Sony Inzone M9: Best of Sony display for gamers around the world 

written by: Ajitesh Rathore

The Sony INZONE M9, or just M9 for short, is Sony’s first monitor and is part of their new INZONE lineup of gaming products, which also includes headphones like the Sony INZONE H9 Wireless. It’s a premium gaming monitor with a 4k native resolution and a high refresh rate, with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and support for both FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible variable refresh rate technologies. Here are the detailed specifications:

Display:

• Screen Size: 27 inches
• Resolution: WQHD (3840 x 2160)
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Panel Type: IPS LCD
• Curved Screen: No
• Refresh Rate: DisplayPort: 24 Hz – 144 Hz, HDMI: 24 Hz – 120Hz
• Response Time: 1ms (Faster Mode) 
• BLACK EQUALIZER: Yes 
• GAMING ASSIST: Crosshair, Timer, Frame Rate Counter 
• Brightness: 400cd/m2 (typical), 600cd/m2 (peak)
• Contrast Ratio: 80,000:1 (Dynamic), 1,000:1 (Static)
• Color Gamut: 95%+ (DCI-P3 Coverage)
• ALLM (AUTO LOW LATENCY MODE): Yes (HDMI 2.1)
• BACKLIGHT TECHNOLOGY: Full Array Local Dimming, Direct Lit LED
• HDR (HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE): HDR10, HLG
• VESA DISPLAYHDR™: DisplayHDR 600

Connectivity:

• DisplayPort x1 (Ver. 1.4),
• HDMI x2 (Ver. 2.1),
• USB Type-C x1 (DP Alt Mode, Upstream),
• USB Type-B x1 (Upstream),
• USB Type-A x3 (Downstream),
• Headphone Output x1 (3.5mm Jack)
• KVM Switch: Auto KVM Switch (Auto USB Hub Switch), Control for HDMI (HDMI CEC), HDCP2.3

Audio

• BUILT-IN SPEAKERS: 2W x2

Cables:

• AC Power Adapter
• AC Power Cord
• Color Calibration Factory

Features:

• 4K Resolution: 4K gaming monitors have four times more pixels than Full HD monitors. Whether you like shooting, racing or role play, you’ll enjoy flawless images with crystal clear details and greater pixel density.
• Full Array Local Dimming: With Full Array Local Dimming, light goes exactly where it’s needed so you see more depth in shadow and highlights. Spot rivals lurking in the dark and uncover objects in brightness with more clarity. Enhanced contrast across the screen opens up your view of the game like never before.
• DisplayHDR™ 600 Certified: With DisplayHDR™ 600, INZONE M9 reproduces scenes in vivid colour with rich accurate contrast and high peak brightness of 600 nits. Now you can see spectacular highlights as the game creators intended.
• Over 95% DCI-P3: With over 95% coverage of the DCI-P3 spectrum, the INZONE M9 4K HDR gaming monitor brings out an extended range of over a billion rich, vibrant colours. More shades and hues create breathtaking scenes for immersive gaming
• FPS Game Picture Mode: Optimise brightness and contrast so you can see rivals clearly.
• Black Equalizer: Uncover detail in shadow and spot rivals hiding in the dark.
• Sync Technology: NVIDIA® G-SYNC® Compatible
• Variable Refresh Rate (VRR): With a Variable Refresh Rate in HDMI 2.1, our gaming monitor avoids stuttering delays and screen tearing. It dynamically adjusts the display refresh rate to match the variable frame rates of the gaming device for smoother gameplay.
• Auto HDR Tone Mapping: Your PS5™ consoles automatically recognise INZONE gaming monitors during initial setup and optimise HDR settings. Even in high contrast scenes, you’ll see crucial details and colours in the brightest and darkest parts of the screen
• Auto Genre Picture Mode: INZONE gaming monitors optimise the performance of games and movies on PS5™ consoles, automatically switching to Cinema Mode when watching movies for expressive scenes and Game 1 Mode when playing games
• Integrated with your gear: Easily position an angled keyboard and large gaming mouse pad around or under the display. With a small monitor footprint, you’ll have more desktop space
• Adjustable height and tilt: Change the height and tilt of the display to get the best view of your gaming worlds and the competition
• Rear lighting: Choose from a selection of rear lighting colours to match your display with your game, room ambience or mood.
• Cable management: Hide the power and signal cables within the centre pillar to keep your desktop clean and neat. Place your gaming gear freely without the distraction of cables and stay focused on your gaming.

Special Features: 

ON-SCREEN MENU: Yes (Control with 5-Way Joystick) Quickly and easily adjust monitor settings with just a few clicks of the mouse using the PC Software. As well as tweaking settings, you can also assign specific picture mode and sound profiles of the headset to individual PC applications and games

Design and Ergonomics:

• Stand Adjustments: Height & tilt adjustments. (More details below)
• VESA Mount Compatibility: 100 x 100mm
• Design: Unfortunately, the stand’s unique design also limits its range of ergonomic adjustments. The height adjustment range is disappointing, and it can’t swivel or rotate to portrait orientation. Thankfully, it can be VESA mounted, so if you’re having a hard time placing it in an ideal viewing position, you can mount it to a third-party stand or wall mount instead.
• Bezels: No

Power and Energy Efficiency:

• Power Consumption: Energy-efficient design with typical power consumption of 139W
• Eco Mode: Reduces energy consumption and uses only 28.9W
• Stand By: At stand by power consumption is only 0.5W

Warranty and Support:

• Premium Panel Exchange: Free panel replacement during the warranty period if any bright pixel is found
• Warranty: 3-year advanced exchange service and limited hardware warranty

Display Performance:

• Infinite Contrast Ratio: The Sony M9 has a mediocre contrast ratio, so blacks look gray if you’re in a dark room. Unfortunately, despite the relatively high zone count, the local dimming feature can’t boost the native contrast ratio, even with relatively large areas of black space like this checkerboard pattern.
• SDR Brightness: The Sony M9 has great peak brightness in SDR. It’s bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room, and there’s no variation in brightness between scenes. If you want to use your monitor in a well-lit room and prefer something even brighter, the INNOCN 27M2V is a good alternative.

Ergonomics and Design:

• Stand Adjustments:
  • Height Adjustment: 2.8″ (7.0 cm)
    • Dimensions with stand (W X H X D)
      •   Approx. 61.5 x 47.9 x 24.8 cm 
    • Dimensions without stand (W X H X D)
      • Approx. 61.5 x 36.3 x 7.3 cm 
    • Tilt Adjustment: -20° to 0°
    • Swivel Adjustment: No
• Cable Management: Built-in solution to keep cables tidy and out of the way.

Video And Audio Ports 

• DisplayPort  1 (DP 1.4)
• Mini DisplayPort  No
• HDMI  2 (HDMI 2.1)
• HDMI 2.1 Rated Speed  40Gbps (FRL 10×4)
• DVI  No
• VGA  No
• Daisy Chaining  No
• 3.5mm Audio Out  1
• HDR10  Yes
• 3.5mm Audio In  No
• 3.5mm Microphone In  No

Software and Compatibility:

• INZONE Hub, Color Management (ICC)
• PS5: The Sony M9 is fully compatible with everything the PS5 supports. It also supports a few features specific to the PS5, including Auto HDR Tone Mapping, which optimizes your HDR experience to match the capabilities of your display.
• Xbox Series X|S: This monitor is nearly fully compatible with the Xbox Series S|X. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision for movies or gaming.

DISPLAY LANGUAGE 

English/ French/ German/ Italian/ Japanese/ Korean/ Polish/ Russian/ Spanish/ Turkish/ Simplified Chinese/ Traditional Chinese 

HDR and Color Performance:

• VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400: The Sony M9 has great color volume in HDR. Like with SDR content, it’s mainly limited by its low contrast ratio, as it can’t display dark, saturated colors. It also can’t fill out the entire color gamut in either HDR color space, but the colors it can display are bright and vibrant.
• SDR Color Volume: The color volume is incredible in SDR. It’s mainly limited by its low contrast ratio, which prevents the monitor from displaying dark, saturated colors. It fills out the sRGB color gamut entirely, and colors are bright and vibrant.
• SDR Color Gamut: The SDR color gamut is fantastic. The Sony M9 can display all of the sRGB color space used by most desktop and web content. It has good coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space, but it can’t display the full range of greens in that color space, so it’s not ideal for print processing.

Build Quality and Durability:

The Sony M9 has just decent build quality. It’s mostly plastic, and some of it feels pretty cheap and not very premium. The stand doesn’t work as well as it should for a monitor at this price point; it wobbles quite a bit and takes a while to recover from wobble.

Power Efficiency:

• Power Management Modes: Various modes to reduce power consumption when the monitor is not in active use.

The Sony M9 delivers an excellent gaming experience. It has amazing low input lag, delivering a very responsive gaming experience. It also has an excellent response time at the max refresh rate, with very little blur around fast-moving objects and very little overshoot with the best settings. The large, high-resolution screen is great for gaming, as you can see more fine details in graphically intense games. Finally, it’s a great choice for console gamers, as it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on both HDMI inputs, so you can enjoy 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the Xbox Series X and the PS5 without having to change the connection