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0 Last year Samsung released a new range of portable hard drives with durability in mind. I welcome you to the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield, a premium drive and a premium price but with a lot on offer.
Always equip a shield!
When it comes to Samsung, especially the more premium side of their ranges. You are pretty much guaranteed a great user experience. So let’s jump in and see what the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield has to offer.
Design
I have had my hands on so many portable hard drives. Yet most of them I wouldn’t want to take out of the house. Some have felt delicate with no external protection. But then there have also been a selection that has had design flaws. To this day I can safely say that the Samsung T7 Shield, is the most durable portable SSD I have come across.
With rigidity and durability in mind, the product designers have produced a hard drive that can stand the test of travel. The external chassis has been rubberised, which alleviates shock when dropped. Alongside the external fabrication, it has a ridged design which provides excellent grip when out and about. I could see this hard drive being used for anything from outdoor photography to in-house storage for gamers.
For those who like to match their accessories to their builds. The Samsung T7 Shield is available in three different colourways. There is Black, Beige and Blue, all of which look stunning due to the overall sleek design of the casing. Personally, I love the black colourway. The blue is a little too vibrant for me and the beige I can imagine collecting and showing the dirt. In terms of size, it comes in at 59 x 88 x 13mm and only weighs 98g.
Specification
The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield comes in three capacities, 1TB, 2TB and the one we are looking at which is the 4TB. Obviously depending on your requirements will depend on the space needed. If it’s a long-term investment I highly recommend the 4TB option. when it comes to connectivity it has a USB 3.2 Gen.2 port and a Sequential Read/Write: Up to 1,050MB/sec /Up to 1,000 MB/sec. Making this drive a great option for those who need a quick transfer.
For those who are looking for a secure drive, Samsung has its own applications which ensure the safety of your data. With the Samsung Magician Software and the Samsung Portable SSD Software, you can even secure your drive with a scan of your finger. This is completed via smartphone. To top all of this off the drive is compatible with just about any device and has a 3-year warranty. Due to its water resistance and dust resistance design hopefully, you would never require need to invoke the warranty process.
Putting It To The Test
I figured the best console to test the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield out on is my son’s Xbox Series S. He has a ton of titles on there but recently he received the dreaded drive is full message. So rather than remove them completely, I thought let’s move them across to the external SSD and play from there. Obviously, not all titles can be played directly from the SSD so please check before doing this yourself. First I had to ensure it was formatted correctly, if you get a drive that isn’t. There is an abundance of guides online that will talk you through the process.
Due to the specification of the T7 Shield (mainly its speed), moving titles across from the internal drive to the external T7 Shield is relatively fast. To be totally honest a lot quicker than I thought, which means that freeing up some space wasn’t such an arduous task. We moved over a lot of the smaller titles, as that’s what he mainly plays. Plus I figured these would play/perform a lot better directly from the SSD than say a larger title that was compatible.
Once transferred over it was a breeze to easily plug and play, and due to the size of the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield, it can just sit nicely alongside your console. My worry was that games were going to take an age to load as experienced previously. However, it was quite the opposite, some titles actually loaded faster than when timing the load to the title screen. Checking this drive out has really made me think that Xbox needs to upgrade their drives within the Xbox Series S.
Final Thoughts
Truth be told unless you are looking for a portable hard drive. They can be pretty mind-numbing to talk about. But when you break down everything they can provide you with, personally I feel like everyone should have one. Whether it’s just for backing up or using for transporting files, they are ridiculously handy. The one thing you need to know is that your data is going to be safe and not corrupt if accidentally knock it. This is where the Samsung T7 Shield really stands out. Not only do you get the performance, but you get durability. I award the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield a Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A sample was received in order to write this review.
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my husband purchased one of these today. he has a lot of stuff on his computer and i mean a lot, so this is very handy. plus its dust resistant.