- Sony's trying something a little new,

it's making its own gaming monitors

and headsets for PC and PS5.

Sony is good at entertaining you

in the living room,

but it usually leaves the PC gaming space

to other companies,

that's changing with its new INZONE lineup

of gaming monitors and headsets for PC

and PS5 launching this summer.

Yes, the name is goofy,

but I think the gadgets are pretty cool.

I've gotten to spend a little bit

of time with Sony's high end INZONE M9 monitor,

it's an $899, 27 inch 4K model.

And it has the features

that the most discerning gamers

want in a monitor,

a fast 144 hertz refresh rate,

one millisecond response time,

variable refresh rate,

along with DisplayPort,

and HDMI 2.1 ports

to take full advantage of the PS5

and PC's potential in terms of graphics.

It also has a bunch of USB-A ports

for connecting accessories,

plus a USB-C port with video support,

so you won't have to use an adapter

to plug in a Mac.

The M9 kind of checks a lot of boxes.

A dedicated gaming display is

both the most obvious move

that Sony could make at this point in time

and an unexpected one.

Other display manufacturers like ASUS,

a Acer, LG and Samsung

have all but cornered the monitor market.

But Sony's INZONE M9 comes

with a couple extra unique features

that may justify it's $899 price

compared to other options,

which is good because $899 is a lot of money.

So, okay,

what are you actually getting for that price?

(calm music)

The M9 features full-array local dimming,

with 96 zones for finer control

over the back lighting.

That means you'll see more impressive contrast

and a lot less haloing

around bright objects in dark fields.

Full-array local dimming is super common

in high-end TVs,

like the ones that Sony makes,

but you'd be surprised how uncommon it is

in gaming monitors.

Most other gaming monitors

in this price range are edge lit

and typically use vertical dimming zones

which just aren't as pleasant to look at.

It also supports DisplayHDR 600,

reaching a peak brightness of 600 nits.

That's lower than where most high end TVs are at

but it's brighter than most monitors.

The finer control of dimming zones

and the HDR working in tandem,

makes games like "Returnal" and "Uncharted"

even more punchy with contrast rich landscapes.

Brights are brighter

and darks are darker.

So a scary game feels just a little scarier

when you're playing it alone in a dark room.

But those aren't the only cool TV features Sony is

bringing to this gaming monitor.

It's got auto HDR tone mapping for the PS5,

and theoretically that should just make

the HDR perform better.

The monitor will recognize the PS5

when it's plugged into the console

and HDR settings will automatically be optimized,

but we'll have to do more testing to see

if this feature is actually worth the hype,

and whether you can manually tweak the display

if the automatic results aren't to your liking.

Another cool PS5 exclusive feature

is auto genre picture mode,

which automatically applies cinema mode

when you switch from playing a game

to either using a streaming service

or watching Blu-ray.

It's great that you won't have to switch

between gaming and movie mode,

and then back to gaming mode,

and then back to movie mode

by yourself on the monitor,

because navigating menus on monitors

is usually so annoying.

In my short time with the M9,

playing PS5 games looked fantastic.

I cycled through a few games,

each one showing off a better looking picture

than I'd seen before

while using a PS5 with any other gaming monitor.

"Returnal" looked incredibly spooky

with its brilliant use of lighting

and neon bullet effects.

Later this winter,

Sony will bring a 27 inch 1080p version

of this monitor to the market.

It's called the M3

and it'll cost $529,

and while it's a big step down

in terms of resolution,

it boosts the refresh rate to 240 Hertz

without compromising on too many

of the M9's high-end features.

It still has variable refresh rate,

HDMI 2.1 ports,

NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility,

along with DisplayHDR 400,

but it lacks full-array local dimming.

You might have already seen it appear

in some of the footage in this video.

It's also right behind me,

but Sony's also announcing

some gaming headsets to coincide

with the monitor launch.

This is great news

because the M9 monitor speakers aren't great.

(calm music)

At the highest end of the lineup is

the $299, INZONE H9,

which can handle dual wireless connections simultaneously,

one through its USB-A transmitter

and another through Bluetooth.

Sony says that the end zone H9 shares

some common traits with the 1000XM5 headphones,

like the soft pillowy ear pads,

and the stellar noise cancellation.

I've had a little bit more time

with the H9 headset

than I've had with Sony's gaming monitor,

and I really like two things about them.

One they're very comfortable,

the notches of the headband

can extend well beyond what my large noggin requires,

which I love.

Two, they sound just as good,

if not better than my personal Sony XM3 headphones.

I could see these being my go-to headset

for gaming, video calls,

and for listening to music.

One thing that isn't cool though

they look absolutely massive

when they're on my head.

I mean, look at them.

Like almost all headset makers,

Sony is touting spatial audio as being a big deal

with the H9.

With the idea being

that it can help you notice little audio details,

like enemy footsteps

before they get the drop on you,

but it goes a step further than most companies,

because it's trying to tune the feature

to your ear shape.

Sony made a whole mobile app

that takes photos of your ears

to improve how the feature works on PC.

Going this far with the process is optional,

and while it's easy enough

to follow along with the steps,

I couldn't immediately notice the benefit in games,

but I need to test it out some more.

If you understandably don't want to spend $300

on a gaming headset,

Sony has two other options,

in the $229 wireless H7,

and the $99 wired H3.

The H7 ditches the noise cancellation from the H9,

seeing a boost in total battery life as a result.

As for the H3, has a slightly different design

with less premium feeling build materials,

but it's also only a hundred bucks,

and the audio performance is impressive

for that price.

Everyone is trying to be the cheapest,

or the best,

or sometimes even both,

but I think Sony's new models

might just be unique enough to stand out.

I need to spend a little bit more time

with Sony's new gadgets,

but be sure to tune into theverge.com

to check out my final reviews soon.

And shameless plug

but we have a new show on Netflix

called "The Future Of"

and you should check it out.