Best Portable SSD for Editing (Samsung T7 External Solid State Drive Review)

A full review of the Samsung T7. The best portable SSD for editing videos and photos.

In this video, I review the Samsung T7 Portable SSD. If you want to edit videos and photos very fast, consider the Samsung T7 Portable SSD. The T7 is also great for sharing work with project teams and clients.

In this video, we’re taking a look at the Samsung T7 External Solid State hard drive. I have the one terabyte version right here. So the T7, as is now known is available in two versions. The plain vanilla model, which does not have the fingerprint reader and the other model, the one that packs a fingerprint reader is known as the T7 Touch. We’re gonna look at prices for both of them.

Whats the Price

So let’s look at the prices, here for the regular T7 comes in some nice colors, blue, gray, red, and starts out for 500 gigabytes it’s 89.99, for a terabyte 169.99. Which is a good size? For two terabytes it goes up to 329. Now I’m gonna mention the T7 Touch. It comes only in black and silver and starts out at 119.99 for the 500 gigabytes. The one terabyte is 199 and the two terabytes is 349.

Now the difference in price between those two is about $30. So you’re gonna save yourself a little bit of money if you just get the T7 non-touch if you don’t need the added security. So it’ll save you a little bit of money there. I might add that there is no difference between the performance of these two models. The only difference is that SSD would fingerprint and password security. Otherwise, everything is the same.

Key Features of the Best Portable SSD for Editing

Some key features here with the Samsung T7 is that it interfaces with your computer using a USB-C type port. Here’s my USB-C type C port, and you get two different cables. One cable that comes with it is a USB-C to USB-C. The other cable is a USB-C to USB-A. So here’s my USB-C connector on my laptop. I’m gonna hook my T7 up to this. So now, because the USB-C on my computer is a USB 3.2 generation two standard.

And so is the connector on the T7, I’m gonna get another great feature here reads upto 1050 megabytes per second, and writes up to 1000 megabytes per second. All because both of these are USB 3.2 gen two supported devices. Another feature is because the USB 3.2 generation two standard. It’s gonna have that 10 gigabit per second USB-C bus. And that’s where you’re really gonna get the gains out of this device.

It’s shock-resistant and withstands drops from six feet. The non-touch T7 does have SSD password security. It has heat control. And as I said before, the T7 Touch comes with SSD fingerprint and password security.

So some of the things that I really thought were useful with this product, because I’m a video editor and a photographer, the T7 is great for editing video projects. Using your favorite video editing software. Video projects can contain large files, being able to read and write to a fast SSD has made editing quicker and smoother. I also use the T7 to edit my photos using Photoshop.

And if you’ve used Photoshop before, Photoshop files can get very large, especially if you have a lot of layers. Transferring files off the T7 was noticeably quicker. Whether you were uploading a video to YouTube or posting photos to social media, the fast speeds will save you time. Editing straight off the T7 is not only quicker, but it’ll save computer hard drive space, especially if you’re running low on your current hard drive,

the T7 is so light and compact. It’s great for traveling or if you need to hand off projects to someone who’s a client or a team, it’s fantastic for that. While you’re working with the T7, you can easily attach it to your computer or laptop to keep it out of the way. Buying the T7 has been like an upgrade for my computers, saving me the bigger costs of upgrading internal storage or buying a new computer.

What are the Pros?

Here’s some of the pros of the T7. Because the T7 is an SSD it can write or read data at incredible speeds compared to HDDs, which is useful for transferring large blocks of data. The random access times are in microseconds rather than milliseconds. That’s why SSD systems boot up so fast. Samsung says you can get speeds up to 1050 megabytes per second for read in 1000 megabytes per write. Those are fast, which in part is made possible by the USB 3.2 generation two that provides the needed interface.

So I’m using the Blackmagic design speed test here. And this is just to show you the kind of write and read speed that you’re gonna get when you have a Samsung device like this, that is compatible with the port on your computer. Both of them are USB 3.2 gen two, and that’s where you’re gonna get your fastest read and write speeds. And you can see that these are 811, 878 megabits per second, close to what Samsung said that this drive is capable of. So these are still pretty good speeds. Keep in mind the T5 is gonna be half of this.

Another pro is no moving parts. The problem with moving parts in hard drives is that they are a significant point of failure. If any of the moving parts break, the entire drive becomes unusable. That’s what makes traditional hard drives vulnerable to drop damage and where over time. The T7 is durable. Samsung rates the T7 for drops up to 6.6 feet or two meters. Thanks to the aluminum outer shell. SSDs have their lifespan limitations, but they are generally more durable and reliable. There are no moving parts to damage and no drive motor to break. This reliability makes SSDs great for portable external drives, which may be subject to more rigorous use and handling to SSDs are smaller and lighter than previous drives.

The T7 is slightly heavier than the T5 at two ounces compared to 1.8 ounces. Another pro size and design SSDs can come in many different shapes and sizes. So right out of the box, you could see that the T7 it’s a size of a credit card. If you’re wondering it’s a bit longer and slimmer than a T5. Both are easily pocketable. The T7 keeps an aluminum outer shell that is made to the touch and protects the SSD on the inside.

What are the Cons?

So as far as cons in using the T7, there was one thing I did find. If your PC doesn’t have a USB 3.2 generation two connector, it will run at a slower speed. So for example, I use a 27 iMac and it’s an early 2013 model. It only has a USB port and the USB port isn’t the USB 3.2. It is a USB 3.0. In doing speed tests with that. So here I’m using the Blackmagic Design disk speed test. And I have my T7 connected to a USB port on my iMac, 27 inch 2013 version. And in there as you can see, it’s a lot slower because my USB port is a USB 3.0. It ran slower than on my laptop, but it’s still faster than my internal hard drive or any other backup drive that I have hooked up to it. So just something to be aware of.

And another con and really isn’t a con just depends on what you want. If you want to use the password protection, you have to install software everywhere you want to unlock it. Now, this is the non-touch T7. The T7 touch now that you can unlock on any device that you hook it to by just tapping on the touch. So the touch version is more convenient to unlock if you’re reusing security.

Bottom Line

So the pros definitely outweigh the cons for the T7. I would recommend this product for anyone who does photography or video editing. It makes editing and file moving so much faster. The price is great for what you get. With a T7 SSD technology, your files can be safer for a longer time. I intend to buy more T7s. I will probably replace some of the older backup drives I have. So yes, I recommend the T7 SSD. Go buy it.

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