Sony's InZone M10S OLED gaming monitor is fast, but it's out of place

Update: Sony clarified that its one-year warranty covers wear and tear.

Just as 27-inch 1440p OLED gaming monitors are gaining popularity among more PC gamers thanks to a steady reduction in price, Sony is throwing a curveball with its first OLED monitor, the $1,099.99 InZone M10S. The M10S retains the unmatched contrast and stellar image quality that OLED is known for, but instead of joining the ranks with the commonly used 240Hz refresh rate, it's raising the bar with 480Hz.

The higher refresh rate is the distinguishing feature of the M10S hardware and is a big selling point if you're a competitive PC gamer who wants cutting-edge technology to improve your performance. (The 0.03 millisecond response time, by contrast, is more in line with current industry standards for OLED monitors.) Coupled with a fast enough GPU, the M10S can run a number of online multiplayer games, including Counterattack 2, fortnite, supervision 2, valorantAnd more with a resolution of 1440p and up to 480 frames per second. This may seem like overkill, or perhaps intangibly fast, but it's a worthwhile upgrade for people who play these games at a competitive level. The M10S is one of two monitors that support 480Hz at 1440p, the other being a $999 Asus monitor.

I spent some time testing the 480Hz mode with my Windows PC playing Counterattack 2. The game instantly set the refresh rate to 480Hz, although even with all settings disabled, my Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti-powered machine struggled to maintain a consistent 290 frames per second at 1440p resolution. It was a pleasant experience though, although I personally didn't notice a major difference at 480Hz compared to 240Hz.

The value of the M10S's fast refresh rate and response time is pretty obvious for professionals, but it's questionable for casual gamers who don't have a powerful gaming PC or a passion for competitive gaming. Even for those who are Well equipped, a large number of games do not support such a fast refresh rate. To be more precise, if you don't spend most of your time pushing its refresh rate to its maximum, then you won't see a major difference between the M10S and a more moderately priced OLED gaming monitor.

I love playing horror games on the M10S, even if they aren't fast, high refresh rate titles that take full advantage of its features. I have intended to overcome the Separate paths DLC for the Resident Evil 4 remake as well as the dead space remake, and those are just the types of games the M10S and other OLEDs do best. With HDR enabled, dark scenes in games look bold and appropriately disturbing. And since Halloween is approaching, I also played the silent hill 2 remake after connecting the M10S to my PS5. For PS5 and Xbox Series The M10S doesn't have built-in speakers, but that's not a disadvantage for me; I prefer to listen to game audio through my headphones anyway.

Sony co-developed the M10S with gaming professionals Fnatic to make it the preferred choice among esports athletes. The hope is that more of them will value OLED's unique combination of speed, excellent viewing angles and pixel-perfect color accuracy compared to TN LCD panels. TN panels are the fastest out there, with a maximum refresh rate of 540Hz but with worse overall image quality. To that end, Sony came up with some clever ways to appeal to its target audience of competitive gamers, including the ability to shrink the M10S' screen down to 24.5 inches, a size popular with professionals, with black bars around its sides. And, for those making the transition to OLED, Sony's monitor features the FPS Pro visual setting, which ironically alters the look and feel of the OLED to mimic the TN panel you might be used to, but without the extra response time that comes with it. comes with the games. in one. These features don't mean much to me, but I imagine they are important to some players.

Outside of the product itself, I was concerned about the M10S's one-year warranty, which according to YouTube channel BadSeed Tech's review made no mention of burn protection. However, Sony confirmed to Polygon that panel wear and tear is, and always has been, covered as part of its one-year warranty. The company now mentions it in the monitor's FAQ in the “Troubleshooting” section.

If you're a casual gamer, I've already noted that I think you should opt for a less expensive OLED gaming monitor, many of which come close enough to the M10S's specs. Heck, you can find OLED monitors up to 39 inches in size for under $1,000. After reviewing Sony's first gaming monitor of 2022, I said it was good, but not good enough for the price. Unless you're a pro who takes full advantage of the M10S's 480Hz refresh rate, I unfortunately feel the same way about the M10S. It'll be easier to recommend at a lower price, but I'm more comfortable directing competitive gamers to the competing Asus 480Hz 1440p monitor that has a 3-year warranty that protects against wear and tear (compared to the year of Sony). coverage), or save even more with a 240Hz monitor.