Samsung offers an external SSD on the market that is both compact, resistant and efficient. We put it to the test.
In the very large catalog of Samsung products, there are SSDs. The brand has long been a reference in computer storage and its SSDs are often among the most efficient on the market. It also offers a range of easy-to-use external SSDs. The T7 Shield SSD is designed to be compact, resistant and elegant at the same time.
Technical sheet
- Capacity: 1 TB
- Interface : USB Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s)
- Transfer speed: up to 1050 MB/s
- Dimension : 59 x 88 x 13 mm
- Weight: 98g
- Colors: beige, black, blue
Design
The T7 Shield SSD is external storage in a rather compact format. Its size is a bit larger than that of a bank card on a thickness of 1 cm. It is therefore an SSD that you can easily take with you in any bag, or even put in your pocket.
Its beige color and its curves make it an object that is both sober and at the same time rather original. Its appearance contrasts with that of classic tech objects often dressed in a somewhat sad black or gray dress. We are a little less seduced by the rubber texture chosen for the outer coating, which is certainly soft under the fingers, but which might be displeasing according to your tastes. The most important is its certification, IP65 once morest dust and water. You can easily take this SSD to the beach, on a hike or to the pool. Obviously, it will still be necessary to avoid prolonged baths. Above all, imagine that it will easily withstand splashes and a passage under a short shower. According to Samsung, it resists drops up to three meters, all the same.
Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid
Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid
On the edges, the design goes to the essentials with on one side the USB-C port for connection to devices and on the other legal inscriptions and the storage capacity of the SSD. We encountered only one problem during use: the USB cable tends to detach too easily from the USB-C port of the SSD. In addition, you must also make sure to insert the cable correctly into the SSD port, otherwise the PC will not recognize the connection.
Software
The “Shield” component of this SSD does not stop at its resistant chassis. Samsung also offers a data encryption solution using a dual partition system. On a very small read-only partition, the brand offers several encryption or decryption software installation files. Convenient to be able to open your storage even on other PCs. This software is compatible from Windows 7, macOS 10.10 Yosemite and Android 5.1.
Source : Frandroid
Source : Frandroid
Source : Frandroid
Once the password has been configured, the Samsung software may ask you for it each time you connect to the SSD. The use is very simple. Of course, you can also choose not to use any encryption solution and use the SSD like a conventional USB key.
The software suite offered by Samsung stops there. For the rest, we have a classic SSD recognized immediately by the file managers of the different systems.
Performances
Under the hood, Samsung offers us a 1 TB NVMe PCIe SSD accessible by le port USB-C with a transfer speed of 10 Gbit/s a USB 3.2 Gen 2. The connection is made using one of the two cables provided: either the USB-C to USB-C cable or the USB-C to USB-A cable. Samsung promises 1050MB/s sequential read speed and 1000MB/s sequential write speed.
Source : Frandroid
Source : Frandroid
As you can see, the reality is a bit more disappointing. It remains a very responsive and efficient SSD, but less than expected. Note that we are testing the SSD here with an exFAT partition and without the encryption. We performed the tests on macOS and Windows several times. Performance was consistently better on Windows where the SSD did well at the speeds promised by Samsung in sequential.
Price and availability
The Samsung T7 Shield 1TB is available from from 136 euros on Amazon.fr. Count 246 euros for the 2 TB version if you need a larger capacity. This is a rather competitive price compared to other resistant and waterproof SSDs. The Sandisk Extreme 1 TB is thus findable at 132 euros on Amazon.fr.
Compared to more classic SSDs, without any particular resistance, the price is 30 euros above the observed average. We must also consider the three-year warranty offered by Samsung with its SSD.
