Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB Review

Features
Performance
Verdict
Specification

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 is a 1TB (roughly 1000GB) portable SSD hard-drive with high transfer speeds of up to 540MB/s when using USB 3.1 Type C, with an aluminium case with shock-resistant internal frame, and password protection. The T5 is available for around £125 for the 250GB version, £195 for the 500GB version, £380 for the 1TB version, or £740 for the 2TB version. The drive is designed to work with Windows, Mac and Android.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Features

SSD stands for Solid State Drive, and this, in layman's terms, means it uses flash memory chips to store data, which means that there are no moving parts, and access to data is much quicker than with traditional physical hard drives. Hard disk drives (HDD) use spinning platters and are susceptible to damage if not carefully looked after. 

• Transfer Speed: Up to 540MB/sec.
• Shock resistant (2m)
• Temperature protection
• AES 256-bit Encryption
• Optional password setting
• USB 3.0, USB3.1, Type-C
• Three year limited warranty
• Works with Windows 7 or higher, Mac OS X 10.7 or higher

The T5 comes with a new Android mobile app to securely manage content - so that you can use the drive with an Android smartphone, tablet or laptop if you have a USB C socket on your device. The drive comes with a short USB cable which could be a little short for a PC. The drive is compact and light, weighing just 51g, and would be suitable for backing up data on the move.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Performance

The T5 drive comes ready to plug in and use, but you can also use the software which is on the drive to enhance the functionality, change the name of the device, view the serial number, and setup a password for secure data encryption. If password encryption is enabled you need to enter the password in the Samsung software (on the drive) before you can access the data. 

USB 3.0 Performance:	USB 2.0 Performance:
Samsung SSD T5	Samsung SSD T5 USB2

We ran the T5 drive through CrystalDiskMark software using USB 2.0 and 3.0. Using USB 3.0 we were able to get very quick speeds, significantly quicker than USB 2.0. There was no loss of performance whether the drive was password protected or not. 
 

Value for Money

The T5 is available for around £125 for the 250GB version, £195 for the 500GB version, £380 for the 1TB version, or £740 for the 2TB version, which makes it quite good value for money compared to other SSD drives with built-in security, although the 2TB version is quite expensive. Alternative SSD drives available that offer built-in security include the iStorage 256GB which is available for £270.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Verdict

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 drive is a compact and stylish portable drive that gives great read and write speeds, and can also protect your data with strong password protection. For those who want to keep secure backups of data on a compact drive that doesn't take up much space, or require an external power supply, the Samsung T5 does an excellent job. 

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 offers fast, secure performance in an extremely compact device.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB Specifications

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