Samsung Adds To Storage Lineup With The Portable SSD T1 (Updated)
At Samsung's press conference on Monday, the company revealed its latest portable external SSD, dubbed the T1. Its compact size makes it stand out from the rest of Samsung's SSDs, but that doesn't mean it doesn't perform as well as its bigger siblings.
Weighing in at about one ounce, with dimensions of 71 x 9.2 x 53.2 mm (H x W x D), the T1 comes in 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB capacities. It starts at $179.99, which seems reasonable when compared to the recent 250 GB 850 EVO, which costs $149.99. It has sequential read/write speeds of up to 450 Mbps, whereas the 250 GB 850 EVO which has sequential read/write speeds of 540 Mbps and 520 Mbps, respectively. The biggest gap between the two devices is in random read/write speeds. The T1 has a random read speed of 8,000 IOPS and random write speed of 21,000 IOPS. In contrast, the 250 GB 850 EVO has a random read speed of 97,000 IOPS and random write speed of 88,000 IOPS. Even with the small differences, Samsung boasts that the T1 can transfer a 3 GB movie file in eight seconds compared to the same transfer on an external hard disk drive, which takes about 27 seconds.
Like the 850 EVO, the T1 is the latest SSD from the company that utilizes 3D V-NAND design, which provides higher data densities and cheaper memory. In terms of security, it still has AES 256-bit encryption, but the T1 also gives users an additional layer of security by including the option to input a password. The T1 supports both USB 3.0 and 2.0 connections and has a three-year limited warranty.
The T1 is Samsung's first entry into the portable SSD market, but it's a very strong first step. With so much space and speed in a very small device, it seems that Samsung is viewing this as an alternative to flash drives. The T1 will make its debut near the end of January in 15 countries, at which time we'll see whether or not consumers are willing to pay the asking price for this portable SSD.
UPDATE (1/6, 10:45pm PT): Samsung provided additional details about the prices of each T1 model. The 250 GB model costs $179.99, the 500 GB model costs $299.99, and the 1 TB model costs $599.99.
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Rexly Peñaflorida is a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering topics such as computer hardware, video games, and general technology news.