Sony reveals INZONE esports brand with new line of gaming headsets & monitors
SonySony has officially revealed its esports-focused PC gaming brand: INZONE, with the M3 and M9 gaming monitors, in addition to the H3, H7 and H9 gaming headsets.
Following a handful of leaks, Sony has officially announced a brand-new PC gaming brand named INZONE. They hope to make a splash in the gaming tech and esports market with a line of gaming headsets and monitors. Sony has an extremely good track record with regards to making its own displays and audio technology, so we’re hoping to see this mantra carried through to the INZONE brand.
The Sony INZONE brand is also reaching out to make a splash across the esports industry, too. Sony’s Head of Game Business and Marketing office Yukihiro Kitajima stated that Sony is “Proud to have a sponsorship with leading global esports leagues, Evolution Championship Series (Evo) 2022 and 2023, PGL DOTA2 Arlington Major 2022 and the VALORANT Champions Tour”
The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known for showcasing fighting games such as Street Fighter is already owned by Sony, so it makes sense to seed them there, as well as the other named esports tournaments. Grassroots marketing is one of the best ways to promote a new line, and with Sony’s deep pockets, they seem to have been able to support a good number of events.
Sony INZONE gaming headsets: H3, H7 & H9
The Sony INZONE gaming headsets all offer a similarly-styled white and black design with heaps of rounded edges. In terms of features, Sony mentions that they will be leveraging technology from Sony’s lauded 1000x line of headphones, with particular care to acoustic designs optimized for gaming. However, the 360 spatial audio feature is limited to PC, though it does offer a personalizer within the INZONE Hub software for a more tuned experience. Sony claims that its spatial audio solution will beat out competitors, due to offering a wider soundstage.
All of the headsets look to strike at the heart of the gaming headset market, with Sony offering up some incredibly premium features that we’d love to see more in some gaming headsets.
Sony INZONE H3: Release date, price, key specs
The Sony INZONE H3 appears to be the most basic of the bunch, sporting a wired-only connection, but still sports the premium look and feel of its bigger brothers. Having the spatial audio features here to bolster the features of the headset is very nice, and Sony also has a 3.5mm USB adapter in the box for processing it all.
Key Specs:
- Wired via 3.5mm jack & USB-A
- 360-degree spatial audio (PC only)
- Nylon earcups
- Discord certified
- Bidirectional flip-up boom microphone
- INZONE Hub Software
- Release date: July 2022
- Price: £89
Sony INZONE H7: Release date, price, key specs
The next step up is the Sony INZONE H7, which bring many more features to the table, including dial-wireless functionality via a dongle and Bluetooth. This headset also features everything from the H3, in addition to an inline mixer for game and chat audio. Sony also boasts that the H7 will also have a 40-hour battery life via USB-C, and with just 10 minutes of charging, you’ll be getting at least an hour of playtime. This is extremely impressive. But, it’s something that we’ll have to test out once the headset is finally released.
Key Specs:
- Wireless (Dongle & Bluetooth)
- USB-C fast charging
- 40 hour battery life
- 360-degree spatial audio (PC only)
- Nylon earcups
- Discord certified
- Bidirectional flip-up boom microphone
- Chat mixer
- INZONE Hub Software
- Release date: July 2022
- Price: £199
Sony INZONE H9: Release date, price, key specs
The flagship Sony INZONE headset boasts all of the features of the previous models, in addition to 32-hour battery life, some swanky LEDs and a noise-cancelling feature developed from Sony’s famous flagship 1000x line of headsets. This means that you’re going to be getting both an ambient and noise-cancelling mode. With ‘dual nose sensor technology’, the headset is able to listen to your surrounding and block out the noise around you accordingly. As a staunch fan of Sony’s noise-cancelling headsets, we’re eagerly awaiting the H9, since it might be a game-changer for the current gaming headset market.
Key Specs:
- Active noise cancelling
- USB-C fast charging
- 32 hour battery life (With noise cancelling off)
- Wireless ( Dongle & Bluetooth)
- 360-degree spatial audio (PC only)
- Synthetic leather earcups
- Discord certified
- Bidirectional flip-up boom microphone
- Chat mixer
- INZONE Hub Software
- Release date: July 2022
- Price: £269
Sony INZONE gaming monitors: M3 & M9
Sony isn’t simply stopping there, as the company is also looking to expand into the PC gaming components market with two of their 27-inch INZONE gaming monitors, the M3 and M9 respectively. Considering Sony’s expertise in making TV panels, we’re expecting their Inzone gaming monitors to be something a little bit special, and from the specs provided to us from Sony about them, they are shaping up nicely.
Both monitors sport the same black and white colorway we’re used to from modern Sony products, and also feature an adjustable three-pronged stand with built-in cable management. Boasting blistering 1ms gray-to-gray (GTG) latency, and up to 240Hz refresh rates, you can also expect high-end features such as HDR and PS5-specific HDR tone-mapping for use with their console.
The monitors also boast a fully-featured OSD menu which allows for a framerate counter, timer, crosshair, FPS mode and Black Equalizer mode, which turns up the shadows on the image to see your enemies a little bit better. One of the most impressive features of the monitors is the built-in KVM switch, which allows you to connect peripherals directly to the monitor, and have them switch devices as you switch the input source.
Sony INZONE M3 gaming monitor: Release date, key specs
The Sony M3 gaming monitor may be the more basic of the two gaming monitors from Sony, but it certainly isn’t entry-level by any means. Boasting a 1080p, 240Hz screen, this monitor is clearly geared towards high-end esports, and also has oodles of connectivity, including USB-C with a DP alternate mode, which will allow you to saturate the monitor’s panel up to 144Hz. It’s an incredibly capable panel, and with almost every feature ticked, including G-Sync and HDMI 2.1, it’s definitely not going to do you any wrong if you’re thinking of picking it up. Sony has not currently confirmed any pricing details at the time of writing, but it’s likely to be a more premium panel.
Key specs:
- Screen size: 27-inches
- Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 (1080p)
- Refresh rate: Up to 240Hz
- Latency: 1ms GTG
- Screen surface: Anti-glare
- Speakers: 2 (2w)
- Mount: VESA 100mm x 100mm
- HDR: DisplayHDR400
- Features: sRGB 99% color accuracy, G-Sync compatible, Low blue light Rheinland Certified, Flicker-free Rheinland certified, rear lighting, INZONE hub software, adjustable stand
- Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 x2, DisplayPort 1.4 x1, USB-C x1 (With DisplayPort mode), USB-B x1, USB-A x3, 3.5mm audio x1
- Release date: Winter 2022
- Price: TBC
Sony INZONE M9 gaming monitor: Release date, price, key specs
The Sony M9 is the flagship gaming monitor of the newly-minted INZONE gaming brand, and it shows, with an impressive 4k, 144Hz panel, you’re going to struggle to find many systems that can actually push that many frames at that resolution in many modern titles. It will also be great for those looking to use it for esports, since the panel will have exceptional quality thanks to its 95% DCI-P3 color reproduction. The M9 also comes equipped with full-array local dimming, which allows for further brightness and contrast in comparison to other panels.
Key specs:
- Screen size: 27-inches
- Screen resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K / 2160p)
- Refresh rate: Up to 144Hz
- Latency: 1ms GTG
- Screen surface: Anti-glare
- Speakers: 2 (2w)
- Mount: VESA 100mm x 100mm
- HDR: DisplayHDR600
- Features: 95% DCI-P3 color accuracy, G-Sync compatible, Low blue light Rheinland Certified, Flicker-free Rheinland certified, rear lighting, INZONE hub software, adjustable stand
- Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 x2, DisplayPort 1.4 x1, USB-C x1 (With DisplayPort mode), USB-B x1, USB-A x3, 3.5mm audio x1
- Release date: Summer 2022
- Price: £999
