Samsung recently unveiled the successor to the famous T3 Portable Solid-State Drive (SSD). The new line-up is called T5 (not sure why they skipped T4 though). It comes in two colors and 4 different memory capacities. 250GB & 500GB comes in light blue color whereas 1TB and 2TB comes with a Deep Black color.
Highlights of Samsung T5
Our test unit is the 500GB T5 which comes in “alluring blue” color. At the time of the review, it is available for $170 on Amazon.
- Read and Write Speeds of 540MB/s
- Comes with USB-C input
- Includes USB Type-C to C and USB Type-C to A Cables
- Shock Resistant Frame
- 3-Year Limited Warranty
- Compatible with Mac OS and Windows PC
- Password Protection and AES 256-bit encryption
Performance of Samsung T5
During the testing with MacBook Pro 2015, T5 managed to give an average write speed of 415MB/s and the Read Speed of 425MB/s. Although, this is slower than their claimed speed of up to 540 MB/s, but still it is fast enough to edit a 4K File on Pro Res. To put it into perspective, a file of 30GB/s was transferred in 110 Seconds to the SSD. Its staggering performance is largely due to the superior components used in its hardware. Overall, it’s performance was quite impressive!
Software of Samsung T5
T5 comes preloaded with Mac OS and Windows compatible software. It’s a proprietary software which can be used to set the password and update its software as well. The setup is fairly simple and hardly takes a minute. It’s a well-thought out software with no complication what so ever.
Alternatives of Samsung T5
The market for portable SSDs is very saturated with some well-established players like WD, SanDisk and Seagate. All of them are offering very impressive products. One of the prime competitors for Samsung T5 is WD’s My Passport SSD which is a few bucks cheaper and promises to deliver the similar read and write speeds. However, it all boils down to the durability and overall user experience.
Verdict on Samsung T5
During the extensive tests and performance measures, T5 performed pretty well. Although, it didn’t fulfill the 540MB/s Read/Write claim of Samsung, but still it was blazing fast and transferring large files was no issue at all. It definitely is one of the fastest portable SSDs currently available in the market!
BloomBig Studio 