Technologies

Sony InZone M3 Review: A Speedy Gaming Monitor for PS5 Plus PC Play

Sony’s lower-end model in its distinctive-looking InZone monitor line delivers a solid, if not standout, performance.

A cheaper, faster sibling of Sony’s $900 InZone M9 4K HDR gaming monitor, the 27-inch InZone M3 incorporates a solid 240Hz 1080p screen for its $530 (£699) price tag. In addition to its unique design, the M3’s most notable novelty is PS5 support for Auto HDR, which maps SDR games to HDR, and Auto Genre picture mode, which switches profiles from game-optimized and low-latency to movie-optimized when you launch them. It also supports HDMI 2.1 which seems like overkill for a 1,920 x 1,080 (FHD), barely HDR screen, but future proofing is always welcome — provided it doesn’t add a lot of cost.

Otherwise, the screen is comparable to models like the BenQ Mobiuz EX270M, Acer Nitro XV272, Acer Predator XB273 and a handful of others. They’re older models but slightly cheaper and lack the HDMI 2.1 and the PS5 automation. The M3 is discounted through early April to just below $500, which brings it more into line with the competition. (The M9 is also discounted over the same period, for $100 off its standard $900 price.)

Sony InZone M3 (SDMF27M30)

$498 at Amazon

$498 at Walmart

$500 at Best Buy

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Like

HDMI 2.1 with VRR support for PlayStation
Good sRGB accuracy

Don’t Like

Looks good but the connection locations and cable management aren’t
Awkward stand that doesn’t swivel

It has an identical design to the M9, which means it’s equally annoying. Striking, since it uses similar materials to the PS5 but with a more angular aesthetic common to PC gaming displays, but awkward. The metal rear legs of the stand don’t look substantial, though they are.

Sony InZone M3 (SDMF27M30)

Price	$530
Size (diagonal)	27 in. (69 cm)
Panel and backlight	IPS with LED edgelight
Flat or curved	Flat
Resolution and pixel density	1,920 x 1,080 81.6ppi
Aspect ratio	16:9
Maximum gamut	99% sRGB
Brightness (nits, peak/typical)	400/400
HDR	DisplayHDR 400
Adaptive sync	G-Sync
Max vertical refresh rate	240Hz (DisplayPort and HDMI)
Gray/gray response time (milliseconds)	1ms (overdrive)
Connections	2 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x USB-C (with DP)
Audio	3.5mm out
VESA mountable	Yes, 100 x 100 mm
Panel warranty	1 year
Release date	January 2023

There’s a tiny plastic hook that can hang off one of the thin legs through which you’re supposed to feed your cables. It’s not large enough to accommodate a few thick ones though and really feels flimsy. And while setup is straightforward, it’s unnecessarily inelegant. You need a screwdriver and the included loose screws to attach the legs — at the very least make them captive — and it’s hard to insert the connections because they’re in a recess that requires some contortion to get them into, especially if you have stiff, thick cables.

The Sony InZone M3 monitor, side view showing the forward slanted stand, on a wood surface with a purple wall in the back — That slanted leg is striking looking, but not very practical.

Lori Grunin/CNET

That unusual slanted foot also makes it notably difficult to get to the DisplayPort connection and prevents the screen from being able to tilt forward. Most stands let you tilt about 5 degrees toward you, which can come in handy if you’re trying to avert glare. The design also precludes swiveling, which is annoying in a multimonitor configuration and doesn’t allow for putting things on your desk beneath the screen, such as shoving your keyboard there.

It really begs to be mounted on an arm, but at that point it looks pretty much the same as every other monitor out there.

A close up of the connections recessed in the back of the monitor — The connectors are in one of those traditional, hard-to-reach recesses in the back of the screen.

Lori Grunin/CNET

In addition to the dual HDMI 2.1 connections, it also supports USB-C for display. It’s got stereo two-watt speakers, which sound about as good as you’d expect; that is, if you expect them to sound tinny and low volume and only good for simple system sounds.

I thought Sony would have fixed the small irritation in the onscreen display, where it defaults to one of the least-needed menu entries — DDC on/off, and a level down — which makes navigating through the menus tedious if you have to do it a lot. Thankfully, everything in the OSD is accessible via Sony’s pretty well designed InZone Hub software.

Like the M9, the M3 has a built-in KVM switch, which means the USB ports depend upon the active input. That’s a perk if you’re connecting to two different systems or a PC and a console, and easy to set up in the software. The input scanning looking for an active connection seems to take a little longer than normal, though, and I got some unexpected resets (where it decides to recheck its connection) — such as between benchmark tests — that I’ve only seen with the Sonys.

Performance

The monitor performs well, with solid behavior at 240Hz and what seems like is the claimed 1ms gray-to-gray pixel refresh, and delivers excellent sRGB color accuracy in its Standard and Game 2 profiles but not in its default Game 1. (How we test monitors.)

Color measurements

	Gamut (% of P3)	White point	Gamma	Brightness (nits)	Accuracy (DE2K average/max)
Default (Game 1)	82 (111% sRGB)	7800K	2.3	245/360 (peak)	3.83/8.3
sRGB (Standard)	n/a (111% sRGB)	6300K	2.2	265	1.92/5.07
Cinema	82	6300K	2.4	337	n/a
HDR	87	6450K	n/a	473 (10% and full screen)	n/a

It nominally supports high dynamic range — it’s DisplayHDR 400 certified — but that just means it has a little extra brightness headroom and can do the math needed to display HDR content or map SDR to HDR. It doesn’t make that much of a visual difference, partly because the black isn’t dark enough. The best contrast it could hit was about 2500:1, which is good in general but not great for HDR. On the bright side, I didn’t see any light bleed around the edge as is common with edgelit backlights.

Game mode measurements

	White point	Gamma	Brightness	Contrast (static)
FPS	7850K	2.1	304 nits	861
Game 2	6300K	2.2	267 nits	1185

I’m not a huge fan of 27-inch 1080p screens for nongaming use because of their low-pixel density, only about 82 pixels per inch, because even my aging eyes object to the visible pixel grid. But it’s okay for gaming because there are rarely any single-pixel-wide lines. If you want something for long workdays as well as gaming, and you don’t need the 240Hz or HDMI 2.1 (you can still use it with a console), do your eyes and wallet a favor and get a 2,560 x 1,440 (1440p) 165Hz model.

It’s a pretty good monitor, but the InZone M3’s screen doesn’t distinguish it from the small pack of 240Hz 1080p options and its stand doesn’t help make a case for it. Overall, it’s a solid choice, especially if you can find it for a more competitive price.

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Technologies

Major Amazon Prime Benefit Faces Crackdown Next Month

Amazon plans to end its Prime Invitee program soon. Here’s how this could affect your deliveries.

If you’re using a friend or family member’s free Prime shipping and you don’t live in the same household, you might need to pay another monthly cost. According to Amazon’s updated customer service page, first reported by The Verge, the retail giant is ending its Prime Invitee benefit-sharing program on Oct. 1.

Amazon isn’t the first company to prevent membership sharing between family and friends. The e-commerce giant is just the latest to follow Netflix’s account-sharing crackdown. We also saw it done with Disney-Plus last year. While it’s unclear whether this change will work for Amazon, Netflix gained over 200,000 subscribers following its policy change.

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Amazon’s Prime Invitee program is being replaced by Amazon Family, which includes many of the same benefits. However, Amazon Family only works for up to two adults and four children living in the same «primary residential address» — a shared home. While you’ll still be able to use free shipping to send gifts elsewhere, your Prime Invitees will no longer be able to use the perk.

Read more: More Than Just Free Shipping: Here Are 19 Underrated Amazon Prime Perks

What this means for you

If you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s Prime Invitee benefits, you have one more month to take advantage of the current program before the changes take effect.

Starting in October, you’ll have to get your own Amazon Prime subscription in order to benefit from the company’s free shipping program. First-time subscribers get a year of Prime membership for $15, but you’ll be stuck shelling out $15 a month to maintain your subscription thereafter.

Read more: Your Free Pass to Prime Day Deals (No Membership Required)

Why is Amazon ending the Prime Invitee program?

This move follows shortly after Reuters reported that Amazon’s Prime account signups slowed down recently despite an extended July Prime Day event. While the company reported blowout sales numbers, new Prime subscriptions didn’t meet internal expectations. In the US, they fell short of last year’s signup metrics.

According to Reuters, Amazon registered 5.4 million US signups over the 21-day run-up to the Prime Day event, around 116,000 fewer than during the same period in 2024, and 106,000 below the company’s own goal, a roughly 2% decline in both metrics.

By forcing separate households to have their own subscriptions, Amazon could be looking to attract more Prime accounts after previously failing to do so.

The new Amazon Family program (previously known as Amazon Household) offers Prime benefits to up to two adults and four children in a single home, including free shipping, Prime Video, Prime Reading, Amazon Music and more. The subscription also includes benefits for certain third-party companies, such as GrubHub.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

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Technologies

Premiere Pro for Free: How Adobe’s New iPhone App Will Let You Edit Videos at No Cost

Adobe Premiere users will only have to pay for extra AI credits and cloud storage.

Thanks to social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, everyone is an video editor these days. And soon you won’t have to sit down at a laptop to use one of the most popular video editors on the market.

Adobe announced on Thursday that it is releasing a new video editing iPhone app named Premiere on Sept. 30. You can preorder the app now in the Apple App Store, with an Android app currently in development.

The iOS app should feel familiar to Premiere users, with its multitrack timeline and preview screen. The app can be used for all your usual video editing: trimming clips, overlaying audio and adding synchronized captions. You can also use Adobe’s new voice-to-sound effects tool and record voiceovers.

Premiere should be a big upgrade for Adobe users who have only used Premiere Rush, a barebones version of its video editor. As more content creators become mobile-first, Adobe is hoping to draw them in with revamped mobile apps.

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You should be able to use the Premiere iOS app for free. Adobe says you may need to pay for generative AI credits and additional storage, like through Adobe Creative Cloud, though more pricing info is expected closer to the Sept. 30 launch. This is very different from the desktop app, which starts at $23 per month.

A truly free Premiere mobile app would be a win for content creators, especially for anyone who wants to explore editing in Premiere but doesn’t want to pay for another subscription.

In an era of mobile-first content creators, tech companies have raced to introduce user-friendly mobile editing apps. TikTok creators use the ever-popular CapCut, with Meta adding its own contribution, a new app called Edits. Adobe has long been the industry standard for professional content creation and editing, but its mobile offerings were usually less feature-packed versions of its flagship programs under different names.

That changed this year as Adobe released true mobile versions of Photoshop and Firefly AI. The new Premiere app helps Adobe make a competitive entrance in a crowded market, in addition to giving loyal Adobe users a new way to access their tools on the go.

Adobe has also been focused on integrating generative AI into its software. Premiere Pro got its first-ever AI tool, generative extend, which uses AI to add a few extra seconds to clips you upload. It’s meant to help smooth transitions between clips, particularly when you might have turned off the recording a smidge too early and need a few extra seconds of film.

AI is a contentious issue among creators, with some voicing concerns over the training and deployment of AI models. Adobe’s Firefly AI has been fully integrated into the new Premiere iOS app, though the company’s AI guidelines state that it never trains on customer data and that its AI-generated content is commercially safe.

For more, check out what to know about the iOS and Android Photoshop apps and good alternatives to CapCut.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Sept. 6

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 6.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is extra-long, as usual on Saturdays. And a couple of the clues were stumpers! Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.