Samsung T5 SSD - Where art thou?

[Eug]

Samsung has a popular external SSD in the T3, but its successor the T5 is supposed to be out by now.

http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170523000873#cb

Production supposedly began in May. However, I haven’t seen it anywhere, either in stores or in reviews. Anyone here seen it yet? It’s July now.

Samsung introduced a 2-terabyte portable SSD T3 based on its 48-layer V NAND last year. The size of T3 is about two thirds of a business card. It weighs about 50 grams. The device can store up to 400 full-HD movies.

According to electronics parts makers, the upcoming SSD T5 is expected to be smaller and lighter than its predecessor.

The capacity of the T5 is expected to be larger, considering that it makes use of Samsung’s 64-layer V NAND Flash memory chips. Data transfer speeds are expected to improve from the current 450MB per second as well.

Stacking 64 layers of cell-arrays, the Samsung V NAND chip can increase its storage density to 512Gb per single die, and its input-output speed to 800Mbps.

 

[Johnny Lucky]

From the same article you quoted:

"Samsung confirmed the company was currently working to develop the new product, but said the schedule for its official launch hadn’t been made yet."

“It is yet too early to confirm specifications about the new product, including the name,” said a Samsung official.

 

[AnTech]

Behold the gold master:
Samsung Portable SSD T5
http://www.samsung.com/ch_fr/memory-storage/portable-ssd-t5

 

[Eug]

Behold the gold master:
Samsung Portable SSD T5
http://www.samsung.com/ch_fr/memory-storage/portable-ssd-t5

Leaked and then disappeared? That page is no longer there.

La page que vous demandez est introuvable

 

[realdannys]

I saw the specs when it was up and it was extremely disappointing to be honest.

It's just another Sata III to USB connection. Granted it's now USB 3.1 Gen 2 this time - but instead of making use of the 10Gbps it just gives you an extra little bit of performance over the Gen 1 connection (420MB/s to 520MB/s).

I can't believe we're well into the 2nd year of Gen2 USB 3 and no one has done anything but use the same Sata III interface for SSD's. You can achieve the T5 speed and performance today by using getting a USB-C Gen2 to SATA connection and plugging in any decent Sata III SSD. Granted it's not as small but thats the only advantage the T5 is getting.

I was really hoping Samsung would give us a 850MB/s drive the size of the T3 and with much better 4k file performance than the Sandisk Extreme 900 which struggles with the small files due to software raid.

 

[Troy LaMont]

They have them for sale already at the local Fry's in Woodland Hills CA...FYI

 

[Eug]

Here's a review.

StorageReview: Samsung Portable SSD T5 Review

The Samsung T5 is a welcomed addition to company’s mobile storage portfolio, as it enters the always-growing and highly sought-after portable SSD market. Compact and lightweight, the T5 improved on its predecessor in every way with the exception of a higher capacity point; it will certainly suit the needs of any on-the-go professionals or media enthusiasts that work with large volumes of data. Although Samsung indicated similar performance for all models in the T5 family, consistency between the lower and higher capacities points was a bit uneven. For example, the 2TB model had an impressive performance across the board, while the 500GB model ran about slower in writes. Lower capacities failed to achieve Samsung’s quoted performance numbers as well. That being said, they are still two of the fastest and most portable SSDs out there.

The improved modern design of the T5 is also very appealing. Having such a compact, high-performing, and high-capacity storage solution that easily fits into a small pocket is extremely useful. Coupling all of this with the optional AES 256-bit hardware encryption, simple password protection functionality, and its ability to seamlessly work with Android devices (which is a vital feature for many professionals on the go) makes this a fantastic release by Samsung.

I still haven't seen these for sale in Toronto though. Note that the T3 has been on sale for the past few weeks, but I will wait, given the performance increase for the T5.

Too bad my MacBook only has Gen 1 USB-C, but my iMac does have Gen 2 USB-C. Ideal though would be Thunderbolt 3 for the latter.

 

[Eug]

I didn't realize, but AnandTech has a review too:

[URL='http://www.anandtech.com/show/11719/samsung-portable-ssd-t5-review-64layer-vnand-debuts-in-retail']Samsung Portable SSD T5 Review: 64-Layer V-NAND Debuts in Retail[/url]

Also, the review mentions that TRIM is enabled. I presume that is not true for Mac, but nonetheless, that's an important improvement over the T3.

 

[Eug]

Got the 1 TB model of the T5 today.

Black Magic Disk Test in macOS 10.12.6 Sierra with HFS+ is giving me 475 MB/s write and 505 MB/s read.

I haven't tried APFS.