I absolutely need 76 (or at least 73) keys .

I still own a 61-key board, which stands in my son's room. Every so often I try to play it, only to rediscover that I am about an octave short.

Many posts tout the lighter weight and portability as the benefits of only having 61 keys. I believe that in many cases one does not need to trade off one for the other. If you look at most 61-key high-end instruments today, particulary T2, or Genesys Pro, as well as Roland E80, Korg PA1X (non-Pro), etc., you notice that the instrument frame extends way beyond the length of the keyboard. If the manufacturers really had portability in mind, they would have made the instruments shorter (and they could cut them by almost a foot), with the corresponding reduction in size and weight. I believe that their main motivation is that longer keyboards would hurt the sales of their high-margin digital home pianos (such as Clavinova).

If you are completely happy with having only 61 keys, good for you. But if you feel that you are being forced into making a compromise, unnecessarily trading off the needed keys for portability, you should make your opinions known, so that in the future the manufacturers produce instruments with the features we really want.

Regards,
Alex