean I don't get to practice late at night or early in the morning. When I move to a bigger house I plan to get a keyboard so I can still play at night.
I would say the must haves are:
- 88 keys
- weighted action (heavier in the bass, lighter in the treble)
Now the next question is, do you intend to always play with headphones, or with speakers too? Most digital pianos sound their best through headphones, and don't sound so great out of their speakers especially the cheaper ones. A lot of the premium you pay on higher end digitals is for their speaker system. I had a Yamaha CLP-685, the speaker system was immense on those. It had bluetooth too, so you could actually use it as a bluetooth speaker playing music off your phone. But it's an awful lot of money for what it was.
The best thing I think you can do is get a Yamaha P-515 or Kawai ES8, they're expensive but have a fantastic action. You can then buy some studio monitors and plug them into the audio out. You'll then effectively have the sound system of the top of the line Clavinovas for a fraction of the cost.
And I'd also strongly echo the sentiment
@Throbbing Thistle made, get a teacher. They're worth their weight in gold, especially if you're completely new to music, not just piano.
And I don't know if it's against the rules, but the Piano World Forums has a great digital piano section, you'd get a lot of good advice in there. Feel free to message me about anything, as an adult learner I might be able to pass on some good knowledge.
Edit:
Just thought I'd add, if you're going to go down the 'plugging into computer' route. You should look up VSTs. Basically all keyboards work via MIDI. And the simplest way to explain that is, each note of your keyboard has a number, lowest key: 0, highest key 88. And a velocity value, usually between 0-127. So if you whacked the lowest key as hard as you could, you would get: Key:0 Velocity:127, the highest key very gently you'd get: Key:88 Velocity:5 etc. It's a simplistic explanation but I hope you get what I mean. Also sorry if you already knew this
thought I'd cover as many bases as possible.
There is a brain on your keyboard, that translates this MIDI into the piano sounds. A VST, is a piece of software that you download on your computer, and when you plug your keyboard into it. Instead of using the keyboards built in brain to create piano sounds. The VST will do it. Some of the VSTs are incredible and much better than what you get on most Yamaha/Kawaii/Roland digital pianos.
Garritan CFX is very good.
Pianoteq is popular but it always sounded really 'artificial' to me. This guy on youtube uses Pianoteq
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFlamingPiano/videos some people love it, to me it sounds really weird. The good thing is, it's got a free version.
There are tonnes more, again if you look on Piano World Forums you'll see.
Anyway, if you do decide to go down this route, then speakers are even less of a priority and you'll want a 'piano controller'. And the best one out at the moment is the Kawai VPC1. Again, it's very expensive but the action is pretty much the best you'll get out of a non-acoustic piano (or hybrid piano, but that's another kettle of fish and they're £££££).
Sorry.
). It doesn't have loads of bells and whistles, but you can split the keyboard for tutoring, and you can layer sounds. I got her a foldable stand as well, the whole thing tucks under the sofa when she's not using it. 