This is a major step forward. I use every os out there and being able to secure my files and use cross platform is a huge win. Thanks for the good detailed review
Excellent review, Jeff! It's really nice to know that it works without any extra installation on an ipad pro. And bonus good news is that the T5 will become even cheaper. hehe
Fingerprint sensor definitely is an extra touch of security, especially when you travel for work and need your work data with sensitive files to be secure. Certainly will look into purchasing this.
Thank you for including the graph at the end! I'm looking to pick up an SSD for transferring 500GB at a time and have no need for the fingerprints security, so it looks like the T7 doesn't make sense for me. Difficult to justify the $700 price tag on the 2TB x5, the T5 is definitely the way to go for most people... but I think I'm going to go with the x5 for editing 6K raw files off of, but for quick initial backups I'll wait a little bit longer on transfers and go T5
I don't know if you've bought yet, but I read someone say the X5 can experience the throttling with large files too. I think it's always a heat thing with these large files and fast data transfer rates. Maybe you can confirm if you pulled the trigger.
I picked up the 2tb version today at Costco for 129.99. That's 60.00 off their normal pricing. The sale ends on 6/11/2023. This is a great travel drive for my purposes.
@@slaphappy7559 While I agree with you 100%, hows it any different than Apple having already collected probably yours and surely millions of other peoples fingerprints from iPhone 5-8 era touch id phones?
are you able to create a larger, unencrypted partition while still keeping the secure partition locked? i.e - the ability to use a portion of the drive like a normal usb disk while the rest of it is only accessible when unlocked?
Hmm... Cool, but not really needed. If you format all your external drives w/ encrypted partition, as you should, then they will not be accessible unless you enter the password to decrypt them. Been doing this for years, even on thumb drives. No additional software needed. Thanks for the review!
shubham maske - In the Disk Utility, erase the drive, and choose: Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, requires a password, and encrypts the partition. Whenever you insert the drive on any other Mac, it will ask for the password and decrypt its contents. If it’s your home machine, you can choose to save the password to your keychain. Easy Peasy, and no need to depend on third-party software that could fail when you most need the contents of that drive. You should also do the same on your Time Machine drives. If anyone were to get a hold of those, they will be paper weights unless you know the password (goes without saying, that this one should be long and complex. Preferably random generated and saved on a password manager). Cheers
Great review. You hit all the points. I checked on the price and it is ridiculously overpriced. I’m not going to buy one until the competition comes out with their version and a reasonable price.
"this drive is read only until you authenticate", i though "read-only" allows you to read them as well, not just having them displayed in a window. The files looked rather "classified" than read only.
Missing details of the slowdown reasons of the drives. They have what's called an "SLC Cache" which has a limited amount of GB's it can write at full speed and then it slows down. Of course heat definitely contributes to throtling just as you said as well.
Great video man. I have a question. If I am using only iPad Pro, would I bee able to do the initial security settings (like setting up the password and touch ID) on the iPad, or it can only be done on the Mac or PC? Thank You
Thank you so much for the review. I'm able to breathe a sigh of relief. I've just ordered the T7 Touch from Samsung directly and I got the 1tb size. I plan on using it on my Chromebook Plus 12th gen core i3 Flip for accumulated photos. I have the 2020 MacBook Air with the M1 chip but I haven't stored any photos on it yet and I'm not planning on it for now. This SSD is pre-formatted already in ex-FAT mode so I don't have to reformat it. Is this what you think too?
Thanks for the review. Very informative. I am going to get one. Huge fan of fingerprint readers, so more convenient than typing passwords. I will probably get one with small capacity for sensitive files and wait for the tb units with this functionality to show up.
Does the fingerprint protection in this device work similarly to Bitlocker? or will removing it from its case and using another housing allow the fingerprints to be bypassed? For heat issues during large file transfers, a phone cooler will assist keep the temperature down.
Wait....which is longer again? T5 or T7? Can you go through that one more time? Is that T5 longer or shorter? Wait...which one is thicker? T5 or T7.... Can we have a separate video on that as well? How much thicker? Is it the thickness of 1 or 2 Apple Card?
was working on a film set with 2x of the samsung t5, transferring up to 1.5tb a day (8k raw) to them each, t5 occasionally throttled down to 250mb a second, 900mb speed improvement could be helpful, but only if it didn't throttle as much
Would I be able to save a copy of Windows onto a T7, then use the type C to type A connector to install the operating system through a motherboard's BIOS flashback feature on the rear IO? Or Can this type of OS installation only be done by saving the OS onto a USB stick?
Are you sure its just the heat? Many cheaper SSDs, don't have any DRAM cache, they're often QLC or TLC and revert a small part of storage to SLC as pseudo cache, so data sits in this before being written to slower QLC. (The Crucial X8 definitely does this, and I'd be surprised in the T7 wasn't doing similar).
Is there any problem using it with a Mac? Have read some reviews on Amazon and people are saying that they have some issues(mostly with the app) using it with the Mac.
@@owelz Im using the drive just without the Samsung Software for fingerprint and security and it seems to be fine and very fast. I just wonder if this whole no update is a dumb Samsung Versus Apple not supporting each other out of stupidity
So just curious, has anyone tried laying the drive flat on one of those cold pads you keep in the fridge for injuries? My assumption is the drive has a built in heat sensor and if you can keep the drive cool enough you could prevent the throttling.
Its probably not just heat. The drive probably has QLC flash and allocates some SLC to act as a cache. When that fills up, you're reading/writing direct to/from QLC.
May I throw in a suggestion for a video here ? : => old iMacs vamping up Speeds & upgrading their speeds by running the MAC OS systems (with internal old HD's content included of course), from bootable, external, SSD drives, (again with the former HD's content of your internal HD of course) connected with the old iMacs built-in Thunderbolt 2 or USB 3.o or 3.1 or 3.2 GEN2, or even older firewire 800 Connection on the macs..etc, etc...). And to top it off, comparing it with running these older macs from a bootable 500Gb or 1Tb Sandisk or Lexar "SD Memory card",.... which works like a charm, by the way. In both scenarios using the internal Mac HD now as the backup drive for the time machine backup system... just to be safe... Food for Thought?
For me, the fingerprint feature is twice as useful. First, it is more convenient than manually entering the password. But, perhaps even more importantly for me, is that there is no need to install a proprietary application on other computers. And the latter advantage I realized not immediately, but only when I bought my mom the T5, and this when I already knew about the existence of the T7 Touch. ) That's why the next purchase definitely will be the Touch version.
Fingerprint is not the best security for a portable storage drive. They should have just made the security hardware-based and put in a small screen for PIN entry.
Impressive Video! I would like to know if its possible to connect the T7 Touch to my Samsung QE55Q60R TV ? With it Secure Fingerprint Features of course.
So if I use it on my chromebook which isnt compatible software wise but acc to your video, as long as I had the software already downloaded to my PC and set up the password AND fingerprint, only the fingerprint option would pop up on the chromebook to then access the data on the device, right? Just purchased the Samsung T7 no touch and because I am a teacher and vids would be of students might prefer the touch. Didnt realize it wasnt chromebook compatible so even when I am using it for recording videos on my Chromebook in my classroom and then storing on the device I know I'll simply not password protect it at all because it wont allow me to save it to the SSD unless that is turned off. If that makes sense...Legally it would be wiser to have it protected since children are involved. Touch it is.
I have MB Pro 14" M1 running Ventura. Everything works as described on your video, except when I attach the drive again after first time and setting password and fingerprints, the software does not recog I E the drive, so if I want to modify fingerprints, password or rename the disk, I have to reinstall the software.
Plus I think the drive is designed to meet your data storage/backup needs with security as a priority so I don't think this would be the choice if you're looking at performing tasks like booting from external devices which you're gonna be formating around.
Small question, how does it work if you activate the fingerprint option and you then copy movies to the drive and from then connect the drive to your TV for playback. Can your TV read from the drive or not ?
gave you a thumbs up for your review bro. but one question? i just purchased samsung t7 touch.- do i just put it in the back of my ps5 and just start formatting my ps4 games or do i have to set it up on my laptop then put it in back of my ps5. really dont want to use the fingerprint scanner at all. i just want to just plug it in. and play. i read its best in the market. please respond back. thank you so much,...
You could just buy the T7 non-touch version if you don't want to use the fingerprint reader and don't need the security. It's also quite a bit cheaper.
Nice Hardware, but BEWARE - You’ll probably install SPYWARE too! I bought this device and it’s pretty neat hardware. Be aware, however, that using the headline feature of this device - the fingerprint scanner - requires you to install bloat- / spyware from Samsung on your system. The actual application, once installed, will allow you to set up the security and to configure your password and fingerprints. What you won’t necessarily realise, unless you pay close attention during the installation process, is that it will also install a deamon that permanently runs in the background of your system (starting up automatically whenever you reboot the system). Not only does this eat up a bit of system ressources and battery (a small amount per deamon, but it adds up); This deamon also monitors your activity and reports data about your system, your address, your language settings and your usage back to Samsung's servers. From there it’s shared with unidentified 3rd parties (as laid out in the license agreement that you will hastily accept when eager to use your new device). This monitoring and the data transfer have absolutely no functional justification whatsoever. It does not provide you with any benefit or additional features. You cannot opt out of this, if you want to use the security features of the device, and it’s sufficiently sneaky for most people to be unaware of it. In my book, for all intents and purposes, this is SPYWARE. Of course no uninstall app is provided, leaving you to painstakingly identify all relevant files in the depths of the system folders of your MacOS or Windows and to delete them manually one by one (so let’s call the whole thing bloatware as well). Not only is this COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE for a nearly £500 / EUR500 / $500 device, it is also really rude to not make this very clear to customers before they purchase a device. Once you own it, there is no way around it, if you want to use the advertised features. Come on Samsung ! Really? I for one will not buy another one of these (otherwise lovely) devices, unless Samsung come to their senses and stop sneaking such stuff in under the radar!
I purchased the Samsung T7 2TB without the touch button and the LaCie Rugged USB-C 5 TB for use with the MacBook Air M1should I format them APFS or macOS extended journaled?
i am a buyer for a T7 non touch. i see the touch thing as a false security gimmick. And i miss discussion about that in the review. if the data transfer is not encrypted using the fingerprint as a key. then it is worthless security wise. i haven’t a clue of what’s inside, other than there is a NVMe drive/card. but i believe just changing enclosure will make the drive open to read for anyone.
My fiance's best friend order me one of these for my computer. Since my fiance will be using my latop to help his best friend with some work projects and stuff under the table pay kind of things. I was curious what it looks like and how it works.
Nice idea with a fingerprint reader, but why usb gen 2? Why not usb gen 2x2 (wd p50)? I would rather buy a cheap nvme drive (wd sn550 or transcend 1tb for 100$ and usb gen 2x2 enclosure with heatsink for 60$. Ofcourse this makes sense if you have a thunderbolt socket or a pcie card with a gen2x2 usb ($ 50).
I thought that first to! But when I bought it, I was like "Why did I hate it?" Man that is extremely secure. Especially when u don't want someone to steal it and unlock it without permission!
Hi! Any recommendation for a wireless ssd that can be access with wifi? And does wired cable better than wifi read/write transfer? does samsung has a wifi access ssd?
That's a really good product. I always was worried about loosing my ssd and leaking my data. Had happned to me in pasts twice! I guess, this is what I need, Thanks Samsung.
If wanting to access my files from this SSD on someone else's PC/Mac, I do not need to download Samsung software on theirs? Just plug in, fingerprint/pw, and can instantly read/write?
