Product test

Samsung Portable T5 tested: Super fast and very compact

8.1.2020

Translation: machine translated

Super fast and very compact: these are the external SSDs from Samsung's Portable T5 series. Find out what the robust and portable storage is good for in the test.

If you're travelling a lot and want to take a large, fast storage device with you, you need something compact. I don't want to lug around a large, heavy external hard drive in addition to my laptop. Hard drives also make a lot of noise when accessing data. Not the best starting point for a harmonious train journey. The external, lightweight SSD from Samsung was just what I needed to solve this problem.

Design and scope of delivery

With its compact dimensions of 74 x 57.3 x 10.5 millimetres, the small SSD fits in any trouser pocket. It is also very light at just 51 grams. The housing is made of aluminium. On the one hand, this makes for a stylish appearance, but also protects the SSD in the event of light falls - up to two metres according to the manufacturer - and conducts waste heat well to the outside. The USB-C port, which you use to connect the external SSD to your computer, is located on one narrow side. The other side is sealed. Here you will only find the CE mark and serial number printed on it. A blue LED appears on the side with the USB port during operation and for access control. As the LED is located under the cover, the light emitted is attenuated and therefore very pleasant. Even in the dark, the flashing is not distracting.

The black aluminium makes it almost impossible to take a dust-free photo.impossible to take a dust-free photo, but looks really good in real life

In addition to the SSD, the scope of delivery includes two USB cables. One that has USB Type-C plugs on both sides and one that connects from USB Type-C to USB Type-A. Practical, as many devices do not have the relatively new USB-C connection. Unfortunately, a bag for storing the drive and cable is not included. The SSDs are available with a capacity of 250 and 500 gigabytes as well as one or two terabytes. They are available in blue, black, red or gold, depending on the storage size.

The technology inside

The Samsung Portable T5 is factory formatted with the exFAT file system. The Windows, macOS and Android operating systems read this format without any problems. The V-NAND storage technology used and the USB 3.1 interface enable read rates of up to 540 MByte/s and write rates of up to 515 MByte/s, provided the device used also has a USB 3.1 Generation 2 port and supports the UASP mode (USB Attached SCSI Protocol). If you use the SSD on older USB interfaces, performance will drop. If you connect the memory via USB 3.1 Generation 1, for example, the read and write rates are a maximum of 450 MByte/s.
The "Dynamic Thermal Guard" overheating protection throttles the external SSD if the surface temperature of its memory chip exceeds 45 °C. When copying and reading data, however, this did not kick in during the entire test process. The drive does not get particularly hot on the outside during operation either. Under full load, I measured 28 degrees Celsius with an infrared sensor.

You connect the SSD via USB Type-C. Two different cables are included with the data carrier

The benchmark results are very much dependent on the system used. On my desktop PC with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor, the AS Rock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard, 16 gigabytes of RAM and Windows 10, the SSD achieved 4926 points in the PC Mark 8 benchmark. In the ATTO benchmark, the SSD confirms the theoretical performance of its transfer speed from 64KByte data. For those who don't know what to do with the numbers: The SSD works damn fast.

For example, if you want to copy around 1000 photos (22 megapixels), that's around 8 gigabytes of data. If you connect the SSD via USB 3.1 Gen 2, the copying process takes around 15 seconds. Via USB 3.1 Gen 1 it takes around 30 seconds. Copying a Blu-ray film, which is around 25 gigabytes in size, takes just under 50-60 seconds via USB 3.1 Gen 2. You have to wait twice as long via USB 3.1 Gen 1. The transfer time here is around 1:40 minutes.

The external Samsung SSD T5 compared in size with a tea light

You can encrypt the data on your external SSD with Samsung's portable SSD software. All you have to do is create a password for the 256-bit AES drive encryption. The software is compatible with devices from Windows 7, MacOS Maverick and Android KitKat. According to the manufacturer, the SSD is also suitable for installing an operating system.

Conclusion: Practical tool

The Samsung Portable T5 external SSD is above all practical. Thanks to the fast access times, low heat generation and compact dimensions, there is really nothing left to be desired for the normal user. The encryption software is also simple and helpful.

The Samsung Portable T5 is available with 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB storage capacity

During my test period, I used the SSD to edit Full HD videos on the go. It worked reliably every day and gave me loyal service. If you already own a laptop with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port and are looking for a fast storage device for travelling, the Samsung Portable T5 will not disappoint.

External SSD

Samsung Portable T5

2 TB

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Stefanie Enge

Autorin

techjournalistin@gmail.com

Most of the time I'm living between bits and bytes, testing alternative Android operating systems and trying to make my life smarter with Open Source technology - always with a focus on privacy and data protection. When I'm not testing cool gadgets, I'm developing video games, writing stories and playing the accordion.

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