LG - UltraGear 32” LED QHD 5-ms AMD FreeSync Premium with HDR 10 (DisplayPort, HDMI) - Black
Original price was: $299.99.$209.99Current price is: $209.99.
Sony – 27” INZONE M9 II 4K 160Hz 1ms GtG Full Array Local Dimming NVIDIA G-SYNC Gaming Monitor with HDR – Black
$799.99
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Description
Discover a more immersive gaming experience with deep blacks and higher brightness, through Full Array Local Dimming display. 4K resolution,* coupled with a 160Hz refresh rate and backlight scanning technology, delivers smooth detailed visuals to ensure every moment is accurately reproduced in stunning detail.
Papito79 –
Great quality outstanding visuals and performance easy navigation
GoJoe –
This replaced an older 4K 60hz 5 mil response monitor. With some minor tweaking the colors and blacks are simply amazing. Due to the particular game I play the FPS are limited, but I went from 60-61 fps on the old monitor to 90-91 fps. The color rendition makes my game simply awesome. The UHD is another big plus with a little tweek I can now see some detail in the shadow and dark areas, Before it was just simply black and if a foe fired in the dark area I could only shoot at the muzzle blast. Now I can pick up there movements and able to focus fire on them instead a muzzle flash.
The monitor is a good bit on the pricey side is its only flaw, IMO it should be in the $600 range instead of the $800.00. It has upped my game so I will continue to procrastinate about the price and at the same time marvel at the beauty of the game being played.
BarackObama –
The Sony INZONE M9 ll is one of Sony’s newest gaming monitors on the market. It is the successor to the semi-controversial M9 l. I am both a PS5 and PC gamer and honestly, this monitor looks wonderful on both. A PC can take advantage of this monitor’s many features compared to the PS5 but the M9 ll is the perfect monitor for the PS5 and does take the win here in my opinion. In this review, I will cover the pros and cons of the M9 ll from using both systems along with other items I found while using it.
*TLDR at the bottom
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IN THE BOX/SETUP:
Let’s start with what’s in the box. There is not a lot, but you get a well-packaged M9 ll, a bulky but not abnormally large power adapter and cable, a DisplayPort cable, an INZONE sticker, and some documentation. Can you spot what is missing? If you guessed an HDMI cable, you are correct! I know with the M9 l there were no display cables included but at the least with the M9 ll, they did include a DP cable. I am not a fan of this trend of manufacturers slowly taking away items that have been included before. (blame the smartphones) Regardless, I strongly think an HDMI cable should’ve been included at this price.
Setup is all plug-and-play if you want to get into a game quickly. But, if you are someone who enjoys tweaking a monitor’s settings until they are perfect, there are customizable monitor settings available. These settings can be accessed through the monitor itself (joystick on the back, right side) or if you are on a PC, the INZONE Hub app.
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
The monitor arrives with this paper strip stuck to the top of the monitor showing some of the key specs which is neat, but the strip did unfortunately leave some residue behind. Once that minor mess was cleaned up, I got a first look at the all-black M9 ll. There is a purple rubber cable management strap closer to the base. The base design is significantly better than what the M9 l had. With this base, I do get more desk space available for my peripherals as well as other items. Ports are hard to get to but fortunately, the M9 ll is flexible on how much it can rotate. The tilt of the M9 ll is also flexible and nice to have if the monitor needs to be mounted to an arm. If you are looking to set this monitor up vertically, unfortunately, this monitor cannot be placed in a vertical position. As for the bezels, they are thin enough to the point where you almost don’t notice them! Overall, I am happy with the design choices of the M9 ll.
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FEATURES:
Let’s start with some physical features. The monitor has an LED on the right side, next to the large power button. This LED can be turned on or off. Above the power button, there is a joystick that can be used to access the OSD menu for the monitor. This monitor also has integrated speakers which as one may have guessed, aren’t the best. The bass is terrible, and the sound is all muffled. But at least they are included. I remember a time when I didn’t have any available external speakers or headphones for my monitor, so it is nice to see at least some integrated speakers were included for those types of folk.
Let’s move on to more of the software. If you plan to use this on a PC, I highly recommend the INZONE Hub app. The app allows you to easily access and change the monitor’s settings rather than using the OSD menu. I wish more monitors would have this feature available as it is very convenient. The software will also let you know if your monitor is up to date with the latest firmware. If it is not, the update will need to be downloaded to a flash drive and then go from there. The monitor supports HDR which looks incredible when paired with the PS5. The 160Hz refresh rate is plenty if you plan to use this with a PS5 which supports up to 4k at 120Hz. For casual PC gamers who prioritize quality over performance, the 160Hz max refresh rate should be enough. The 1ms response time is also neat to have as it reduces ghosting which in my time using this monitor, did not see any of it. Finally, this monitor is NVIDIA G-SYNC compatible which was able to help me with smoother gameplay.
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PERFORMANCE:
I will start with the M9ll’s performance with my PC. As a side note, my PC is using an NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU. Also, to maximize performance, make sure to use a DP cable as well as go to display settings to set the refresh rate to the maximum possible setting. Mine defaulted to 60Hz and I was wondering why for the longest time my monitor was capped at that rate…
I was able to play a variety of games on this monitor from story-driven games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Control to racing games like Forza Horizon 5, and FPS like Destiny 2. All the games I played looked amazing and ran smoothly. But I did have to play around with the in-game settings for each game to optimize my gameplay. I am a quality-over-performance type of person but did attempt to get each game to max out the monitor’s refresh rate. The amount of FPS you are getting can be dependent on many factors, but I was able to maximize the monitor’s refresh rate on most of them at the cost of quality. For example, in Control I was able to hit 160FPS when I changed the resolution to 1080p and set graphics to a lower setting. I also attempted to find the middle ground where I can have the best quality at a decent frame rate which I was able to do. During this time, I was able to truly see the 4k quality of the games I was playing as well as some minor issues. Let’s start with the blacks, blacks look great and not washed out. This was prevalent in Control, which has a lot of dark areas. On the other hand, it seems the monitor struggles with some bright scenes as some of the light in those scenes looks blotched. This was common in TR. Finally, while HDR was on, I felt that the monitor wasn’t able to truly display the true colors of some of the games I was playing. Some colors looked slightly washed out. Finally, as I was playing, my monitor did start to flicker every couple of minutes or so, which wasn’t the case with my previous LG monitor. I had to play around with some settings but was able to get it to stop when I turned off Adaptive Sync in the monitor’s settings which was strange. I know the M9 l had this issue, but I do hope it’s a minor bug or a one-time issue. I am nitpicking minor things here but overall; this monitor works great with PC but a LOT of tweaking will be needed to get games to run to your liking.
As for the PS5’s performance and setup with this monitor, it is mostly plug-and-play with some slight tweaks in the settings. Once that’s done, the monitor is ready! I played several games on the PS5 as well. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was one of my favorites that I played as the monitor brought out the broad color gamut the display has to offer and the Auto HDR truly did its wonders with this game. The details of the characters stood out and clarity in this game was amazing! Some PS5 games like Ratchet and Clank do not support the higher frame rates so for most of the time I was playing on the highest possible graphic settings (fidelity mode) which did cap my FPS to a lower frame rate which was noticeable but didn’t mind as I enjoy the eye candy graphics that some PS5 games can do. One minor issue I did have with both systems is even though the M9 ll is an IPS display, viewing the display from a slightly different angle will “gray” out your image which is unfortunate since IPS displays are known for better viewing angles.
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CONCLUSION/TLDR:
Overall, this is a solid gaming monitor for both the PS5 and PC. However, from experience these past couple of days, I think the PS5 takes better advantage of this monitor compared to a PC. There are a lot of factors that come into play when pairing a PC with a monitor of this caliber but as of now, I have enjoyed how the PS5 and the M9 ll pair up compared to my PC. As someone who prioritizes quality over performance, the PS5 was able to take advantage of HDR, and the large color gamut that the monitor allows. I also had issues with brighter scenes on the PC compared to the PS5. With all this in mind, if you are looking for a solid gaming monitor for the PS5, I highly recommend you give this one a shot. If you are searching for a monitor for a PC, this monitor is fine if it falls within your budget, but I recommend looking at OLED monitors (like the M10S) with high refresh rates which can be at the pricier end but will provide a better overall experience for you.
Minh –
My Inzone M9 II had issues such as dirt behind the screen and constant flickering.
Sony has poor quality and it reflects with its 1-year warranty.
Prime –
This monitor is awesome the redesign stand is so much better and love the back matte color unfortunately mine just came in and it has a piece of dust in between the screen so I will have to return but if you get one with a good panel it’s awesome
JustBeingHonest –
The first thing that caught my attention was the sturdy and efficient stand to mount the monitor on. It was so easy to assemble and, once mounted on the stand, the monitor height is adjusted simply by pushing up or down on the monitor.
The monitor itself is light weight, and a little bit thick. The cables conveniently plug to the bottom, so no worries about cables sticking out the back.
The monitor comes with built in speakers, which connect via HDMI or DisplayPort.
While I tested this monitor with my laptop, I can see the built-in speakers being useful to connect a PS5 or any other game system. The speakers are typical of what you could expect from monitor audio, no bass and not super loud. That said, the volume was satisfactory.
Regarding the customization, the built in menu allows for many features. One of my favorites was the built in selectable cross crosshairs. I was using it for fortnite to practice no-scoping. When enabled, the monitor crosshairs stay on always so that, at all times, you know exactly what you’re aiming at. Works with any FPS game.
Picture quality was fantastic. 4k was sharp, colors were bright and fluid, and black color was very dark, creating a great contrast.
The motion blur reduction function worked well for me in testing moving objects, and I saw a noticeable improvement.
I would recommend this monitor for gaming!
BernardSC –
While this monitor does have a few things that are nitpicks, overall this is a beautiful display and my review is borderline late from being turned in because I have been Gaming MORE since I got this monitor. It is THAT good. I can’t take myself away from it and it is by far and away the most gorgeous display that I have in the entire house, including my 4K HDTVs, for gaming, watching videos and general computer work. This monitor is like a “jack of all” and it does everything I need it for Very, Very Well. I have my work laptop and my gaming PC now both running on one display and the display is HUGE AND PRETTY! This monitor can easily handle everyday PC work and general tasking but at the same time can get down and put out some really crispy and on point gaming graphics. I didn’t even know my games could look this good or what I was missing until I hooked my gaming PC to this monitor. I had been running a 144Hz, HD display with it but it is smaller and this display when side by side with the other one make the other one look like junk….even if they are running the same specs/speeds.
The one thing I do wish it had was a powered USB or USB C port for connecting and charging devices while sitting in front of it. Not a deal breaker but I am under the assumption that previous generations of this monitor did have that ability.
This monitor has got tricks! Like a built-in gaming crosshair in both red and green and 3 versions of each! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this feature!!! It lines up perfectly with in-game crosshairs and on games that have ones that are hard to see and do not allow for a color change without running sideloaded software; this monitor solves all of that with these crosshairs. Have I mentioned how much I love the crosshairs? It has an on screen rame rate counter, 24.5 inch mode, motion blur reduction, black eq, response time filters, VRR, a timer. Even the on screen display has adjustments to transparency and how long before it times out. Tons of presets and everything is customizable through the picture menu so I can get the perfect color and contrast and the perfect brightness and settings for no matter what I am doing while sitting in front of it. This monitor can do it all and it is probably capable of doing more than what I have even discovered so far.
I am not going to go into the specs and all that because that can be found by reading the product info. I can just give my experience with the unit and I can honestly and truly tell y’all that in my over four decades on this planet that this is the nicest display that I have ever personally owned and have been able to have at my disposal. I thought I had some nice displays until this one came out of the box and got set up. Speaking of that…I LOVE the way this screen’s stand rotates on the bass and the support arm allows it to be raised and lowered AND swiveled so I can get the perfect angle no matter how fidgety I am and no matter where I move, it moves with me. It is really simple to adjust, so much, that I routinely reposition it in the middle of gameplay while in a match as I move around to get more comfortable. I love the joystick control on the rear and how they laid out access to volume, presets, brightness, input sources and the access to the complete menu of settings. All stuff that is super useful and at my fingertips when I need it without having to dig through complicated menus. They did a very good job with the control portion of this also…is what I am saying.
I actually like the little purple band that is used for cable management and I wasn’t thrilled about it when I originally was considering this monitor. Once it arrived, and I could see it and work with it, well….now I like it and I’m NOT a fan of purple…but it looks kind of cool.
Overall, my complete experience and screen time with this display has been truly awesome and really enjoyable. I have not enjoyed sitting in front of a screen like I have with this one ever in my life. I have even rearranged the house and moved my gaming stuff around so it is on this display and I CHOOSE to sit in front of this display to game rather than lay in bed in and game on my 4K 65 inch like it was. So THAT should say something. If I could figure out how to mount this over my pillows that would be ideal but that is pushing it for me haha.
Out of the many reviews I do this has to be one of the easiest to recommend and the most fun I have had with something I have tested and reviewed. If you are looking for your first gaming setup but also do regular work on a laptop or PC and want one monitor to rule them all then this should be on your short list of serious considerations. OH…and it doesn’t run hot either!!!!! The refresh rates and resolution are sublime and while there are monitors out there that do better contrast or better this or better that…personally, I would still get this one because it is SO good at EVERYTHING and 160Hz is “top shelf” stuff as far as I’m concerned. This one is a winner winner chicken dinner and I would easily push people toward it that ask me about a gaming monitor. If you want a spectacular display for gaming, movies or just surfing then this one has something to fit your needs and to be honest…has more than most need, which is nice to have. I love it!