Samsung's T5 Evo portable SSD is roomier, speedier, and more durable than the portable hard drives it's looking to replace. But it's slow for a solid-state drive, and in desperate need of a price drop.
Silicon-like jacket attracts small particulate matter
Less than half as fast as other external SSDs
Competitors and Related Products
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Samsung’s first portable EVO SSD impresses on capacity but disappoints when it comes to sheer value for money and general performance, hitting speeds that I’d consider to be average at best and, for a device with this price tag, frankly very poor.
El rendimiento es el factor limitante en esta unidad, pues con 400 MB/s reales estamos lejos de las opciones más potentes como el Samsung T9. 50 GB apenas nos llegan 2 minutos de transferencia, pero debemos tener en cuenta el precio para ver si es suficiente o no.
Though not the swiftest of USB drives, the small, rugged Samsung T5 EVO compensates with up to 8TB of affordable capacity. If you’re not in a hurry you’ll the love the space it provides for your stuff.
Samsung's T5 Evo portable SSD is roomier, speedier, and more durable than the portable hard drives it's looking to replace. But it's slow for a solid-state drive, and in desperate need of a price drop.
Aside from the hardware specs and new design, the new T5 EVO is slated to be similar to other Samsung Portable SSDs. It's a rugged drive that will work right away when plugged into a host, be it a Windows computer, a Mac, or an Android, thanks to the low power consumption and the preformatted exFAT file system.
The T5 Evo is a fairly solid, middle-of-the-range, SSD that performs adequately enough. The fact that it comes in 3 different sizes gives consumers the flexibility to choose which one is right for them. The operating temperature has a great range so you’ll have no problems there but the read/write speed lets this device down with only 460 MB/sec possible. If you want faster speeds then there are better options out there but if you’re not too concerned then the T5 Evo will be fine.
The T5 Evo is pretty middle of the market when it comes to external portable SSDs. It comes in 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB configurations which is a significant amount of storage in such a small form factor. The drop rating of 2m and operating temperature of 0°C to 60°C make this a well-engineered device. The only area this SSD is let down by is the read/write speeds of 460 MB/sec.
On the technical and product engineering front, the T5 EVO portable SSD is a clear winner, particularly at the 8TB capacity point. The 460 MBps cap may not matter for a wide range of use-cases that is currently being served by portable hard drives. However, the insane pricing throws a spanner in the works. Hopefully, we will see Samsung take the feedback into consideration and market the T5 EVO with a slight premium over the 870 QVO.
While this drive may perform slower than others in the Samsung family, it is still perfectly fine for plenty of use cases that value capacity and cost over speed. Professionals should find the T5 EVO to be a great backpack companion that will consolidate the need for several small portable drives. Overall the T5 EVO gets our recommendation for capacious portable storage.