Review of Inzone M9, Sony’s first gaming monitor. Can you shine with your own light?

Everything is possible on the current generation of consoles. Resolutions and refresh rates once reserved for the most powerful PCs are now within reach of a wider range of gamers, and Sony has taken advantage of this new inertia to manufacture a range of monitors, the top of the range of which is the Inzone M9, which today we are analyzing in 3DJuegos.

Major TV brands have been playing the game for years. gaming monitor marketbut in this game between LG, Samsung or Philips, there is always a manufacturer missing: sony. From now on, the Japanese are fully involved in a line of instructors led by the In the M9 area. Thus, the range of Inzone peripherals already has three headsets (including there are the Inzone H9 that we have already analyzed) and two monitors. The little brother of the M9 is the M3, and it will arrive at the end of 2022 for 700 euros, but now we are talking about a monitor whose price is 1099 euros.

This leads directly to a little more demanding of the monitor market, the one that features the largest monitors, with curved panels, huge resolutions, HDR, latencies and more competitive refresh rates… and how flowery it is. Okay, it has a 27-inch 4K panel with 96 zone FALD backlight, 144Hz refresh rate with 1ms response time; it is compatible with DisplayHDR 600 standards, HDR10, G-Sync Ultimate and VRR… But is it enough to justify the price and stand up to the competition? In this analysis, I tell you in detail about everything that this new Sony hardware offers.

Materials and design

An eye-catching design

The M9 attracts a lot of attention. As part of the Inzone line, follow the inspiration marked by the design of the PlayStation 5, but unlike headphones, here the plastic (a rigid polycarbonate) is of better quality. On the other hand, it not only follows the chromatic reference and also inherits the lines so characteristic of the console, allowing the panel to rest on a base with two white sheets on the sides that protect a black interior. Be careful with this base, because its approach has a very clear advantage and another against.

Whether you like the look of this base or not, it puts into practice a brilliant idea: its “trunk” and its legs become save space on your desk. It achieves this by placing the column on a diagonal that passes under the screen, while the feet support the rest of the weight; that is, they end up staying like a tripod. With this, the M9 realizes that the support does not take up extra space relative to the screen.

The basics of the Inzone M9: one pro, several cons

Now, in terms of ergonomics, flexibility and stability, the In the M9 area it falls very short. Let’s first clarify that the height can be adjusted within a range of 70 mm and the tilt of the screen is variable by 20 degrees, but stop counting. The screen cannot be rotated, neither horizontally nor circularly; and moreover, the diagonal of the base makes that when lowering the panel it “approaches” to us.

The M9 does not include video or USB cables.On another note, it’s important to point out that the “tripod concept” doesn’t help the monitor be very stable, as it tends to wobble slightly from side to side when we write loudly or, say, shake our knees to the sound of music. When it comes to organizing cables, there are an internal canal in the spine so they are not so noticeable, but as soon as you have some thick cables – something easy to do if you connect an HDMI and a DisplayPort for your PS5 and PC, you will find that the channel is too narrow. Oh, and by allusions we take this opportunity to point out an important detail: the M9 does not include video or USB cablesso if you don’t already have them, you have to buy them separately.

Luckily, you can skip almost the entire previous paragraph if you have or have an articulated armbecause, in fact, it is fully compatible with VESA 100×100 and higher anchors it’s surprisingly lightso there would be no need to support one of the more expensive ones.

Very flexible image settings

At the rear right you will find the power button and a joystick to control the on-screen settings menu, which gives you the same settings as the Inzone HUB app, which are not uncommon at all: response time, lighting, contrastgamma, aspect ratio… and other less common ones like an fps counter or a floating transom at the hardware level, and these are details that we appreciate.

Then, on the back, there is the whole panel of ports and connectors, and the truth is that it is not badly served, with: a minijack input for headphones, three USB-A ports, a USB-B port , one Type-C, one DisplayPort and two HDMI 2.1. The latter is essential, you can imagine, to be able to connect your PlayStation 5 and for it to be able to reach 4K and 120 Hz.

What does the Inzone M9 look like?

A well-made panel

The Inzone M9 looks great. It’s a 4K monitor with its DisplayHDR 600 certification and over 95% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and that, for a gaming display, delivers very solid results that stand out clearlyespecially if we consider that it costs these almost 1100 euros. For that price could it be better? Yes, but you would have to make sacrifices… or pay the 1,300 euros cost existing QD-LED solutions.

You will see, on the one hand, the one which presents 96 AUTUMN areas may seem very small compared to thousands of top-performing televisionsbut also keep in mind that usually PC monitors incorporate Edge LED, which gives less good results. Moreover, with a panel of only 27 inches, these 96 zones are not short at all. FALD, on the other hand, has the disadvantage of increasing latency, causing ghosting, or displaying more compressed blacks.

When the going gets tough, unless you’re slope of halos or contrasts HDR can give you, you’ll notice nothing more than a consistent, colorful picture. we can’t talk about that sensation of spectacular that might be demanded of the most powerful HDR, but for a gaming display of this price it’s surprisingly good. In addition, precisely for what we usually see in other brands, the panel is very homogeneousbarely showing the light leaks so typical of IPS LCDs.

Here we come to play

In the color swatches section we can indeed highlight a very stimulating aesthetic, thanks to this high color space coverage, but again supported by the FALD backlight. In video games it works like a charm, basically, and above all thanks to these 144 Hz (or 120 on PS5), they give a very solid, very fluid result. On the other hand, although these 1 ms response won’t be as obvious in most areasit is good to have them in case you opt for the competitive game.

The incorporation of G-Sync certified or VRR (but not FreeSync), aside from PlayStation 5-exclusive features such as HDR Tone Mapping and selection of automatic genre modes are excellent inclusions who close the complex for the pleasure of the staff.

To watch a series or a movie if you do not have access to a room or a larger screen, the Inzone M9 retains the type, but don’t ask her to look good. The speakers that it incorporates, although correct, are by far its worst feature, since they offer a sparse sound, with non-existent bass and a very absent presence. Maybe if they had been positioned elsewhere they would have worked better…

conclusion

The Inzone M9 is a solid proposition that does the basics very well. It is true that its design, as attractive and curious as it is, can have quite a few buts, just like its speakers, but as a gaming monitor it offers enough incentives enough to seduce an audience that goes beyond this hybrid game concept between console and PC. It’s true that for a 27-inch screen, there might be go down a notch to 1440p to fine-tune your HDRbut, being consistent, it’s clear that Sony has been in this business all of its life and that He knows what he’s doingnot only to make their products well, but also to know how to incorporate elements that really differentiate them from the competition.