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

The design of the Sony Inzone 27M3 is widely recognized by its white and black stand, which clearly recalls the PlayStation 5. The screen itself remains quite classic and quite sober for a model playing. Sony, for example, ignores RGB LEDs.

This monitor is provided with a medium-sized external power supply that should be placed under the desk: it is larger than the integrated power supply, but it is easier to change in case of a problem.

This monitor offers a height adjustment of only 7 cm and a tilt between 0° and +20°. The height adjustment is quite original. It is not completely vertical, as the monitor slides forward when down and backwards when in the up position. It does not offer left and right rotation or pivot for switching to portrait orientation.

The back of the chassis is made of a granular 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 mounting when 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) which is very useful for use on the latest generation console (PS5 or Xbox Series S/X), a DisplayPort 1.4 input, one 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 exceptional, but it helps at least for system sounds and for watching short videos. The USB-C port is unfortunately disabled and therefore cannot charge a laptop for example. Instead, the monitor includes a keyboard/mouse switch, also called a KVM. Just connect its keyboard and mouse to the monitor and assign one source to the USB-C switch and another to the USB 3.0 Type-B port. Controls are thus returned to one or the other of the connected computers.

The clickable joystick is the most satisfying way to navigate through the settings. Simply press the cursor to display the main menu then move it to the right to confirm options and to the left to return. It is possible to change the source, mode (preset) and access settings (brightness, contrast, sharpness, overdrive, temperature, etc.). Settings for gamers are also included, such as the ability to display a pattern, FPS counter (pictures per second) or timer. Menus are readable and navigation is quick. 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 prevent mishandling. A good point.

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

Out of the box, the Inzone M3 SDM-F27M30 is configured in “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 throughout the spectrum and resides at the reference value (2.2). The colors can even be considered faithful to those sent by the source thanks to an average Delta E measured at 3 – threshold below which the eye no longer recognizes drifts. Switching to standard mode saves life because the average Delta E drops to 1.7 and the average temperature measured at 6470 K is almost exactly set to the reference value. Under these conditions, there is no need to calibrate the monitor with a probe. Colorimetry is already perfect in this mode.

The native contrast of 11130:1 is slightly lower than that measured on the Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ and the AOC 27G2U, in both cases higher than 1200:1. Therefore, this contrast is normal for an IPS panel, without being bad. In any case, this monitor remains far from the contrast raised by the best VA monitors on the market, such as Huawei MateView GT 34 and AOC Q27G2E whose contrast ratio exceeds 4000:1. Dark scenes and solid blacks appear gray, especially in a dark room. However, this does not pose a problem during daytime use.

The average difference in white homogeneity is 7% on the 27-inch panel. Thus there is no variation in the light seen by the eye. We didn’t notice any light leakage around the corners or anything cloudy (“cloud effect”) in our test model. IPS technology also offers excellent viewing angles, with very little variation across 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 sends 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 works 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, especially 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 also opt for higher performance in certain games. In all cases, fluidity is present and the image does not suffer from tearing problems (torn) or jerks (micro stuttering).

This monitor does not offer a black image input system to improve sharpness by tricking retinal persistence; a feature that is still available on some competing monitors such as the Asus TUF VG279QM.

We measured the afterglow time at 4.5 ms with overdrive (“Response time” in French on the OSD) set to “Fast”. This value limits the ghost (“ghosting effect”) while avoiding the effect of reverse ghosting which appears noticeably in 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 Hz that flickers at 3 ms are better, but the IPS panel is more comfortable due to better viewing angles and greater contrast. Of course, Oled (and QD-Oled) technology with zero afterglow time is at the forefront, but it is still rare in monitors. We measured 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 effect on the screen.