Sony announces new Hardware Brand for PC Gamers, INZONE

[Haaselh0ff]

 

Summary

 Sony's getting IN the ZONE with their new gaming brand which launches with two 27-inch gaming monitors and three gaming headphone variations. One variant of the 27in display is a 4K 144hz starting at $899 and the other is a 1080p 240hz display starting at $529. On the gaming headset side of things they are offering a wireless variant with noise cancellation for $299, a wireless (no noise cancellation) for $229, and a $99 wired as well.

 

Quotes

Quote

“We are entering the gaming gear industry with monitors and headsets at an exciting time, since gaming and esports have gotten even more popular over the last few years,” Kazuo Kii, Sony president of home entertainment and sound products told The Washington Post. “We are leveraging Sony’s high quality display and audio technologies to deliver products that will allow gamers to immerse themselves into their gaming world.”

 

The name of the brand, Kii said, is meant to refer to the immersive feeling gamers experience when they are “in the zone.”

 

My thoughts

 It's easy to see WHY Sony would want to try taking a slice of that gaming pie. As the wapo article states, Sony is well aware as to how popular gaming and esports in general have gotten so it makes sense for them to want to target this demo for an upcoming product line, especially if they know that gamers are willing to shell out for a known name brand. Pricing wise I think it is competitive in terms of the monitors, in terms of the headsets Im not familiar enough with the market to know but noise cancellation and wireless at the $299 price point sounds decent? But we'll have to wait on those sweet LTT Lab notes to know how well they sound I guess. Hoping that they might eventually venture themselves into the Ultrawide market as well because I would love to see them come out with a 32in 144hz display.

 

Sources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/28/sony-inzone-pc-monitor-headset/

 

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/inzone-gaming-gear

[jaslion]

I wonder how good that 299 headset is because it's right into the area of their pretty damn good headphones but they could as well do the typical gaming headest thing of just being a mediocre overpriced pair of headphones with a mic slapped to it.

[Middcore]

The thing Sony never seems to understand is that they need to bring something to the table competitors don't have besides just their brand name. They think they're a "prestige" name that people will pay extra for on the basis of the brand alone, and they're just not - they haven't been in anything for 20+ years, and they certainly won't be in a crowded market where they haven't established themselves. 

[Middcore]

19 hours ago, jaslion said:

I wonder how good that 299 headset is because it's right into the area of their pretty damn good headphones but they could as well do the typical gaming headest thing of just being a mediocre overpriced pair of headphones with a mic slapped to it.

 

At $200+ they have to beat the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless, which is on top of being a better-than-decent headset in terms of audio quality has absolutely otherworldly battery life. 

 

Edit: specified the wireless version of the HyperX Cloud Alpha since there was an older wired set with that name.

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, Middcore said:

 

At $200+ they have to beat the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which is on top of being a better-than-decent headset in terms of audio quality has absolutely otherworldly battery life. 

Exactly there are a couple actually good gaming headsets for the money but they are also competing against themselves here. So they better not mess it up.

[saltycaramel]

Real OGs remember the Sony Bravia tv with an integrated PS2 and the Playstation 3D Display with SimulView. 

[PeachGr]

13 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I wonder how good that 299 headset is

Well they have the wh-1000xm series on that price which are on the top of the headset list, so they have potential

[dizmo]

Hmmm. 27" monitor is interesting in terms of spec, but the size is wrong. They should have gone for 32" IMO.

I didn't think the look of their headphones was that great. It really looked like they went for style over usability.

However, Sony always seems to go after rather niche markets. Look at a lot of their phones. They don't do particularly well in sales either, but they still pump them out.

 

30 minutes ago, Middcore said:

The thing Sony never seems to understand is that they need to bring something to the table competitors don't have besides just their brand name. They think they're a "prestige" name that people will pay extra for on the basis of the brand alone, and they're just not - they haven't been in anything for 20+ years, and they certainly won't be in a crowded market where they haven't established themselves. 

I agree with their self image, however the monitors are very competitive for the price, and have spec the competition doesn't.

I'm just so glad they seem to have mostly gotten away from proprietary cables. Even up to a year or two ago it was the reason I'd never buy a Sony MP3 player.

28 minutes ago, Middcore said:

At $200+ they have to beat the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which is on top of being a better-than-decent headset in terms of audio quality has absolutely otherworldly battery life. 

Isn't hat a wired set? Pretty sure I've had it in the past. Only bought it because it was on a deep discount, and it's audio is far from what I would call decent.

Which is the same experience I've had with most headsets with the word gaming in them, even from Sennheiser.

[Middcore]

25 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Hmmm. 27" monitor is interesting in terms of spec, but the size is wrong. They should have gone for 32" IMO.

I didn't think the look of their headphones was that great. It really looked like they went for style over usability.

However, Sony always seems to go after rather niche markets. Look at a lot of their phones. They don't do particularly well in sales either, but they still pump them out.

 

I agree with their self image, however the monitors are very competitive for the price, and have spec the competition doesn't.

I'm just so glad they seem to have mostly gotten away from proprietary cables. Even up to a year or two ago it was the reason I'd never buy a Sony MP3 player.

Isn't hat a wired set? Pretty sure I've had it in the past. Only bought it because it was on a deep discount, and it's audio is far from what I would call decent.

Which is the same experience I've had with most headsets with the word gaming in them, even from Sennheiser.

Why would I talk about the battery life on a wired headset?

[Shimejii]

1 minute ago, Middcore said:

Why would I talk about the battery life on a wired headset?

You are both correct  Cloud Alpha is a Wired headset, Cloud Alpha Wireless is the one you talked about. I am not sure that the headset will be all that great, but ive never been sold on wireless headphones actually sounding all that great.

 

The monitor has already been reviewed by Hardware unboxed.

 

 

 

[dizmo]

17 minutes ago, Middcore said:

Why would I talk about the battery life on a wired headset?

Not sure, why wouldn't you use the right name?

[Brooksie359]

@Haaselh0ffwhile I agree the 4k monitor is price competitive I wouldn't agree about the 1080p 240hz monitor as I can buy one of those for much cheaper. I mean at that price I can get an actual 1440p 240hz monitor https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824475175

[Senzelian]

This could've been a huge announcement if they introduced a monitor with QD-OLED.

But now it's yet another gaming brand next to Corsair, Razer, MSI, ASUS and Gigabyte. 

[Arika]

INZONE just sounds like a brand that you'd only find on aliexpress...

[Doobeedoo]

Hmm ok odd name and ok, entering gaming side more. Headset seems ok and monitors average I mean there are many in those brackets with possibly better performance and price. We'll see. Also with time maybe even higher tier like QD OLED one. 

But I expect that from established monitor brands.

[HomeBoi]

The headset looks like an cheap aftermarket offbrand "PS5 COMPATIBLE" headset wtf is this industrial design djeezus.

[wamred]

Well, competition is never a bad thing. But we have to wait to see if the stuff is any good I guess.

[Middcore]

5 hours ago, HomeBoi said:

The headset looks like an cheap aftermarket offbrand "PS5 COMPATIBLE" headset wtf is this industrial design djeezus.

 

They want it to be distinctive. They want people to look at their stuff and immediately recognize it's by Sony.

 

Which is why its weird to me they're even bothering with this "INZONE" thing instead of just going straight Sony. 

[ravenshrike]

Bad Seed has a review of the H9

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

18 hours ago, wamred said:

Well, competition is never a bad thing. But we have to wait to see if the stuff is any good I guess.

Ahh techies forever begging for new competition.

 

Whenever there's new competition:

[wamred]

6 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Ahh techies forever begging for new competition.

 

Whenever there's new competition:

You ain't wrong.