I bought the Roland A-49 a couple of years ago as I wanted to have something portable that was easy to have in front of the computer etc. Although I have a full sized 88 key Yamaha digital piano as well, I feel that 49 keys offer a decent trade off between portability and range. Since it is a midi controller and not a piano, keyboard, synthesizer, it can also stay compact seeing as it does not need to have room for speakers, different voices etc. You do need to be aware however that you need a DAW (digital audio workstation), such as Garageband (if you are on a Mac or iOS device), to be able to use it. The Roland A-49 came bundled with a lite version of Ableton, so I did not need to buy anything extra for my PC.
While the construction is plastic, it feels sturdy enough and looks and feels like a keyboard should. Unlike a digital piano, it does not have weighted or graded keys, but the keys themselves are made to be easy and fast to play, with little resistance. The D-BEAM is like having a compact theremin, although I haven?t used that function a lot myself.
Recommended.