SAMSUNG T5 Portable SSD 1TB - Up to 540 MB/s - USB 3.1 External Solid State Drive MU-PA1T0B/AM

Pros: First impression: it's COOL, it's BLUE, it's SLEEK, and it's F-A-S-T ! FAST - When connected to the latest USB 3.1 Gen.2 port it's just as fast as an internal SATA SSD. *Important - Don't forget to select the "Better performance" option in Windows Device Manager to maximize the speed. See Other Thoughts below for more on this.* **Also note the USB 3.1 vs. USB 3.0 speed comparison in Other Thoughts below.** SLEEK - It's about the size of a pack of Orbit gum, and it weighs only a little bit more. You can carry it easily in any available pocket. Of course, you also need to bring along the short USB cable. COOL - The blue metal housing got warm but not hot when transferring a 50GB folder of large video files. Speed was not throttled. In your hand, it feels lightweight yet solid and with a snug-fitting port. MODERN - Uses 64-layer V-NAND and Samsung's latest controller tuned for external use. ENCRYPTION - AES 256-bit hardware encryption helps protect your files from unauthorized viewing. You choose a strong password and that locks the files. Unlock the files by entering the password again. Bonus feature - encryption doesn't slow down the performance! VERSATILE - Comes with one USB 3.1 type-C to type-C cable, and one USB 3.1 type-C to type-A cable. (In case there's anyone who doesn't already know, the type-A connector is the one that plugs into any standard USB port.) COMPATIBLE - pre-formatted with the ex-FAT file system. This makes it Read /Write compatible with both Windows and Mac. ex-FAT is fast, so speed won't be compromised. You can re-format to NTFS to provide Windows/ Linux compatibility if preferred, no problem. BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE - Connected to a USB 2.0 port on an 8-year-old PC, I copied a 5GB video file to and from the Samsung T5 without any problem. This demonstrates that a USB 2.0 port can deliver enough power to run the T3. You won't be surprised to learn that the Read and Write speed was a steady 34.2 MB/sec. which is typical of USB 2.0. So, if the occasion arises, you can plug this portable SSD into your grandma's 10-year-old machine and it will probably work.

Cons: PRICE - They make you pay dearly for this kind of speed. Call me a cynic, but it's hard to believe that there's a continuing worldwide shortage of NAND flash memory which, in turn, is the alleged reason for SSD prices remaining high. This has been going on a long time with no end in sight. CABLE LENGTH - The usual short cables, about 12 inches. This is OK in most situations, but the only available USB 3.0 port on one of our PCs is near the top of the case. Here, the SSD must either dangle by its cable or be placed atop the computer which puts it in close proximity to the power supply - not a recommended practice due to the electromagnetic field around the power supply. OK, I'm nit-picking here simply to show one reason why short USB cables may not be convenient. You can always use your own longer cable if need be.

Overall Review: *IMPORTANT* - To avoid slow performance you must ensure that the Removal Policy in Windows is set for "Better performance". The default setting for external drives is "Quick removal" which is intended to prevent data corruption if the drive is unplugged suddenly. The drawback of Quick Removal policy is that the drive's Read and Write speeds may both be severely hampered. So, change it to Better Performance. To overcome this in Windows go to Control Panel/Device Manager/Disk drives and double-click on Samsung T5. A dialog box opens. Click on the "Policies" tab, then click the box or circle beside "Better performance". Click on OK to exit. Now you'll get faster speeds. Remember to use Windows safe removal feature by clicking the little "Safely remove" icon in the System tray before you unplug the drive! NOTE - To achieve the full advertised speeds your computer must meet all of the following conditions: USB 3.1 Gen.2 / Windows 10 / with UASP support / Removal Policy set for Better Performance in Device Manager / Drive Properties / Policies. Other conditions such as USB 3.1 Gen.1, or USB 3.0, or lack of UASP, may result in SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER SPEEDS. Please observe this in the test results shown below. OK, now for some test results: Crystal Disk Mark 64 on various Windows computers (with Better Performance [i.e., Write cache] enabled in Device Mgr. on all of them): PC no.1 - (**USB 3.1 Gen.2**) type C-to-C cable / Gigabyte Z270X-UD3 motherboard, 2017 model: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 553/517 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 347/203 MB/sec.** Seq. Read/Write - 499/496 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 28/76 MB/sec.** type C-to-A cable gave same results plus or minus 2% (excellent!) PC no.2 - (**USB 3.0**) type C-toA cable / ASRock Z97 Extreme4 motherboard, 2 years old: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 437/434 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 165/171 MB/sec.** Seq. Read/Write - 407/406 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 21/42 MB/sec.** Laptop - (USB 3.1) type C-to-C cable / Acer E5- 575G: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 434/376 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 106/81 MB/sec. Seq. Read/Write - 375/341 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 24/39 MB/sec. (same on USB 3.0 C-to-A cable; suspect 3.1 port not optimized; maybe it's Gen.1 or maybe needs a BIOS update?) FILE COPY TEST on PC no.1 - Sequential. Copied folder containing 2 large video files - total size 9.56GB. The folder was copied from an internal Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB SSD to the Samsung T5 via USB type C-to-A cable. Sustained transfer speed (all 9.56GB) - 442 MB/sec. This sustained transfer speed means the T5 is suitable for video editing, scratch disk, RAW photo edits, etc. as well as handling all normal file duties. The speed combined with its small physical size makes it very desirable for use in the field, when traveling, and at home or office. Add to this the included encryption feature and out-of-the-box Windows/Mac compatibility and that makes it highly recommended. COMPARISON - At the time of writing, the T5 is around $30 more than the Sandisk Extreme 500 portable SSD which is a direct competitor model. Strangely, the Sandisk is offered in either 480GB or 500GB capacity compared to Samsung's 500GB. Each of them weighs only about 2 or 3 ounces. Both claim they are shock-resistant enough to withstand a 6-foot drop onto a hard surface. The Sandisk has a sort of rubber bumper and a cover for the USB port which makes it also splash-resistant. Both offer encryption and a 3-year warranty. Overall, the Samsung T5 is about 5% faster than the Sandisk Extreme 500, but it's nearly impossible to notice any difference when they are in use. Neither maker quotes an endurance rating; however, they both have very well designed controllers using advanced techniques to maximize performance across the board, so we may hope that endurance will be up there with the best. For example, the Sandisk X400 internal SSD, on which the Extreme 500 is based, has an endurance rating of around 360TBW. Samsung is advertising the T5 as a great choice for video and photo work on their website, and their track record suggests that they back that up with high endurance. There are other, cheaper portable SSDs - WD, PNY, ADATA, etc.. If you don't want or need USB 3.1 Gen.2 high sustained Write speeds, or high Mixed workload speeds, or hardware encryption, or high endurance, or cool running without any thermal throttling of speed, then you might be very happy with a lower value-driven design. But, when you examine these value-driven portable SSDs you will see that they lack one or more of those outstanding features of the Samsung and Sandisk. If you need the above-mentioned features from a major brand name that can give you years of reliable use, then the Samsung T5 is the latest and greatest you can buy without breaking the bank. Can you get even better results than this? Yes, you can step up to pro models at significantly higher prices and achieve more speed. Oh, I really hate that law of diminishing returns, don't you?

Pros: What a neat drive! Starting from the basics, it is: - Fast - Small and light - Metal/durable feeling Each of those basic things are what you want in portable storage, and this ticks all the boxes without any issues. However, it is important that you’re able to take advantage of the full USB 3.1 Gen 2 spec, and if so, you’re basically adding an additional solid state drive to your system (which, technically, I suppose that’s what under the hood of this thing). Built-in security features without a bunch of extra setup are a great add as well. There isn’t a lot of technical detail I can find out about it, but it appears to be setup such that an entire partition has been created that is used for encrypted storage (when a password is setup in the Samsung app). Installation apps and lock status are available when the drive is plugged in and a read-only partition is mounted that contains the Samsung SSD app installers. Unlocking the drive is done through launching the app and entering the 4-16 character password you set when first initializing the drive through the app. It appears the that the hardware encryption feature is totally legit - speeds on a encrypted partition vs. speeds on an unencrypted partition (uninitialized or security turned off) are practically identical, so that’s pretty great. I’m on the hunt for a teardown or perhaps some more detailed information on how it works, but there doesn’t seem to be anything super easy to find.

Cons: Cords are short - they are meant to be used for connecting the drive to your PC from the front (or the side, if a laptop), or for keeping it next to your phone during a transfer. This isn’t the type of drive you keep on your desk with a long cord running to your computer. Password feature on the security mode is set to a maximum of 16 characters, which is pretty much arbitrary and unneccessary to have been set as a limit. For such a usable feature, this takes away from the security aspect of it. Additionally (and this is likely a limitation of the encryption being used), there is no concept of a recovery key like something like Microsoft’s Bitlocker would have. So if you forget your password, tough luck, but the Samsung SSD app does very clearly warn you.

Overall Review: To add my own speeds to the list of previously posted speeds, here are benchmarks from CrystalDiskMark (in MB/s): Seq Q32T1 - 442 R, 442 W 4KiB Q8T8 - 164 R, 167 W 4KiB Q32T1 - 170 R, 173 W 4KiB Q1T1 - 25 R, 50 W I didn’t get the chance to test this vs. any compatible Android phones, as my Nexus 6 uses MicroUSB instead of USB type C. However, I would expect that speeds would drop significantly, as most phones using USB type C don’t have USB 3.1 Gen 2 capability, the hardware hasn’t quite made its way into phones yet as of writing this review. Overall, if you have a need for some fast, portable, general-purpose storage, this is a great buy.

Pros: * Silent operation. It's an SSD, therefore it makes no noise! It never spins down or up, and it doesn't need to turn off the disk drive at idle. * USB 3.1 Gen2. Supports the newest USB interface for the fastest speeds. This is going to be very helpful in most cases since you'll need it to max out the drive's bandwidth. * Compact size. It's a little over 2 inches square, about the size of a credit card, but slightly thicker. * Password-protection included. The drive includes a password protection feature pre-installed, you simply need to enable it and then choose your password. After that, all of the files become hidden and nothing can be read or written to the drive until the password is entered. It can be disabled at anytime thereafter, if you decide you don't want it anymore. * Excellent SSD speeds. I averaged around 480~500 MB/s sequential reads and writes, which is pretty standard for most SSDs these days (SATA3). You will not see 1+ GB/s NVMe/PCI-E speeds with this drive. After all, it only uses the USB interface. All things considered this is very impressive, especially for a portable drive like this. * Temperatures. Unlike external HDDs, the T5's temperature stays very low during operation. It stayed around 30C during the extent of my test. It felt slightly warm to the touch, but nothing major, and certainly a lot cooler than regular HDDs.

Cons: * Small capacity. With the performance of an SSD, you're going to sacrifice capacity at this price point. This drive is aimed at people who need superb speeds more than storage space. This isn't something I can criticize the drive for, but anyone shopping for this drive needs to be aware of their needs from a portable drive. If you need larger capacities, the T5 series is probably not for you. The portable aspect of the drive also increases the price premium, internal SSDs are also signficantly more affordable. This drive is clearly targetting a niche market.

Overall Review: I tested the drive on a Windows 10 x64 system. The OS recognized the T5 immediately and it worked right away. The drive has 465 GB of usable space, and comes pre-formatted. It's ready to go right out of the box! The T5 uses the exFAT file system, designed for flash drives and high compatibility. I have no experience with this file system prior to this SSD, however I didn't have any issues using it. If you plan on using this drive outside of a regular Windows 10 environment, you should ensure your OS/system can handle exFAT. I managed to re-format the drive to NTFS with no apparent issues, although I doubt Samsung recommends doing that. The Samsung T5 series includes a 3-year warranty, which is standard for Samsung's consumer SSD lines. I would like to see 5-year warranties on SSDs, since they have such long lifespans, but 3-years is all that's expected. Overall, if this drive fits your needs, it's a great choice. It's an excellent performer, meeting all of my expectations and more. Not many people need a portable SSD like this one, but if you're one of those people, you can't go wrong with the Samsung T5. Samsung has been leading the SSD market for many years now and the T5 is an excellent edition to their line-up.

Pros: Reversible USB-C Drive Connection USB C and A Cables Included USB 3.1 Gen2 SSD Speeds Silent SSD Operation Sturdy Aluminum Construction Compact size Optional password protection software included 3 Year Limited Warranty

Cons: exFAT preformatted Software Install Packages Preloaded to Drive

Overall Review: The SAMSUNG T5 500GB 2.50" USB 3.1 V-NAND Portable SSD is very compact with less surface area than a credit card. It has a very sturdy feeling metal construction and the box advertises 6.6ft drop resistant, although I did not test this feature. The drive has a single reversible USB-C connection and includes two USB cables. One cable with USB-C on both ends and the other with USB-A on one end making the drive fully backwards compatible with previous USB generations. After plugging the drive into a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 connection, Windows found the drive in less than a second. The drive is pre-formatted to exFAT with 465G total space. Samsung provides optional password protection software with the install packages for Windows and Mac included on the drive. With the password protection enabled, the drive only shows the Samsung software install packages and none of the files I copied to the drive and reports 0 bytes free. Once the password is entered to allow access to the entire drive, I encountered no difference in drive speeds and all previously copied files are visible with the full capacity available. The drive at idle, hovers around 32 degrees celsius while when copying data to the drive for 10 minutes, the drive reached a max of 49 degrees celsius. Testing the drive, it reached 487.6MB/s sequential read and 488.2MB/s sequential write. However, when copying multiple files to the drive in Windows, it only reached 135MB/s. Unfortunately, the drive is pre-formatted to exFAT which is a not a default file system supported on the CentOS distro of Linux I prefer. After reformatting the drive to NTFS I was able to move the drive between my Windows and Linux machines without issue reading or writing and it still functioned at the previously tested speeds. This drive is a great option for a fast and compact USB drive while still offering larger capacity.

Pros: Likely the fastest external drive you'll find, it uses Samsung's very best SATA-derived internals, but connects it with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface. Plus it includes both a Type-A and a Type-C cable to avoid potential frustration.

Cons: Here's the problem: the USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface is experiencing serious growing pains. It's not available on that many PCs, and even where it is, the performance just isn't where it should be for the "10Gbps" spec. That's 1.25GB/s, and this drive isn't even coming close. In my real-world (read: not synthetic benchmark) testing, this drive only achieved write speeds of 108MB/s over USB 3.1 Gen 2. This pales in comparison to the Samsung 850 Evo I'm running in the same system. Part of the blame could be placed on Intel, which hasn't supported the USB 3.1 standard on its chipsets, and thus requires third-party controllers, which are notoriously unreliable. I tested on a Gigabyte Z270 motherboard that had a built-in USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. Using a USB 3.0 port (aka USB 3.1 Gen 1), the drive was actually faster. I achieved write speeds of between 110MB/s and 140MB/s. In other words, just because you have a Gen 2 port doesn't mean you'll actually get faster speeds from this drive. And you likely will never see the kind of numbers listed on the spec sheet.

Overall Review: While the T5 boasts similar specs to the Samsung 850 Evo, and in fact likely *is* the 850 Evo, simply in an external chassis, the performance is not equivalent, despite the higher cost. I like that Samsung is pushing boundaries with external storage, but I consider this drive overpriced. Yes, it's small, and yes, it looks fancy, but the sparkly aluminum shell shouldn't add an extra $30 over the 850 Evo M.2 drive Samsung sells for PC use. Alas, in a world where SSD prices just keep going up month after month due to NAND shortages, Samsung doesn't need to keep prices down even it can.

Pros: Looking for a nice on the go storage drive? Look no further. I received this device and was glad to receive it to use it with my new laptop that includes a Thunderbolt port. It comes in a nice solid built frame that can take almost any slip/fall you can throw at it. The read and write speeds on this device are also nice (Around 450-500 MB/s) using the USB 3.1 connection. Having 500GB in such a small form factor is really beneficial to the average consumer who likes to carry stuff their working on in it or have it also become a nice media storage device for on the go watching and enjoying. Fits nicely into the pocket (Just make sure to take it out before washing your clothes). I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a portable storage solution that a regular thumb stick can't solve.

Cons: I had no issues with this device.

Overall Review: Overall, I would recommend to anyone looking for a nice size storage solution that easily fits into your pocket. It would work great as an on the go media holder for all of your media, or work in an office situation where you need to transfer files quickly to and fro different devices.

Pros: - Solid performance across both USB-3 and USB-C protocols. - Solid, lightweight aluminum housing. (I etched it to be sure it wasn't a particular plastic polymer that mimics aluminum) - Comes with both USB-3 and USB-C cables - 15" of cable (not including plugs) - Activity light is a pleasantly non-intrusive, dark blue light next to the plug. I think Samsung has listened to people that have complained about vendors getting trying to get the brightest LED possible into their product which ended up being more distracting than informational.

Cons: - It takes a significant performance hit at 4K Random Reads & Writes, but this isn't all that uncommon with any single storage medium - A bit pricey, but you're getting Samsung quality, which is the standard by which all others are measured.

Overall Review: First off, I'm really impressed with the quality of my fellow EggXpert Reviewers. Really nice job, everyone! Almost makes my review not worthwhile since you all have covered it so thoroughly! I used CrystalDiskMark 5.2.2 (x64) for all my testing on five different systems. Some are Win10 and some are Win7. Where applicable, I tested both USB-C and USB-3 on same the system or just USB-3 where it was the only option. Surprisingly, the results didn't really vary that much between USB-3 and USB-C. When I looked at the highest score for each test, 6 of the 8 tests in CrystalDiskMark favored the USB-3 interface, but only by margins that are apparent in benchmarking; In real-world use, no one is going to notice unless they have a stopwatch on it (in which case, they're effectively benchmarking it :-) For determining the average result of the eight tests, I removed the lowest score. For whatever reason, on various systems and regardless of interface, the Random 4K Write was dropping down into the 2MB/s range. Last time I saw results like this, the developer was contacted and it was resolved for that particular tested I was doing. I suspect this is a similar coding issue with CrystalDiskMark. Therefore, any result in the 2MB/s range was removed from the average. Averaged Results are listed as READ : WRITE (in MB/s) Seq Q32T1... 457.40 : 351.31 4K Q32T1... 138.30 : 104.81 SEQ... 422.96 : 308.49 4K... 23.29 : 47.41 Looking at these numbers, it didn't occur to me until just now and after reading some of the other EggXpert reviews that this could just be a SATA/M.2 hooked up to a USB-C interface. I have a Samsung 840 EVO sitting here along with a Sabrent USB-3 to SATA interface (I believe it's this one: N82E16812156064). I'm not going to go back and redo all my testing right now, but I suspect that I might get similar results if I plugged in my SATA SSD to that interface. IF I WERE TO GET SIMILAR RESULTS, which I believe I would, that's why I gave this unit a 4 out of 5 eggs. Subtract that price of that cable from a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, and you're going to have money left over. So I think it's definitely worth considering which route you want to go, especially if you consider that there's a 1TB SSD here (N82E16820173354) that doesn't cost all that much more and should give you comparable if not better performance AND the same 3yr warranty. Lastly, a particular shout out to EggXpert "Andrew M." Good thought to call out the windows caching for the SSD. I had forgotten about that and went back and did some re-testing on my systems. Surprisingly, the benchmarks didn't result in any noticeable differences that would be outside the normal result deviations.

Pros: Size - About as small as you can get for a 500Gig drive. Measures 7/16" thick, 3.5" length and 2.25" wide. Great for use with a surveillance system, as you can hide the drive easily. Construction: Aluminum case, instead of the former model and most SSD's, which use plastic. Product had no issue with an accidental 3 foot drop on to a hardwood floor. Speed: It would be very hard to find a faster portable SSD. CrystalDisk Mark 5.1.2 Performance on Windows 7 x64: Seq(Q32t1) - Read - 541.6, Write 507.2 4K(Q32t1) - Read - 197.4, Write 181.9 Seq Read - 491.1, Write 474.2 4K Read - 23.92, Write 67.91 USB 3.1 Gen 2- Light years faster than USB 2.0, as you would expect. Saving of a 18.6gig video surveillance file, from my desktop to the SSD took 12min with USB 2.0, while USB 3.1 took 1min and 22sec. Errors: No errors or issues after two weeks of three cameras recording and writing over data. Plug-and-Play - Came formatted, but wanted to format it Windows 7. Formatted FAT32 for Windows and then reformatted by my surveillance system with no issues. 465GB of useable area. No power cord - No need for an extra power cord due to USB 3.1. Anyone that has to deal with the older portable drives with power cords knows it is not a good situation. Add-on for encryption - 256bit. Can be added if you need it. You are able to lock out the drive from anyone else getting in without your password. No temp - Unlike the other portable SSD's drive, this drive is still ice cold after constant use for two weeks. Warranty - 3 years. As with most SSD's, you will have an issue in the first 30 days, or never.

Cons: Performance over T3 - Saw only a 6% improvement over my Samsung T3 drive. Price - At $200, it costs a lot more than the T3 for very little performance increase.

Overall Review: Samsung just makes rock solid portable SSD's. Have four previous Samsung SSD's and never have had an issue.