Test What is the Sony Inzone M3 monitor worth with its 27-inch Full HD 240 Hz IPS panel?

The design of the Sony Inzone 27M3 is widely recognizable by its white and black stand, which obviously recalls that of the PlayStation 5. The screen itself remains fairly classic and rather sober for a model gaming. Sony, for example, ignores RGB LEDs.

This monitor is supplied with a medium-sized external power supply that must be placed under the desk: it is more bulky than an integrated power supply, but it is also easier to change in the event of a problem.

This monitor offers height adjustment of only 7 cm and tilt between 0° and +20°. The height adjustment is quite original. It is not completely vertical, since the monitor slides forward when descending and backward when in the high position. It doesn’t offer left and right rotation or a pivot for switching to portrait orientation.

The back of the chassis is made of grainy matte white plastic very similar to that used on the PlayStation 5. The connectors are oriented downwards. The screen is compatible with VESA 100 x 100 mm mountings once the stand is removed. The foot features an efficient cable management system.

The connection consists of two HDMI 2.1 inputs compatible with VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) very useful for use with a latest generation console (PS5 or Xbox Series S/X), a DisplayPort 1.4 input , a video-only USB-C port, three USB 3.0 ports with keyboard/mouse switch, and headphone output. It also has two 2 W speakers, far from being exceptional, but which help out even for system sounds and for watching short videos. The USB-C port is unfortunately not powered and therefore cannot charge a laptop for example. In return, the monitor incorporates a keyboard / mouse switch, also called KVM. Simply connect the keyboard and its mouse to the monitor and assign one source to the USB-C switch and another to the USB 3.0 Type-B port. The controls will thus be sent back to one or the other of the connected computers.

The clickable joystick is the most enjoyable way to navigate the settings. Simply press the cursor to display the main menu then move it to the right to validate the choices and to the left to go back. It is possible to change source, mode (presets) and access settings (brightness, contrast, sharpness, overdrive, temperature, etc.). Settings for players are also included, such as the ability to display a pattern, an FPS counter (images per second) or a timer. The menus are readable and navigation is done quickly. Without entering the menu, it is possible to directly adjust the brightness (up/down) or the volume (left/right). Sony also uses a separate power button to avoid mishandling. A good point.

On our 120 x 80 cm desk, the 27-inch Sony Inzone monitor is logically very comfortable. The depth of the foot limited to 24.8 cm allows enough space for the keyboard and mouse. The Full HD definition of 1920 x 1080 px is good for games, especially at 280 Hz – the maximum frequency achievable, and which already requires a powerful graphics card. For other tasks, such as office automation or even browsing the Internet, Full HD remains quite limited, especially in terms of workspace.

Out of the box, the Inzone M3 SDM-F27M30 is configured on the “Game 1” preset mode which is not the most faithful. If the temperature curve is stable, the average measured at 7920 K is quite far from the reference 6500 K. On the other hand, the gamma curve is stable over the entire spectrum and settles on the reference value (2.2). The colors can even be considered as faithful to those sent by the source thanks to an average Delta E measured at 3 – threshold below which the eye no longer distinguishes drifts. Switching to standard mode is life-saving since the average Delta E then drops to 1.7 and the average temperature measured at 6470 K is set almost exactly on the reference value. Under these conditions, there is no need to calibrate the monitor with a probe. The colorimetry is already perfect in this mode.

The native contrast of 11130:1 is a little lower than that measured on the Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ and the AOC 27G2U, in both cases higher than 1200:1. This contrast is therefore average for an IPS panel, without being bad. In any case, this monitor remains far from the contrast raised on the best VA monitors on the market, such as the Huawei MateView GT 34 and AOC Q27G2E whose contrast ratio exceeds 4000:1. Darker scenes and solid blacks appear greyish, especially in a dark room. However, this poses no problem during daytime use.

The average difference in white homogeneity is 7% on the 27-inch panel. There is thus no variation in brightness perceptible to the eye. We did not notice any light leaks around the corners or any clouding (“cloud effect”) on our test model. The IPS technology also offers very good viewing angles, with very little variation in the angles.

The Sony Inzone M3 does not use pulse width modulation (PWM,”Pulse Width Modulation“) to adjust the brightness, so it’s flicker-free and headache-free for those sensitive to flicker.

This monitor manages FreeSync and G-Sync between 48 and 240 Hz and therefore works best when the graphics card is sending between 48 and 240 frames per second. It also supports LFC which quadruples, triples or doubles the number of frames displayed to maintain a smooth feel. At 20 frames per second, for example, the monitor operates at 80Hz and quadruples the number of frames. At 30 frames, it operates at 90 Hz. It does not use CFL between 53 and 280 Hz. The supported range is therefore very wide and covers all uses. To take full advantage of this monitor, you need a powerful graphics card, in particular to be able to display 240 frames per second in Full HD. A graphics card like the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti seems minimal; you can even opt for higher performance with certain games. In all cases, the fluidity is there and the image does not suffer from tearing problems (tearing) or jerks (micro-stuttering).

This monitor does not offer a black image insertion system to improve sharpness by deceiving retinal persistence; a feature yet available in some competing monitors such as the Asus TUF VG279QM.

We measured the afterglow time at 4.5 ms with the overdrive (“Response time” in French in the OSD) set to “Fast”. This value limits the ghosting (“ghosting effect”) while avoiding the effect of reverse ghosting which appears very noticeably with the “Faster” setting. Like the Asus TUF VG279QM, the Sony Inzone 27M3 is one of the most responsive IPS displays on the market. Only models equipped with a TN panel such as the Alienware AW2518HF 240&nbsp Hz flashed at 3 ms do better, but the IPS panel is much more comfortable thanks to better viewing angles and greater contrast. Of course, Oled (and QD-Oled) technology with its zero afterglow time is far ahead, but it is still rare on monitors. We measured the display delay (input lag) at 12.6 ms (at 60 Hz). This is a very good value that causes no lag between the mouse action and its impact on the screen.