Samsung T7 Touch SSD
Faster and even more secure.
Back in 2017, Samsung unleashed its thirdgeneration T5 Portable SSD, instantly becoming a favourite amongst those who like their storage solutions to boast incredibly fast transfer speeds and secure encryption. Now, the South Korean manufacturer is offering its long-awaited follow-up in the Samsung T7 Touch Portable SSD, a device that manages to improve on a product that was already near-perfect.
Available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, the T7 Touch’s biggest selling point is undoubtedly the inclusion of a biometric fingerprint scanner for added security and convenience. The T7 Touch looks very similar to the T5 but is a tiny bit bigger and heavier. 85 x 57 x 8.0mm for a weight of 58g for the former and 74 x 57.3 x 10.5mm for a weight of 51g for the latter. The hardware needed for the biometric feature explains the gain in weight. The aforementioned fingerprint scanner can be found within an LED square that also lights up with a cool blue glow to keep the user informed of what the SSD is doing at a glance.
Upon plugging the platform-agnostic SSD in for the first time, you will find Samsung’s Portable SSD Software 1.0 installation files already on the drive for Windows and Mac (along with a text file telling you where to download the Android version of the application). Once you’ve installed the appropriate version, you will be prompted to enable AES 256-bit hardware encryption via password and fingerprint ID. Once set up, you simply have to rest your finger on the scanner to unlock the SSD’s read/ write functionality the next time you plug it in. Sure, it’s not exactly military-grade security we’re talking about, but it should easily prevent anyone who isn’t a worldclass hacker from breaking into your drive.
Outside of the new fingerprint scanner, the biggest difference between the T5 and the T7 Touch can be found in Samsung’s decision to swap the former’s SATA-based SSD for an NVMe SSD behind the USB 3.2 Gen 2 bridge to offer significantly better performance. It is very likely that the T7 Touch uses sixth-generation 136-layer V-NAND as opposed to the T5’s 64-layer V-NAND.
Samsung claims that the drive can achieve read/ write speeds of up to 1.05GBps, which it says is about twice what the T5 could reach. In real life, we measured 1032MBps (read) and 924MBps (write) on CrystalDiskMark, which is not that far from Samsung’s own readings.
The T7 Touch can’t be touched (pun intended) when it comes to procuring the right balance between security, speed, portability and pricing. True, it doesn’t have any of the militarygrade security certifications that some of its more expensive rivals have, but at this price point, we’re fine with that. Indeed, what Samsung has done with the T7 Touch is raise the baseline for securing your data on the move by adding biometrics to password protection. Others will surely follow suit swiftly – just don’t expect them to beat the T7 Touch is on performance and on price.