Sony Inzone M9 review: a top next-gen gaming monitor

As Sony’s first foray into gaming displays, the Inzone M9 is feature-packed, providing a 4k native decision, a 144Hz max refresh charge with G-Sync and Freesync assist, an HDR600 score, 96 native dimming zones, two 2W audio system, and a wealth of ports with an marketed built-in KVM (keyboard and mouse) swap.

In addition to the monitor and stand, within the Inzone M9 field, yow will discover a beefy energy brick, energy wire, documentation, and a few Inzone stickers. Cables aren’t included, so you’ll have to buy them individually when you don’t have them already.

“Can I copy your homework?” requested the newly minted Inzone Division. “Certain, simply change it to make it seem like you didn’t” replied the engineers at PlayStation. “Certain.”

This sums up what I feel the Sony Inzone M9 appears like. It actually does really feel like ‘PS5, the monitor’ and truthfully, I do prefer it. Regardless of its gaming credentials and magnificence, it’s a far cry out of your typical gamer-inspired design and appears nice on my white desk in my aesthetic plant-adorned workplace. If you look a little bit nearer, issues are a little bit uglier.

The construct high quality isn’t as premium as different displays at this value level, which is a bit disappointing. Largely constructed of plastic, the chassis of the monitor feels a little bit creaky if you deal with or transfer it round. I’m most involved concerning the longevity of the plastic bezel, as there’s a slight hole in locations that would see them cracking if pressed down.

At 27 inches, it’s on the smaller aspect of 4K displays, however whether or not it is a dangerous factor is subjective and dependent in your accessible house. I can say that the Inzone M9 is depraved sharp, and the pixel density of 163 PPI is a delight for multimedia work, gaming apart. I’d like to see a panel of the identical high quality at 32 inches from Sony. The M9 has a matte display screen which is well-suited for adversarial lighting situations, nevertheless it does have the impact of softening the picture to a level.

The Inzone M9’s stand – while intelligent in its tripod design – has a restricted vary of adjustability, solely transferring up and down by 70mm and tilting again by 20°. I couldn’t get the monitor at eye degree with out placing it on high of a riser, considerably negating the house financial savings supplied by the stand’s legs. There’s no lateral adjustment nevertheless it has a VESA mount so this may be remedied however at an additional value.

Cable administration can also be discovered within the stand and it was a little bit of a wrestle to suit a DP cable by way of. Whereas sufficient for my wants, when you use each HDMI ports, the DP port, wired USB peripherals, and the DC energy cable, you may run out of room.

On the again is an RGB mild, which you’ll program for a spread of colours. It’s fairly dim, nevertheless, and in case your partitions are something however stark white, you won’t discover it. To navigate the OSD there’s a little joystick on the again which is a little bit delicate and takes a little bit time to get used to however I discovered I used to be capable of scroll by way of all of the choices fairly simply.

Sony is after all identified for its glorious Bravia TVs, and the M9, regardless of being a gaming show, isn’t any expectation. It’s vibrant, sharp, quick, and correct. Inside the Inzone hub, I opted for the ‘quick’ setting for pixel response because it supplied the most effective steadiness between enter latency and any ghosting from picture retention which turned noticeable on the ‘quickest’ setting.

And Sony isn’t kidding right here, quick is quick. While not on the degree of an OLED or CRTs of yore, it has a number of the finest pixel response I’ve seen on an IPS show with the M9 rated for a 1ms gray-to-gray response time so it’s an important choice for individuals who need good movement readability however are frightened about burn-in if they’ve static parts on display screen all day.

Shade accuracy and copy are improbable, with content material having a really Sony-trademark pure look. The monitor covers over 95% of the DCI-PC shade spectrum so it’s an important selection for the space-conscious video and picture editors on the market. The Inzone Hub app permits for fast and easy accessibility to any controls when you don’t need to fiddle with the joystick and OSD menu. When choosing the monitor, the app does freeze for a second or two however may be very responsive after the actual fact.

The OSD menu is thoughtfully laid out and I didn’t have any bother adjusting any settings once I was in-game and never utilizing borderless windowed mode. In any other case, I caught to the Inzone app. It was straightforward to put in firmware updates, however throughout set up of the most recent patch from June sixth, 2023, it failed and prompted the monitor to go clean and switch itself off. Turning it on and off on the wall acquired the monitor working once more and the replace put in correctly the second time round.

PS5 customers will unsurprisingly be well-catered for by Sony because the M9 has Auto HDR Tone Mapping. If you plug your console in, the monitor handles all the things and provides an optimized expertise which is fairly nifty for individuals who don’t prefer to obsess (like me) over image high quality.

SDR content material was very vibrant at 400 nits and I had no bother studying, taking part in, or watching something in a vibrant, top-floor, and south-facing condominium that sees a lot of sunshine. Even SDR video games such because the System Shock remake fared properly though a lot of the sport takes place in darkish environments.

HDR content material seemed first rate and was very vibrant total, owing to the M9’s HDR600 score. Sadly, it’s held again by the actual fact there are solely 96 dimming zones which when in comparison with the latest spate of MiniLED shows, is kind of missing. This meant that vibrant highlights didn’t pop as a lot as they may as a result of the realm coated by every zone is kind of massive. Spotlight particulars such because the solar reflecting within the snow have been misplaced barely in Resident Evil Village.

The comparatively low variety of dimming zones additionally hurts the distinction ratio and black ranges are crushed considerably and may seem barely grey. When displaying darkish content material, there may be noticeable blooming too owing to the dimming zones however that is extra obvious in a desktop atmosphere and to a lesser extent throughout gameplay. The System Shock Remake seemed suitably moody however was let down by that common distinction ratio. Candles piercing the darkish of Fortress Dimitrescu in RE: Village displayed the awkward blooming in HDR mode however have been nonetheless fairly vibrant.

Maybe the largest thriller of the Sony Inzone M9 is the KVM swap, Regardless of quite a few firmware updates, it will not work for me in any respect. I had my Razer Blade plugged in by way of the DisplayPort port and a MacBook Professional 16 M1 Max by way of one of many HDMI 2.1 ports and switching between the 2 inputs didn’t make any distinction. Any peripherals or USB drives would solely register on my Home windows machine it doesn’t matter what.

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