Sony Inzone Gaming Monitors Get a Sleek Redesign
When you hear “Sony” and “games,” your brain probably goes to PlayStation. There’s a good reason for this, but a company as big as Sony is going to have its fingers in a few pies. That’s where Inzone, its little-known brand of PC gaming accessories, comes in. Released in 2022, Sony tried to heavily promote it through esports partnerships , but everyone I spoke to about Inzone products simply mistook them for PS5 accessories. Perhaps that’s why Inzone is getting a nice new redesign this year, starting with gaming monitors.
They have all the features you’d expect from a premium gaming display, plus a few extra to justify such an esports partnership (and some pretty steep prices). There are two models: M9 II and M10S, among which you will find advantages including 480 fps and 4K. But for me the most standout change is the new look.
The white PlayStation was gone, as was the tripod stand and the heavily angled monitor arm that resembled a mini PS5. Instead, everything is now a much more neutral black and, more importantly, smaller and overall easier to use. It doesn’t lose any of the truly great customization capabilities that the first-gen monitors had, but it does give the brand its own personality, which an Inzone rep told me was definitely intended.
The M9 II is most similar to the old model as its bracket is still at a slight angle, but its small 177mm round base now makes it much easier to move or be surrounded by equipment. It can now also rotate with little effort, while tilting and moving up and down on a lever with the same convenient guide system (the latter isn’t exactly new, but in tests with the doors closed I found it required much less effort). than similar guides from competing brands such as MSI or Asus).
The M10S is even smaller, with a round base measuring just 159mm in diameter. It has the same mobility functionality as the M9 II, meaning it is lightweight and maneuverable. What’s unique is that it also has a heatsink built into its mount, which makes the panel itself thinner and reduces the risk of burnout.
Having tried both monitors behind closed doors, I was genuinely impressed by how much I could adjust each monitor on almost any axis with just the push of one hand. They don’t feel flimsy, but they are as close to “thin and light” as I’ve seen for a PC gaming monitor.
However, the premium feel comes with fairly high prices. The M9 II, positioned as a more budget-friendly model, still costs $799, while the M10S costs $1,099.
These prices will get you a 27-inch screen on both models. The M9 II supports resolutions up to 4K and refresh rates up to 160Hz, but there’s no OLED here. There’s full-scale local dimming, which does its best to achieve uniform contrast levels without self-illuminating pixels, as well as backlit scanning, which essentially doses the image line by line to reduce image blur.
So the M10S has OLED and increases the refresh rate to 480Hz, but drops the maximum resolution to 1440p. This may seem strange for a more expensive model, but is not unusual for eSports-focused monitors: such gamers prefer higher frames per second, and it can be difficult to create a monitor with high frame rates and higher resolutions. Likewise, backlit scanning has been replaced by variable refresh rate support, another eSports-friendly feature (OLED also doesn’t have a backlight, so that would be moot here).
Continuing in that vein, there is a feature that allows you to scale the image down to reflect what you might see on a 24.5-inch monitor, which is what most gaming tournaments use. This should help you be better prepared for game day, and some gamers simply prefer the smaller size since they can see more of the field without craning their neck. Both monitors have this feature, but the M10S takes it one step further with an FPS Pro(+) mode developed in conjunction with esports team Fnatic to better highlight where enemies are on screen.
With features like these, Sony’s Inzone really doubles down on its PC audience, although PlayStation still has two nice little gifts: an Inzone monitor connected to a PS5 gets exclusively automatic HDR tone mapping (which should help you fine-tune the notoriously temperamental tech ), plus automatically changes mode images depending on whether you are playing a game or watching a movie.
Sony is clearly showing off all these luxury features, but that’s to be expected from a fresh line of products – make a name for yourself with expensive new hardware and work your way down the market as you become more established. Sony is already a leader in headphones and TVs , so it’s clear where its ambitions lie next. Let’s hope people now know Inzone exists instead of writing it off as a “PlayStation monitor.”