Samsung Portable SSD T5 500GB and 2TB Performance Review

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Conclusion

The Samsung Portable SSD T5 is essentially a refresh of last years Samsung Portable SSD T3 series and that is fine. The addition of Samsung’s 64-layer V-NAND technology and new controller inside has allowed for higher data transfer speeds on the new T5 series. The Samsung Portable SSD T3 series topped out at 450 MB/s, but now we are able to reach 540 MB/s read and 515 MB/s write on the T5 series. An extra 90 MB/s read and 65 MB/s write isn’t anything monumental, but you aren’t really paying anything extra for it as Samsung has kept the Portable SSD T5 pricing the same on the 250GB, 500GB and 1TB models and actually lowered the price on the 2TB drive by $50!

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Lineup:

• • Samsung Portable SSD T5 250GB MU-PA250B/AM $129.99 shipped ($0.52 per GB)
  • Samsung Portable SSD T5 500GB MU-PA500B/AM $219.99 shipped ($0.44 per GB)
  • Samsung Portable SSD T5 1TB MU-PA1T0B/AM $429.99 shipped ($0.42 per GB)
  • Samsung Portable SSD T5 2TB MU-PA2T0B/AM $849.99 shipped ($0.42 per GB)

At the end of the day the Samsung Portable SSD T5 is the fastest portable SSD that we have ever tested that doesn’t rely on an internal RAID solution. We are seeing up to 20% faster speeds with file transfers over last years model. We were big fans of the Samsung Portable SSD T3 series last year and we’ve been using it for the past year without issue. We are hopeful that the Samsung Portable SSD T5 will be just a reliable and it will be our new go-to drive for around the lab and home.

Legit Bottom Line: The Samsung Portable SSD T5 offers more performance than last years T3 series for the same price or lower!