Sony INZONE M10S  Monitor Review

The Sony M10S has a minimalist design with a compact, round stand. While the panel itself is thin, the cooling area at the back of the monitor is fairly thick. It fits in well to either a gaming or office environment.

The build quality is excellent. The textured plastic on the back of the monitor is fairly firm. Additionally, the height and tilt adjustment are solid, so the monitor stays in place well but doesn't require too much effort to adjust.

The ergonomics are great. While it offers a wide range of adjustments other than rotation, its standout feature is its ability to swivel to any angle thanks to its weighted circular base. This makes it easy to connect cables to the monitor by swiveling it completely around. The stand also has a cutout for cable management.

The base is small for the size of the monitor, but it's weighted, so the monitor doesn't wobble very much and is fairly steady.

The joystick control and the power button are located at the back of the monitor.

• DisplayPort 2.1 cable
• Power cord
• Power supply
• User guides
• Stickers

The Sony M10S has a near-infinite contrast ratio to display perfect blacks next to bright highlights.

The Sony M10S doesn't have a backlight, so it doesn't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

Settings

• Picture Mode: sRGB (after calibration)
• Brightness: 100
• Saturation: Standard
• Brightness Stabilizer: Off

The SDR brightness is okay. It's bright enough for rooms with a decent amount of ambient light, but you may struggle to properly see the screen if you have it opposite a sunny window. Despite the brightness measuring as expected with our testing equipment, the monitor appeared dimmer than usual for a given brightness output level.

If you prefer more consistent brightness across different content, you can set Brightness Stabilizer to either 'Mid' or 'High.' Additionally, setting Peak Brightness to 'FPS Pro' increases the brightness of some scenes, but negatively affects color accuracy. You can see how these modes affect brightness levels in more detail below:

Settings

• Picture Mode: Game
• Brightness: 100
• Brightness Stabilizer: Locked

The HDR brightness is decent. It gets bright enough to fight glare in most well-lit rooms, and it also makes small highlights pop against the rest of the image. However, it doesn't sustain the brightness with larger highlights. It follows the PQ EOTF curve well, though it has a slow roll-off near peak brightness, so highlights don't get as bright as they could.

The 'DisplayHDR' Picture Mode isn't as bright, as you can see below:

The Sony INZONE M10S 27 has excellent gray uniformity, and there aren't any noticeable issues.

The black uniformity is outstanding, with a uniform black level across the screen.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is fantastic. It locks colors to the sRGB color space effectively, so they aren't oversaturated, and both the white balance and color temperature are excellent, too. However, fairly bright parts of scenes are a bit too dark, and the brightest parts of scenes are too bright. The sRGB mode also locks out the Gamma adjustment. If you want a mode that lets you adjust Gamma, you can use the 'Cinema' mode. However, it has oversaturated colors, and most parts of the scenes are too dark.

This monitor has two special picture modes for gamers: 'FPS Pro' and 'FPS Pro+.' 'FPS Pro' is designed to simulate the image quality of a TN panel esports monitor, while 'FPS Pro+' enhances colors used for enemy outlines, such as red, yellow, and purple. Because of how these modes affect colors, you likely won't want to use them with games that don't have enemy outlines. If you plan to use these modes, you may prefer Pro+ if you're a competitive gamer, as it unlocks Gamma and highlights the target outline colors more effectively.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic, and you can adjust the Gamma setting.

However, due to the monitor's EDID including an asterisk in its name, we were only able to adjust the monitor's settings, and couldn't apply an ICC profile. As a result, there's no improvement to the monitor's gamma accuracy, and bright scenes are still too dark.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It displays virtually all of the sRGB color space used by most desktop and web content. It has good coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space, but it can't display the full range of greens in that color space and oversaturates reds, so it isn't ideal if you need to edit in Adobe RGB.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It covers nearly all of the DCI-P3 color space used in most content, with minimal inaccuracies. However, it has a more limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. These results are very similar if you're using 'DisplayHDR' in both DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020.

The HDR color volume is great. It displays dark colors well, but bright colors aren't as vivid as on QD-OLED displays. The HDR color volume isn't as good in 'DisplayHDR,' as you can see for DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020.

The horizontal viewing angle is incredible. Although it technically isn't perfect, you visually won't see any inconsistencies when viewing from the sides or if you sit close to the screen.

The Sony M10S has okay text clarity. When using ClearType, it has less fringing than other 27-inch, 1440p OLEDs with an RWBG subpixel layout. However, it's still not as sharp as RGB subpixel displays like IPS and VA panels.

Without using ClearType, there's no fringing, but letters are harder to read. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see them in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off.

The direct reflection handling is good. Its matte coating minimizes reflections as it spreads light out instead, but bright objects shining on the screen look warped.

This monitor does a great job at maintaining low black levels in bright rooms. Although it isn't perfect, the black levels don't rise much.

There's minimal light reflected off the screen. The matte coating absorbs most light well but spreads out any remaining light.

The gradient handling is remarkable, and there's almost no banding.

On top of FreeSync VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, this monitor also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Sony M10S has remarkable motion handling across its VRR range. There's minimal blur or smearing with fast-moving objects, and it remains consistent as the refresh rate drops. Any blur at low refresh rates is persistence blur.

The refresh rate compliance is outstanding. With a near-instantaneous response time, it makes full-color transitions before drawing the next frame.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 480Hz is outstanding. Motion looks incredibly sharp without any noticeable blur.

The CAD at 120Hz is incredible. It has a near-instantaneous response time, and although it isn't perfect, there isn't noticeable smearing or inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is fantastic. Any noticeable blur is persistence.

This monitor doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.

This monitor has disappointing VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is most distracting in dark scenes.

The backlight isn't technically flicker-free because it has a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the 480Hz refresh rate.

The Sony M10S has very low input lag with most refresh rates for a responsive feel. If Low Latency is 'Off,' the input lag increases, as you can see below:

Additionally, at 480Hz, the input lag is the same in 24.5 Inch Mode at 1.7 ms.

There aren't any compatibility issues, though the monitor can't downscale 4k signals. The monitor enters 'Auto Picture Mode' when you use the PS5, though you can change it to another picture mode if you prefer. The monitor's 24.5 Inch Mode works well with the PS5.

The monitor can't downscale 4k signals, so you can't use HDR with this monitor while using Xbox Series X|S. However, only displaying HDR at 4k is a limitation of the Xbox, not the monitor itself. The monitor enters 'Auto Picture Mode' when you use the Xbox, though you can change it to another picture mode if you prefer.

This monitor works well with macOS. If you're using a MacBook, you can close the lid and continue working on the screen, and after reopening the lid, windows return to their original positions. HDR works well and looks good.

This monitor has a few extra features, including:

• INZONE Hub: Allows you to adjust monitor settings from your computer.
• 24.5 Inch Mode: Decreases the content area of the screen to 24.5 inches, which some esports or competitive gamers may prefer.
• Crosshair: Adds an undetectable virtual crosshair to any game.
• FPS Counter: Shows the current frame rate from the source.
• Black Equalizer: Adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot objects/players in dark scenes without adjusting bright scenes.
• FPS Pro: Simulates the image quality of a TN panel esports monitor.
• FPS Pro+: Makes the outline of targets easier to see in FPS games.

It also includes a few settings to reduce the risk of burn-in associated with OLEDs. They're all under the Panel Settings section:

• Screen Saver: Lowers the screen brightness after a period of computer, console, or monitor inactivity.
• Pixel Shift: Protects the screen by gradually changing the position where the image is displayed.
• Pixel Refresh: Adjusts each pixel to reduce uneven wear.
• Panel Refresh: Adjusts the entire screen to reduce uneven wear.

You can find more information about the monitor's OSD in the user manual.