Sony’s gaming brand INZONE has launched its gaming headsets in Taiwan, including the INZONE H9 (WH-G900N), the wireless INZONE H7 (WH-G700) and the wired INZONE H3 with both wireless and active noise cancellation. (WH-G300) meet different market levels, let’s take a look at their details and performance!
Appearance and Design
INZONE H9 / H7 / H3 are quite round in appearance, equipped with a microphone that can be turned up and closed, and a volume knob. There is no obvious difference in the head beam, and the inner side is full of thick cushions.
Among them, H9 and H7 use almost the same mechanism design, the shell is made of matte texture, and a more delicate hinge bracket is used at the connection between the head beam and the earmuff, and is equipped with a wireless connection indicator. The sponge used in the earmuffs is relatively round. Only the H9 is covered with artificial leather for noise reduction design, and the shell also has a microphone hole for radio, while the H7 is covered with cloth.
After all, because the H3 is mainly aimed at the entry-level market, the shell is not frosted, and the hinge bracket is relatively simple. The corners of the earmuffs are slightly more obvious. Although the covering material is also fabric, the detail is slightly reduced. Another circle of fabric is sewn on the inside, rather than the almost one-piece formation of the H7.
The H9 and H7 support both 2.4 GHz RF wireless and Bluetooth wireless transmission modes. The 2.4 GHz RF is activated through the dedicated wireless transmitter, which can bring extremely low latency and better sound quality. This wireless transmitter also has two modes that can be switched between PC and PS5, giving excellent compatibility.
H3 only provides 3.5mm wired mode connection, but comes with a USB sound card for PC use. The way to connect the PS5 is the same as the general wired headset, which is connected to the DualSense wireless controller and transmits audio through Bluetooth.
Wear and Hearing
We found Sony’s most popular wireless noise-cancelling music headphones, the WH-1000XM5, as a reference for wearing and listening.
From the appearance, the size of the earmuff coverage is similar, but the WH-1000XM5 is thinner in both the thickness of the cover and the sponge, and the head beam is also slightly thinner.
Both have good coverage. After all, the INZONE H9 earmuffs are thicker, and the pressure felt around the ears is slightly softer, but the head beam may feel more pressure on the head because of the thicker sponge pads. H7/H3 has better air permeability than H9 due to the cloth earmuffs.
In terms of listening, the WH-1000XM5 mainly focuses on the music market, and the high, medium and low frequencies are quite balanced and beautiful. INZONE H9 / H7 especially strengthens high frequency and low frequency, making the surround feeling and footstep sound of game audio more obvious; H3 only strengthens low frequency, and the high frequency performance is weak.
These 3 earphones can also use the INZONE Hub PC software to shoot the ear shape through the mobile app and open the exclusive spatial audio.
The noise reduction effect of the WH-1000XM5 is indeed much better. After all, it uses 4 noise reduction radio microphones per earmuff, but the pressure of active noise reduction will be slightly greater. The effect of INZONE H9 is actually good, and it is closer to the WH-1000XM3, which also has only one noise-cancelling radio microphone. It’s just that following INZONE H9 turns on the microphone, the sound from the microphone can still be heard in the noise reduction mode.
The microphone should be regarded as the weakest part of the INZONE series of headphones. Although the structure is closer to the mouth, the sound quality performance is weaker than the WH-1000XM5 whose microphone is located on the edge of the earmuff. For example, WH-1000XM5 is close to the level of FM radio, INZONE only has the level of AM radio, and the clarity is obviously poor.
By the way, INZONE H9 / H7 with dual-mode wireless can connect to PC / PS5 through 2.4 GHz RF, and connect mobile devices such as mobile phones through Bluetooth at the same time, so you are not afraid of missing important calls in the game.
Summary and Procurement Recommendations
The suggested selling price of INZONE H9 / H7 / H3 is NT$ 8,290 / NT$ 6,390 / NT$ 2,790 respectively. For the relatively mature PC gaming headset market, the price is indeed slightly higher. The wireless compatibility of the PS5 platform is definitely not comparable to general gaming headsets.
All in all, if you want your gaming headset to have active noise reduction, then there is only the INZONE H9 option; if you don’t care regarding noise reduction but want a comfortable wireless headset that can be paired with PS5, you can choose H7; those with limited budgets choose H3 Bar. Of course, if you care regarding the sound quality of the music more than the gaming experience, of course, you still need to spend more money to buy the WH-1000XM5!
