Samsung T9 portable SSD review: Rugged outside, fast inside

Price When Reviewed

1TB: $140 I 2TB: $240 I 4TB: $440

The newest in a sequence of fantastic transportable SSDs that began round eight years in the past with the T1, Samsung’s T9 is the primary to convey SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps efficiency to the desk. If you’re blessed with such a port (nee USB 3.2 2×2), it should almost double the sustained throughput of the older T7. (Only odd numbers are utilized in Samsung’s numbering for the sequence.)

Alas, in comparison with different 20Gbps drives, the T9 is merely a middle-of-the-pack performer. But it additionally offers probably the most luxe tactile expertise of the pack with its textured floor and sculpted traces.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best external drives to study competing merchandise.

What are the T9’s options?

The Samsung T9 is a 20Gbps USB SSD that makes use of NVMe internals, and sports activities a USB Type C port for connectivity. Samsung offers each Type-A to Type-C and Type-C to Type-C cables.

The SSD measures 3.46-inches lengthy by 2.36-inches large, and 0.55-inches thick. It weighs in at a mere 4.3 ounces. The internals are undoubtedly NVMe-based as SATA may by no means surpass 550MBps, not to mention obtain the almost 2GBps that the T9 is able to.

Samsung was mum in regards to the controller and precise drive inside, but when I needed to guess, I’d go 970 Evo Plus or an replace on that given the worth and efficiency, which you’ll examine under.

A cross-platform utility is supplied by the corporate to show password safety on and off. The utility is required to entry the drive when password safety is enabled.

As for the T9’s textured, sculpted countenance (see the lead photograph), it makes the drive really feel very good and offers a positive grip each within the hand and whereas rested on a easy floor. The down facet to the texturing, nonetheless, is that the drive collects mud, lint, and different schmutz at a close to report tempo. Tidying it up for the images was a little bit of a chore.

The T9 is warrantied for 5 years, although no TBW scores (terabytes that could be written) had been supplied. In our expertise, given cheap utilization, distributors will honor the guarantee time interval regardless.

How a lot does the T9 price?

The T9 will likely be accessible in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities for $140, $240, and $440, respectively, on the time of this writing. Those are the MSRP’s supplied by the corporate. You might even see totally different costs on-line. Note that some unscrupulous on-line sellers will attempt to cost significantly extra when drives are model new and in demand.

How does the T9 carry out?

The T9 is a efficiency leap past the 10Gbps T7 Touch and T7 Shield we’ve reviewed. But it’s not near the quickest 20Gbps SSD we’ve examined. That can be the mighty Crucial X10 Pro.

As you possibly can see under, the 2TB T9 we examined turned in good, if not stellar CrystalDiskMark 8 scores. Sequential efficiency was a bit up and down, however fairly good total.

The T9 was once more a combined bag with CrystalDiskMark 8 4K efficiency. It was aces on the 32-queue learn, however the single-queue learn and 32-queue write had been noticeably missing in oomph.

Where the T9 dominated over the Kingston XS2000 and Teamgroup M200 was in our 48GB transfers. Shaving nearly 100 seconds off these drives’ occasions within the combination.

The T9 took third place amongst 20Gbps drives within the 450GB write. Its time of 8 minutes and 23 seconds wasn’t nice, nevertheless it wasn’t as tragic because the Kingston XS2000’s efficiency. The T9 turned in an honest sufficient rating reflecting an total write charge of round 900MBps.

While not the quickest exterior USB SSD on the market, the T9 is not any slouch, and we actually like its 48GB switch occasions.

Samsung touts the T9’s low energy utilization and thermal output. While the drive was heat after our testing, it was under no circumstances uncomfortable to the touch — one other plus for the silicon sleeve.

Should you purchase the Samsung T9?

We respect Samsung’s historical past of delivering quick, dependable exterior USB SSDs. We’ve come to treat these drives as one thing of a typical. However, on the time of this writing Crucial’s 4TB X10 Pro is simply $290, making the T9 appear overpriced. This could change quickly. Regardless, in the event you go for the T9, it should get the job carried out, and in luxe trend.

How we take a look at

Drive exams at the moment make the most of Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB switch exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking on 58GB of the 64GB whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which additionally incorporates the working system. For exterior drives, the motherboard’s devoted Thunderbolt 4 and 20Gbps USB ports on the rear panel are used.

Each take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that as any drive fills up, efficiency will lower as a consequence of much less NAND for secondary caching, and different components.

The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped in addition to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can differ by capability as a consequence of extra or fewer chips to learn/write throughout and the quantity of NAND accessible for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements.

If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report (methods being roughly equal), by all means—tell us.