News

You Can Now Make Your PS5 Matte Black Thanks To Dbrand’s Darkplates

Published

5 years ago

February 17, 2021

Dbrand

When Sony first revealed the PlayStation 5, the two-color curvy design sparked a heated discussion online, with some reporters comparing it to a trophy you might get at an award show and some to a boutique Wi-Fi router. If you’re among the PlayStation 5 owners who are secretly or openly jealous of the more understated design of the Xbox Series X, then we have good news for you: accessory maker Dbrand is selling custom black matte faceplates for PS5, known as Darkplates.

Dbrand

Starting at $49, the set of faceplates lets you easily change the look of your console to please your design taste buds. Besides the faceplates themselves, you can also customize the look of the middle section by ordering one of the optional middle skins (available in matte black, neon yellow, matte white, and several different patterns).

Dbrand

The faceplates feature “a familiar-but-legally-distinct apocalyptic spin on the classic PlayStation button shapes,” which is also how Dbrand would most likely defend its product should Sony decide to take it to court.

Why in the world would Sony do that? To start with, Darkplates are an unofficial accessory sold without Sony’s approval. Last year, accessory seller CustomizeMyPlates was forced to cancel all orders after legal action from Sony, so Dbrand wouldn’t be the first company to feel Sony’s boot on its backside. What’s more, Dbrand is actually touting Sony by saying, “Go ahead, sue us,” on its website.

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So far, three waves of Darkplates have been shipped to buyers around the world, and the fourth wave is expected to be sold out soon, so you should hurry up if you want to get your hands on this product, whose marketing is just as polarizing as the design of the PlayStation 5.

News

Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

1 day ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

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For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.