Sony INZONE M10S review

Eleven hundred dollars for a 1440p panel? Eleven hundred? Dollars? Really? Yes, really. Introducing the Sony INZONE M10S, Sony’s entry into the crowded 27-inch OLED gaming display segment.

In typical Sony style, this monitor takes advantage of stratospheric market positioning thanks to the same LG 480Hz WOLED panel as the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDP. This is LG’s latest OLED technology with Micro Lens Array enhancement. So it’s only as powerful as it delivers full-screen SDR brightness of 275 nits and HDR up to 1,300 nits in a diminutive window.

It is also faster and even more high-priced than the 27-inch Alienware AW2725DF 360 Hz that we recently wrote about. The rest of the specifications are what you would expect from a cutting-edge OLED gaming screen. For example, the color coverage is 98.5% DCI-P3. Then there is the pixel response. Its duration is a ridiculously elusive, although currently known for this class of display, 0.03 ms.

Combined with the turbocharged 480Hz refresh rate, you have the makings of a quite snappy gaming display. This, of course, is the whole point of the Sony INZONE M10S. The Sony M10S, the newest member of the INZONE line of “elite gaming hardware”, was developed in collaboration with professional Valorant and Apex Legends players from the Fnatic esports team, with optimal online shooter performance being the number one priority.

This also applies to the “tournament-compatible” 24.5-inch mode, which runs at native 1332p resolution. Basically, black bars appear around the smaller lively area of ​​the 24.5-inch panel. Honestly, it’s unlikely you’d want to apply it outside of a tournament. Even then, sedate tournaments usually provide standard screens that all participants must apply. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have the option.

Apart from speed, the other main advantages of the Sony INZONE M10S are its design and engineering. The aesthetic is overall elegant and minimalist. Build quality is also great, apart from the very slightly curved outer screen frame. But it was the impossibly diminutive stand base that recently caught our Andy’s attention.

Looking at it, you might think that the most common move would be to tip the Sony INZONE M10S over on its small, round base. But it’s actually very stable. A possible caveat is that it probably won’t work as well on anything other than a very demanding, flat surface. But that’s most desks, right?

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The stand also allows for tilt, height, and swivel adjustments, but does not allow for vertical rotation or even partial swivel adjustments. It’s a pity about the latter, because our unit sat quite unevenly, and the possibility of trimming it is always welcome.

In terms of connectivity, you get a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB-A hub, but no USB-C connection at all, which is really very limited considering the price. Sure, USB-C doesn’t provide enough power for a powerful gaming laptop. Therefore, this version of single-cable connectivity is not very popular. However, some users may want to connect both a gaming desktop and a general-purpose laptop to this display, where USB-C would be very useful.

That said, the eye-catching connectivity metric is certainly DisplayPort 2.1 support. Not many displays support DP 2.1. Equally significant, only the latest AMD Radeon RX 7000 GPUs support DP 2.1, which means no Nvidia GPUs are currently compatible.

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However, the Sony INZONE M10S only supports the base UHBR10 DP 2.1 specification, which translates to a peak throughput of 40Gbps and a usable throughput of 38.69Gbps. This is well below the 80 Gbps and 77.37 Gbps of the top UHBR20 DP 2.1 specification.

Yes, DisplayPort now competes with USB for surprising throughput specifications. The meaning of all this is that with the basic DP 2.1 specification you get more bandwidth than DP 1.4, but you still need to compress the image stream or DSC to achieve the full 480 Hz. This will annoy the very, very diminutive number of people for whom DSC is a technical disadvantage. For our money it’s ok. DSC is visually lossless and does not add latency. But for clarity, it is used here.

Speaking of recording, what is our overall impression of this screen? Well, it has a matte anti-reflective coating, which is probably fine for e-sports duties, but probably does the least to dampen the eye-searing sizzle of HDR.

But above all, this WOLED miracle is simply super brisk. Even navigating application windows on the desktop feels and looks absurdly silky. In the game? Counter-Strike 2 is my favorite multiplayer mayhem, and if I’ve seen it in a sharper, clearer version with less lag, I can’t remember when.

In other words, when it comes to pixel response and latency, the Sony INZONE M10S must represent something of an endgame, a point beyond which the gains decline to zero.

A professional player may have something to say about this. But is this the type of show that sedate e-sports fans would choose? Or maybe they would default to a 24-inch TN panel with an even higher refresh rate? And if the latter, who can justify the nosebleed price of this 1440p monitor?

This is really a problem. As an all-in-one gaming monitor, let alone an all-in-one work-and-play panel, does a 1440p model for over $1,000 make sense? Note that the up-to-date LG UltraGear 32GS95UE, a 32-inch 4K 240Hz WOLED model with 480Hz 1080p alternate mode, can be purchased for exactly the same money.

Perhaps you’d prefer a 49-inch ultrawide OLED with a 5120-by-1440 resolution for a total of $200 less in the Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ. Or really any of the many other options that seem like a much better value proposition, like the MSI 34-inch 21:9 model for over $400 cheaper. Ouch.

You can check out the rest of the alternatives on our gaming monitor deals page, but this Sony is a real demanding sell. So probably how it works outside of games seems almost academic. But the calibration in sRGB mode is really handsome, with plenty of pop, provided you turn off the automatic brightness limiter.

HDR content is also positively surprising, although the SDR color calibration in HDR mode is clearly oversaturated. This means you actually have to manually switch SDR or HDR mode depending on the content type. Pity. And of course, the 27-inch 1440p’s base spec means pixel density, visual sharpness, font rendering, and desktop space are all distinctly ordinary.

All this means that the Sony INZONE M10S is an absolutely stunning example of the 27-inch 1440p gaming monitor family. If you want a 27-inch 1440p panel at all costs, and above all other alternatives, this Sony should be at the top of your shortlist. However, if you want the best overall gaming experience you can get for over $1,000, there are much flashier and more versatile options available.