Sony has an impressive 480Hz OLED, but its warranty stinks

Do you remember the Sony InZone M9? It was briefly one of the best gaming monitors you could buy, bringing Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) to a display under $1,000. The InZone brand continued on, mostly focused on lower-end offerings. Now, Sony is back with an OLED display, and one that boasts a 480Hz refresh rate on a 1440p panel, along with features that I haven’t seen on an OLED gaming monitor yet.

It’s called the InZone M10S, and it’s the first OLED monitor Sony has released under its InZone brand. The panel is the same one we saw on Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDP earlier this month, meaning it uses WOLED technology and it’s made by LG Display. Sony is making a ton of improvements to the design, too. The monitor features an incredibly small stand that was designed alongside the esports pros at Fnatic. The base is only 159mm (6.3 inches) in diameter and 4mm (0.16 inches) thick.

Sony also ditched the design that made its InZone M9 such a hassle to adjust. The redesigned stand supports 30 degrees of tilt, 4.7 inches of height adjustment, and 360 degrees of swivel (180 degrees in either direction).

The big feature the M10S is packing, however, is DisplayPort 2.1. You can get 1440p at 480Hz with DisplayPort 1.4 due to the lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC), but that hasn’t stopped PC gamers from demanding DisplayPort 2.1. Sony finally has it available with the InZone M10S.

In addition, the monitor boasts 1,300 nits of peak brightness, a range of burn-in prevention features, and the unique FPS+ picture mode, which simulates an LCD panel for esports pros moving to the monitor. Sony also includes a 24.5-inch crop mode for competitive gamers, which uses the native resolution of the panel (1332p instead of 1440p).

Sony is clearly pushing ahead, but there’s one area where it’s being left behind — warranty. Sony is only offering a one-year warranty on the M10S. It covers burn-in, but that’s still far behind other OLED panels like the Alienware 32 QD-OLED. Most major monitor brands, including Asus, Alienware, MSI, Gigabyte, and Corsair, offer a three-year warranty that covers burn-in. LG, which originally didn’t even cover burn-in, now offers a two-year warranty with burn-in protection.

If nothing else, the price is right. The M10S will sell for $1,100, which is in line with other monitors we’ve seen packing this panel.

In addition to the M10S, Sony is launching the M9 II. It’s basically identical to the original M9, with 96 local dimming zones, a 27-inch screen, and a 4K resolution. There are two major differences. The M9 II comes with a 160Hz refresh rate and a stand that’s similar to the M10S. Although it’s an improvement, Sony is asking $800 for the M9 II, which is a lot of money for this monitor in 2024.