Sony INZONE H9 Review: Best wireless headphones for gamers?

This is the INZONE H9, the flagship wireless headset from Sony’s new line of gaming accessory products. Now, Sony knows a thing or two about audio, of course, and this thing is chock full of features, but is it the correct choice for gamers who want the best?

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Design

Let’s start by acknowledging the elephant in the room - the INZONE H9. No, but, seriously - this looks like an absolute unit of a headset, but at 330 grams is not really all that heavy. The earcups are super bulky and round, but thanks to the extremely soft and pillowy leatherette ear cup padding, sit really comfortably on the ear. The clamping force is just right, not too much at all. You can wear these for a good few without getting tired, but after that stretch your ears may start feeling the weight. 

Build quality is really solid, these feel quite strong and don’t seem like they’ll fall apart anytime soon. The earcups do swivel to lie completely flat on one side, which will let you wear them around your neck quite comfortably when not in use.

The design language of the H9 matches that of the PS5, with a futuristic white finish that looks really classy. Gaming-focused peripherals can get a little cringe with their design, and I appreciate that Sony has kept it elegant here.

Features

One thing I really appreciate is that you get proper physical buttons controls on the H9 - none of that wishy washy tap and swipe nonsense - and an actual scroll wheel to control volume, which is amazing.

On the left side you get the volume control, and a button that switches between ANC and ambient sound modes, along with the USB-C charging port. This side also houses the mic, of course. On the right, you get buttons to switch between game and chat modes, a bluetooth pairing button, and the power button.

The INZONE H9 can connect to audio sources in 2 ways - you get this 2.4Ghz Wireless Dongle that can connect to your laptop, PC, or console using a USB-A Port, and the headset also supports Bluetooth 5.0. The dongle has a switch that will let you choose between PC and PS5 mode, although I did check and it also works with a PS4. You should note that this headset does not work with Xbox consoles. There’s also no wired connectivity option here.

The INZONE H9 do support spatial audio, which can work with Windows Sonic for headphones, or Sony’s own custom implementation. This requires you to download a smartphone app and take pictures of your ears, which then Sony will analyse and adjust the spatial audio accordingly.

Now the killer feature of this headset, that I found the most useful, is that it can accept audio from both sources at the same time. So you can plug in the wireless receiver dongle into your PC or console, and get game audio from there, while also talking to your friends on call through your smartphone, which is connected to bluetooth. So you will hear both the game and chat audio from the headphones, while the mic will work with the phone.

You can adjust the balance of these sources through the game and chat buttons on the earcups. So if the car engine in your game is getting a little too loud, and you can’t hear your friends on a call, you can press the game button, use the scroll wheel to lower game volume, and then press the chat button, and increase chat volume. It’s really intuitive when you get the hang of it.

The mic is not detachable, but you can slot it up when not using it so it stays out of the way. Another really neat feature is that you can automatically mute yourself by pushing it up, and then talk again by bringing it down. You hear a nice little click that’ll let you know for sure if you’re muted or audible.

Performance

With so many features, it would be a real shame if the INZONE H9 didn’t perform well. I’m happy to report that they do. They’re very warm by default, with an extremely boomy bass that tends to drown out other details, but you can control for that using EQ in the Windows app, which we’ll get to in a bit. They do have a fairly wide soundstage even without the spatial audio business, and offer a fair amount of detail. Although these aren’t built for audiophiles, these can put in a shift as your daily music listening headphones, which is pretty impressive for a gaming headset.

The Active Noise Cancellation here is not mind blowing, but it does block out some low end rumbles when activated. I find the ambient noise mode quite useful when working in an office. Overall the ANC features are not life changing, but it’s a nice quality of life feature to have.

Watching movies and shows is also a great time with the INZONE H9. The spatial audio feature really helps elevate the movie watching experience, especially if it’s an action movie with a lot of sound effects coming in from all sides.

But just how good are these for gaming? Well, I used the INZONE H9 over my review period to play a wide variety of games, from a racing game like Forza Horizon 5 to an action-packed shooter like Far Cry 6 to something more atmospheric like Death Stranding, and the experience was absolutely amazing. With or without spatial audio, the whine of a hypercar engine or the repetitive thuds of a machine gun all sound fantastic through these headphones. They’re also so incredibly comfortable that you will very easily fire up a game at 10PM, spend some time immersed in its world, and then notice the sun rise without realising where time has gone, and your ears won’t get tired in between.

App and Battery

The headphones can be managed through the INZONE Hub app for Windows. Here, you can use the equaliser to adjust the sound in any way you like, and there are also some presets. The app will also let you adjust settings like Game/Chat balance, the noise cancelling mode, mic gain, and things like that.

Here you can also change device features like the auto off timer, or the auto off timer for LEDs. The app will also let you activate spatial audio personalisation.

You can also access and control much of these features through the PS5 interface, if you prefer that instead.

So, Sony claims that the InZone H9 can last for up to 32 hours on a single charge, and in my testing that does seem true. The battery life here is incredible. But, it will vary greatly depending on what you’re doing - using both the dongle and bluetooth at the same time, for example, while using the mic, is going to drain that battery much faster.

Verdict

At a price of ₹21,990, the Sony InZone H9 do command a premium. But for that money, you get an absolutely loaded feature set, including ANC, and the incredible ability to use 2 audio sources at once. You also get a high quality pair of headphones, which will make games and movies a blast. If you need a gaming headset, you can’t go wrong with this one.