Sony Inzone M9 Review: The ultimate PS5 4K HDR Gaming Monitor

Sony has returned to the computer monitor market with the brand new Inzone series, and today we will be testing its top model, the Inzone M9. In those days, Sony was a big name in computer screens with their Trinitron CRTs, but it didn't quite make the heaps in the LCD era. That's changing today, as Sony is not only returning to the gaming market but with a monitor that offers unique features we've never seen before.

At first glance, the Inzone M9 spec sheet points to a typical high-end gaming screen. Up to 144 Hz refresh rate with 27-inch panel size, 4K resolution, IPS technology and standard adaptive equalization variable refresh. It also comes with DisplayHDR 600 certified, 1ms rated response times, and all the usual stuff you'd expect in this class. But this isn't a regular 4K 144Hz monitor because Sony has put real effort into improving one key area over its rivals: HDR.

Any screen enthusiast would have sold the M9 in a heartbeat on a spec sheet and earned some of it. However, as accurate as Sony's first gaming monitor was, it also got a lot of things wrong. The stand doesn't make sense to most people, and I've had panel issues with two separate units. If you don't care about HDR, there isn't much to sell you on the M9 in the face of competition from LG and Samsung.

For this group with a PlayStation 5 and a PC that cares about HDR performance, the InZone M9 offers something that isn't currently on the market. And most importantly, it's a step forward for the largely stagnant market of the best monitors.

Specifications

	Sony InZone M9 (SDM-U27M90)
Screen size	27 inches
Panel type	IPS
Resolution	3840 x 2560 (4K)
Peak brightness	600 nits
HDR	DisplayHDR 600 w/ Full Array Local Dimming (96 zones)
Response time	1ms GtG
Refresh rate	144Hz
Curve	None
Speakers	2x 2W
Inputs	2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C
USB ports	2x USB-A, 1x USB-B
Adjustments	Height adjustment (2.5 inches)
List price	$899

Design

The InZone M9 looks great, especially next to a PlayStation 5. They're purpose-built for each other, with the monitor surrounding a black interior in white plastic for a futuristic look. There's even a PS5-like glow on the back of the monitor that you can adjust to match the look of the LEDs on the console.

The booth is where things get funky. It has three legs, unlike the standard two legs on most monitor stands—a unique look and a great space saver on cramped desks.

I'm not sure what Sony thinks about the ergonomics here. Just long enough. Even at its highest point, I couldn't find a position where I didn't bend my neck down. The height adjustment range is also very low, so there is little room to adjust it to your liking. Using the InZone M9 without a monitor arm was inconvenient unless you have a lot of room to adjust the height of your desk and chair. There's a tilt adjustment to help, but you'll still be bending your neck down in most cases.

The ergonomics are a shame because the M9 and its stand look cool. Sony has taken advantage of the PS5 beyond looks, too. The M9 features an automatic genre mode that can switch between low-latency Game mode and quality-focused Cinema mode depending on what you're doing on your PS5.

The PS5 can detect the M9 as a monitor and adjust the colour and brightness values ​​it emits to match Sony's display. More importantly, the M9 does automatic HDR tone mapping. I'll cover this more in the performance sections below, but spoiler alert: HDR tone mapping is good.

Ports and controls

The M9 has various ports: two HDMI 2.1, a single DisplayPort 1.4 connection, and even USB-C support to support 4K at 120Hz on the PS5. If you connect the USB-B connection to your PC, you'll have several USB ports, and thanks to the KVM switch inside the M9, you can switch your peripherals between devices by simply changing the input; all thumbs up here.

More exciting is the OSD. With the joystick behind the right side of the monitor, you get a large, clearly readable and understandable OSD that is extremely simple to navigate. Sony also uses a separate power button, so you don't accidentally turn off the screen. I praised the menus on monitors like the Acer Predator X28, but even they don't hold a candle to the M9.

You don't have to use the OSD, though, and I recommend not using it. The InZone Hub app provides all your monitor settings on your desktop, and unlike the MSI MPG32-QD, you don't need to connect a USB cable to use the software.

Inside, you will find five display modes: Cinema, Standard, FPS, Game 1 and Game 2. Two game display modes, actually adjusting the brightness, contrast, etc., are special slots that you can set. Otherwise, the display settings will be locked outside. Black equalizer and local dimming adjustment. Neither is bad, but Standard mode is very bright, while Cinema mode has a warm colour temperature that looks good if you're only watching a moody drama.

I set the brightness of the first game mode to a comfortable level and went for a neutral colour temperature, but that was all I had to do to get the monitor to look the way I wanted.

I suspect most people don't configure their monitor settings because it's annoying to mess with an OSD and joystick. InZone Hub invites a deeper level of customization, which I like and manages to provide all the basic image settings you need without going into advanced colour calibration that only a small number of people can benefit from.

Image quality

I connected my SpyderX to the M9 to verify the specs listed by Sony, and pretty much everything is checked. Based on my testing, a wide gamut display covers 100% of the sRGB spectrum and 92% of the DCI-P3. Sony says it covers 95%, but my results are close enough to my satisfaction. My panel was also surprisingly accurate, with an average Delta-E (difference from true color) of 1.14. Less than 2 is ideal for color work, but the M9 is not a display for video or photography professionals.

Other results are simple for an IPS panel. In SDR, the M9 peaked at a peak brightness of 419 nits with a contrast ratio of 900:1. The higher 600 nits mark Sony quotes comes with local dimming and HDR turned on, and I measured a much higher 834 nits with VESA's DisplayHDR Test tool. It is super bright for an IPS panel, but remember that this test blasted 10,000 nits on the screen at once. It rarely gets this bright in use.

Local contrast will not satisfy you; this is an IPS panel with a weaker contrast compared to the VA options. The highlight is the HDR contrast. With HDR and local dimming turned on, I measured a contrast ratio of 5,180:1, outperforming even the best VA panels.

The specs and my testing have been checked, but my subjective experience with the M9 was far from perfect. My first review unit came with a few panel faults - no big deal, these things can happen to at least a few of any monitor - and Sony promptly sent another one.

The second unit did not come with flaws but showed clear vignetting. It's never been a problem when there's too much color on the screen from a game or movie, but it only distracted me when a web browser was open, as my eye would pop into the corner to double-check that my vision wasn't gone. My first unit came with some vignetting, though not as much as the second. I've reached out to Sony regarding both issues and will update this review when I hear about it.

I love the M9. As I'll review in the next two sections, it easily offers one of the best HDR and gaming experiences today. No question. However, issues with the panel are hard to overlook, especially when the two separate units each come with their issues.

HDR performance

The InZone M9 is certified with VESA's DisplayHDR 600 certification, which doesn't always deliver excellent HDR performance on monitors, as the Samsung Odyssey G7 demonstrates. It's not the DisplayHDR certification that matters for the M9. Full-Array Local Dimming (FALD).

Unlike the Odyssey G7 and LG's ever-popular 27GP950, which have dimming zones around the edges of the screen, the InZone M9 comes with dimming zones all over the screen. It only comes with 96 zones, which compares to eight zones on the Samsung monitor and 16 zones on the LG. These regions make a big difference. Unless you're looking for a QD-OLED panel like the Alienware 34 QD-OLED, you won't find a better HDR experience for under $1,000.

DT contributor Arif Bacchus spotted the M9 right next to LG's popular 27-inch monitor and was adamant: "I'm telling you, Sony is better."

I started with Destiny 2 to test HDR performance, which became my litmus test with its dazzling contrast. And it looked great. HDR monitors have been lagging behind TVs for a while, and the InZone M9 is finally raising the bar. Thanks to the 96 dimming zones, you get a much higher contrast in games like Destiny 2 without adjusting how bright individual monitor parts are.

HDR gaming is great, the best experience you can find for $900 on a PC (at this resolution at least). The PS5 is even better, thanks to automatic tone mapping. I've played some of the Tales of Arise and Returnal, which look great. Fairy tales shined with their watercolor-like art, as tone mapping and local dimming squeezed areas of hidden contrast that I never paid attention to.

Gaming Performance

Gaming is a treat on the M9, especially if you have a PC and PS5. Thanks to the deep integration the M9 has with Sony's hardware, I connected both and instantly switched between my machines. The console immediately picked up the M9 and optimized the PS5 display settings, and all I had to do was tickle the brightness slider to get a great picture. It is Sony's take advantage of the gaming ecosystem.

The monitor supports variable refresh rate (VRR) For basic gaming features and goes up to 144Hz. G-Sync Compatible, i.e., VRR works on Nvidia and AMD GPUs, and PS5 automatically turned on VRR in settings when I connected the monitor.

I've had the M9 as my primary gaming monitor for over a week, trying everything from Destiny 2 to Tale of Arise to Neon White - no matter what I was playing at the time. And this is wonderful. Even with HDR turned off, local dimming offers a nice bump, unlike some PC games, and the always-on HDR on the PS5 takes up local dimming nicely.

VRR support and a 144Hz refresh rate also push the M9 outside the Sony console (though you'll need one of the best graphics cards to sustain those frame rates in 4K). The only minor issue is some ghosting at high overdrive levels. The M9 allows you to reduce response time with overdrive, and there was some ghosting behind moving objects, as these settings typically did. It was not an issue, though, and the monitor defaults to turning off overclocking.

pricing

Price is the main factor where the M9 lives and dies, and Sony chooses to live. Its list price is $900, which will almost certainly throw the M9 into the go-to monitor for 4K gaming. The past few years have been dominated by two monitors at the same price - the 28-inch Samsung Odyssey G7 for $800 and the LG 27GP950 for $900 - and the M9 beat them by a point.

Finally, a step forward for gaming monitors. There are at least half a dozen other 28-inch 4K monitors with 144Hz refresh rates, but they're all about the same price, with only slight deviations in specs. Gigabyte M28U is cheaper and comes with a KVM switch, for example. M9 stands out with its 96-zone FALD.

My main question is how much the M9 will sell. From list price to list price, this is a great deal. But standard 4K monitor protection around this price is often on sale, in most cases for under $600. And in this case, better HDR performance doesn't seem to be worth the premium.

Could you take us?

Panel issues aside, you can't ignore the M9. No other monitor at this price does everything the M9 does. HDR is the big selling point, though. It's the best HDR monitor for gaming you can buy for under $1,000 right now, and even better if you can pair it with a PC and PS5. If HDR isn't your thing, tried-and-true options from Samsung and LG offer a similar experience (and often for less money).

Are there any alternatives?

Yes, there are several alternatives. The two main competitors are the LG 27GP950 and the Samsung Odyssey G7, which are about the same price when they're not on sale. They're nearly identical to the InZone M9, although they lack a full-array local dimming.

Meanwhile, the Alienware 34 QD-OLED offers an even better HDR experience, but you'll have to pay a lot more.

How long will it take?

Most IPS monitors will last at least a decade and often longer. Be wary of panel flaws, but the M9 should be no different.

Conclusion

Suppose you value HDR a lot, yes. No other monitor offers what the M9 does at this price. If you don't care about HDR, especially if you're strictly a PC gamer, the LG and Samsung alternatives offer better value overall.

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