Samsung Portable SSD T5 Review: Speedy, Durable External Storage

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 10:00 AM EDT

Samsung Portable SSD T5 - The Verdict

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Performance Summary: The Samsung Portable SSD T5 offered strong performance throughout the vast majority of our testing. For all intents and purposes, when attached to a USB 3.1 (preferably gen 2) controller, it is as fast as a typical internal SATA SSD. The drive excels with large, sequential transfers, and although 4K transfers were good, they trailed the previous-gen T3 in one instance. At higher queue depths, which would be an uncommon scenario on an externally attached storage device, the T5 can't match the speed of an internal SSD, but that shouldn’t be an issue in real-world use cases.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 -- Find Them At Amazon

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 is a streamlined, refined, and higher-performing iteration of the previous-gen T3. The partially rubberized enclosure is gone in favor of an all-metal design, newer 3D V-NAND is employed in the drive, and Samsung has included two types of USB cables (Type-C and Type-A) to accommodate users of all systems.

All four capacities of the Samsung Portable SSD T5 should be available immediately. Pricing for the four models is as follows...

In light of current SATA SSD prices, the Samsung Portable SSD T5 commands somewhat of premium, though the three largest capacities arrive at lower MSRPs than the T3's. You could easily grab an USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure and standard SSD and save a few bucks. Going that route, however, will result in a larger, heavier, and less elegant solution.

Overall, the Samsung Portable SSD T5 rocks. If you’re in the market for some speedy, highly-portable, durable external storage, the Samsung Portable SSD T5 should be on your short list. You'll pay a premium for the form factor, but that’s probably acceptable to many of you for something as compact and fast as the Samsung Portable SSD T5.