Samsung T5 SSD Review

Samsung T5 SSD Design

The T5 is one of the best pieces of hardware we’ve seen from Samsung. The SSD doesn’t compromise on either performance or design. The high portability also shows that the device was built for the everyday use that involves users slipping it out to copy one file or another from time to time. The SSD itself is something that doesn’t add significant weight or pull your pockets down when it’s in there. At a featherweight 51g, the drive spans 0.4 inches in height, 2.3 inches by width and has a 3.0-inch depth. It is almost impossible to know unless you put it on a scale but the T5 SSD is a tad heavier than its T3 predecessor.

Video Review of the Samsung T5 SSD

Colour of the Samsung T5 SSD

The color of the T5 is based on the sizes of the drives; the 1TB and 2TB versions sport a black monochromatic finish while smaller sizes like the 250GB and 500GB specifications have a blue colour. The finishes are fine and attractive. While they may not be as glamorous as the Gold Adata SE730 External Solid state drive, it is more visually appealing than the plain appearance that the OWC Envoy Pro EX sports. The device fits perfectly into the pocket and certified by Samsung to survive a 6.6 feet drop. The casing is made from Aluminum all round and the drive has no moving parts within.

Samsung T5 SSD Performance

The 2TB sized version of the Samsung T5 SSD scores a 39 cents per gig performance. This is very good performance, bettering competition such as the Sandisk Extreme 900 that ranks 52 cents per gigabyte. The G-Drive Slim and Oyen Digital MiniPro 3.1 both fare better however, scoring 38 cents and 29 cents per gigabyte which makes them some of the best products in the market.

The drive comes pre-loaded with the Samsung portable solid state drive Utility software. This enables and manages the in-built 256-bit encryption of the drive for password use. With the help of its exFAT formatting, the software will run perfectly on major operating systems, Android tablets, smartphones, Windows PCs and MacBooks. As earlier mentioned, there are no moving parts inside the drive so it might take some electrical frying or mechanical damage to end the T5 SSD, but Samsung still includes a warranty that covers buyers for 3 years from time of purchase.

In terms of data transfer and speed capabilities, we put the T5 SSD to test on Windows based devices and an Apple MacBook Pro. The results from the MacBook Pro suggested that Samsung had rightly labelled the device with the company claiming the device can rack up to 540MBps for data transfer. The MacBook recorded 515.2MBps for read speed and 485.8MBps for write speed when the USB-typeC interface was used. On the PCMark 7 Secondary test with the USB-typeC port, the T5 SSD scored an impressive 5449 points and 5371 points on the USB 3.0 interface. For comparison, the T5 betters the Samsung T3 and Sandisk Extreme 900 which both clocked speeds of 40MBps read, 380MBps write and 427.6MBps read and 412.5MBps write respectively. On the PcMark 7 test, the Sandisk Extreme 9000 and Samsung T3 SSD rack up 4980 and 4908 points respectively. For the drag and drop test, the T5 SSD as expected completed a file transfer of 6GB in just 12 seconds using the USB-typeC interface and spent 18 seconds on the USB 3.0 hub.

Samsung T5 SSD Price

The Samsung T5 SSD comes in 4 varieties based on size and capacity. The 2TB version is logically the most expensive and costs a pricey $800, the 1TB storage will see you splash out some $400 while the smaller sizes of 250GB and 500GB will cost around $130 and $200 respectively. The Price of the 2TB may be a deterrent factor but one thing that is certain is that one always gets value for money with the Samsung T5 SSD.