Miditech Midistart Music 25

Nice functionality, output options (both USB and Midi), it works as expected. Interesting choice to use the joystick instead of sliders or wheels. Not the greatest feel on the keys, although this is expected at this price. The construction appears to be sturdy at the first glance.
On the downside, as I said the keys don't feel awesome, they need to be hit harder than usual for loud notes. The manual is almost useless, I couldn't understand how changing the velocity curve is done or if it can help with that.
On a more serious issue, in many other reviews I've seen the same problem I had with it as well: one or more keys stay lifted at about 15 or 20 degrees above the others. Mine was the C2 key. I thought about returning the product but then I took the risk and looked inside: a rubber ring which normally sits on a plastic finger that limits the key travel fell off, probably during transport. Luckily it was inside the case and I was able to put it back on and fix the issue. But then it might happen again, so it's not really suited to be carried around too much, doesn't it?
This also allowed me to have a better look at how it is built and in my opinion the way they combined metal with plastic in the build of this product gives its heavy weight, yet I don't think it would survive unscathed if it would fall of a table top on a hard floor, either the keys or the sides would brake, exactly because of the weight.
Does this mean that I wouldn't buy other Miditech products in the future? Not at all, I appreciate what they are trying to do and the difficulty of producing cheap stuff yet decent enough to be used in a prosumer environment let's say. I've actually changed my initial rating of 3 to 4 after using it a little, because I think it has it's place in my setup, I just wished it was a tad more refined.

This keyboard has a very good build quality and does exactly what I needed of it. I use it simply as a midi controller to control synths in my DAW and it's great. Considering its affordable price it also has some good features including a pitch changing joystick and octave changer plus other features I'm yet to use.

It also came with some useful looking software, including EZ drummer Lite, although I already have the full version. If you require a small keyboard that has some useful functions and is well made this is one to consider.

The only other thing is that it's USB powered, so if you only want to use the midi output you'll still have to also connect the USB to something.