I bought this as supplemental storage for my low-capacity Macbook. I was worried that it might be too inconvenient to use, but I've been very impressed. Performance: Excellent. It gets the advertised speeds and I don't notice any slowdown when using it compared to my internal SSD. Form factor: WAY smaller and lighter than I expected, in a good way. Its profile is scarcely larger than a credit card, and it's slightly thinner than a Bic pen. It's just big and sturdy enough that you won't easily lose it, but small and discrete enough to slip into a bag or sleeve easily. Encryption: I think that any mobile hardware with personal data on it should be encrypted. I was planning to encrypt the drive using third-party tools, but realized after buying that it has its own ... MoreI bought this as supplemental storage for my low-capacity Macbook. I was worried that it might be too inconvenient to use, but I've been very impressed. Performance: Excellent. It gets the advertised speeds and I don't notice any slowdown when using it compared to my internal SSD. Form factor: WAY smaller and lighter than I expected, in a good way. Its profile is scarcely larger than a credit card, and it's slightly thinner than a Bic pen. It's just big and sturdy enough that you won't easily lose it, but small and discrete enough to slip into a bag or sleeve easily. Encryption: I think that any mobile hardware with personal data on it should be encrypted. I was planning to encrypt the drive using third-party tools, but realized after buying that it has its own encryption hardware built in. The official app for decrypting the drive is super easy to use, and since it's all handled on the SSD itself, there's no extra overhead and minimal performance impact. If you're looking for an SSD that will see moderate daily use, this is easily the one to get.

DO NOT BUY THIS DRIVE FOR MAC (or probably for any computer)

I would not recommend you buy this drive. It's ridiculous that you have to jump through hoops to even use the drive. Why these companies are making drives that require you to use proprietary software to even access it is beyond me. Samsung, if you are listening. Give me a drive that I can simply drag and drop files onto. That's it. That's the drive. A drive is simply a folder I want to dump a bunch of data into and you are saying "Why would I give you the simplicity of a folder, when I can give you a product that you CAN NOT access without our proprietary software, to which we won't update when it has a major flaw for nearly half it's user base (MAC)?" I understand that the software provided has security protection for the drive. Last time I checked no one cares to ... MoreI would not recommend you buy this drive. It's ridiculous that you have to jump through hoops to even use the drive. Why these companies are making drives that require you to use proprietary software to even access it is beyond me. Samsung, if you are listening. Give me a drive that I can simply drag and drop files onto. That's it. That's the drive. A drive is simply a folder I want to dump a bunch of data into and you are saying "Why would I give you the simplicity of a folder, when I can give you a product that you CAN NOT access without our proprietary software, to which we won't update when it has a major flaw for nearly half it's user base (MAC)?" I understand that the software provided has security protection for the drive. Last time I checked no one cares to hack my drive for photos of my kids. Sure, 007 probably wants the top secret data to be safe, but give the general public the option of using said security program if they desire to and not have them be forced too. When you buy a thumb drive, you simply plug the thing in, drag and drop. Occasionally you have to reformat it depending on what you are using it for. An SSD drive should be as simple as that. If you want to use the Samsung software to access the files, give people the option to use it. Don't just jam it down our throats. And if you do have software that is MANDATORY to use the drive, make sure it works. If it doesn't, put out an update of the software to fix the issue.

Fast Drive

The SAMSUNG T5 500GB 2.50" USB 3.1 V-NAND Portable SSD is very compact with less surface area than a credit card. It has a very sturdy feeling metal construction and the box advertises 6.6ft drop resistant, although I did not test this feature. The drive has a single reversible USB-C connection and includes two USB cables. One cable with USB-C on both ends and the other with USB-A on one end making the drive fully backwards compatible with previous USB generations. After plugging the drive into a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 connection, Windows found the drive in less than a second. The drive is pre-formatted to exFAT with 465G total space. Samsung provides optional password protection software with the install packages for Windows and Mac included on the drive. With the ... MoreThe SAMSUNG T5 500GB 2.50" USB 3.1 V-NAND Portable SSD is very compact with less surface area than a credit card. It has a very sturdy feeling metal construction and the box advertises 6.6ft drop resistant, although I did not test this feature. The drive has a single reversible USB-C connection and includes two USB cables. One cable with USB-C on both ends and the other with USB-A on one end making the drive fully backwards compatible with previous USB generations. After plugging the drive into a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 connection, Windows found the drive in less than a second. The drive is pre-formatted to exFAT with 465G total space. Samsung provides optional password protection software with the install packages for Windows and Mac included on the drive. With the password protection enabled, the drive only shows the Samsung software install packages and none of the files I copied to the drive and reports 0 bytes free. Once the password is entered to allow access to the entire drive, I encountered no difference in drive speeds and all previously copied files are visible with the full capacity available. The drive at idle, hovers around 32 degrees celsius while when copying data to the drive for 10 minutes, the drive reached a max of 49 degrees celsius. Testing the drive, it reached 487.6MB/s sequential read and 488.2MB/s sequential write. However, when copying multiple files to the drive in Windows, it only reached 135MB/s. Unfortunately, the drive is pre-formatted to exFAT which is a not a default file system supported on the CentOS distro of Linux I prefer. After reformatting the drive to NTFS I was able to move the drive between my Windows and Linux machines without issue reading or writing and it still functioned at the previously tested speeds. This drive is a great option for a fast and compact USB drive while still offering larger capacity.

Internal SATA drive in an External form factor

First off, I'm really impressed with the quality of my fellow EggXpert Reviewers. Really nice job, everyone! Almost makes my review not worthwhile since you all have covered it so thoroughly! I used CrystalDiskMark 5.2.2 (x64) for all my testing on five different systems. Some are Win10 and some are Win7. Where applicable, I tested both USB-C and USB-3 on same the system or just USB-3 where it was the only option. Surprisingly, the results didn't really vary that much between USB-3 and USB-C. When I looked at the highest score for each test, 6 of the 8 tests in CrystalDiskMark favored the USB-3 interface, but only by margins that are apparent in benchmarking; In real-world use, no one is going to notice unless they have a stopwatch on it (in which case, they're ... MoreFirst off, I'm really impressed with the quality of my fellow EggXpert Reviewers. Really nice job, everyone! Almost makes my review not worthwhile since you all have covered it so thoroughly! I used CrystalDiskMark 5.2.2 (x64) for all my testing on five different systems. Some are Win10 and some are Win7. Where applicable, I tested both USB-C and USB-3 on same the system or just USB-3 where it was the only option. Surprisingly, the results didn't really vary that much between USB-3 and USB-C. When I looked at the highest score for each test, 6 of the 8 tests in CrystalDiskMark favored the USB-3 interface, but only by margins that are apparent in benchmarking; In real-world use, no one is going to notice unless they have a stopwatch on it (in which case, they're effectively benchmarking it :-) For determining the average result of the eight tests, I removed the lowest score. For whatever reason, on various systems and regardless of interface, the Random 4K Write was dropping down into the 2MB/s range. Last time I saw results like this, the developer was contacted and it was resolved for that particular tested I was doing. I suspect this is a similar coding issue with CrystalDiskMark. Therefore, any result in the 2MB/s range was removed from the average. Averaged Results are listed as READ : WRITE (in MB/s) Seq Q32T1... 457.40 : 351.31 4K Q32T1... 138.30 : 104.81 SEQ... 422.96 : 308.49 4K... 23.29 : 47.41 Looking at these numbers, it didn't occur to me until just now and after reading some of the other EggXpert reviews that this could just be a SATA/M.2 hooked up to a USB-C interface. I have a Samsung 840 EVO sitting here along with a Sabrent USB-3 to SATA interface (I believe it's this one: N82E16812156064). I'm not going to go back and redo all my testing right now, but I suspect that I might get similar results if I plugged in my SATA SSD to that interface. IF I WERE TO GET SIMILAR RESULTS, which I believe I would, that's why I gave this unit a 4 out of 5 eggs. Subtract that price of that cable from a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, and you're going to have money left over. So I think it's definitely worth considering which route you want to go, especially if you consider that there's a 1TB SSD here (N82E16820173354) that doesn't cost all that much more and should give you comparable if not better performance AND the same 3yr warranty. Lastly, a particular shout out to EggXpert "Andrew M." Good thought to call out the windows caching for the SSD. I had forgotten about that and went back and did some re-testing on my systems. Surprisingly, the benchmarks didn't result in any noticeable differences that would be outside the normal result deviations.

Latest Design Shines When Used with Latest Computers.

*IMPORTANT* - To avoid slow performance you must ensure that the Removal Policy in Windows is set for "Better performance". The default setting for external drives is "Quick removal" which is intended to prevent data corruption if the drive is unplugged suddenly. The drawback of Quick Removal policy is that the drive's Read and Write speeds may both be severely hampered. So, change it to Better Performance. To overcome this in Windows go to Control Panel/Device Manager/Disk drives and double-click on Samsung T5. A dialog box opens. Click on the "Policies" tab, then click the box or circle beside "Better performance". Click on OK to exit. Now you'll get faster speeds. Remember to use Windows safe removal feature by clicking the little "Safely remove" icon in the ... More*IMPORTANT* - To avoid slow performance you must ensure that the Removal Policy in Windows is set for "Better performance". The default setting for external drives is "Quick removal" which is intended to prevent data corruption if the drive is unplugged suddenly. The drawback of Quick Removal policy is that the drive's Read and Write speeds may both be severely hampered. So, change it to Better Performance. To overcome this in Windows go to Control Panel/Device Manager/Disk drives and double-click on Samsung T5. A dialog box opens. Click on the "Policies" tab, then click the box or circle beside "Better performance". Click on OK to exit. Now you'll get faster speeds. Remember to use Windows safe removal feature by clicking the little "Safely remove" icon in the System tray before you unplug the drive! NOTE - To achieve the full advertised speeds your computer must meet all of the following conditions: USB 3.1 Gen.2 / Windows 10 / with UASP support / Removal Policy set for Better Performance in Device Manager / Drive Properties / Policies. Other conditions such as USB 3.1 Gen.1, or USB 3.0, or lack of UASP, may result in SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER SPEEDS. Please observe this in the test results shown below. OK, now for some test results: Crystal Disk Mark 64 on various Windows computers (with Better Performance [i.e., Write cache] enabled in Device Mgr. on all of them): PC no.1 - (**USB 3.1 Gen.2**) type C-to-C cable / Gigabyte Z270X-UD3 motherboard, 2017 model: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 553/517 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 347/203 MB/sec.** Seq. Read/Write - 499/496 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 28/76 MB/sec.** type C-to-A cable gave same results plus or minus 2% (excellent!) PC no.2 - (**USB 3.0**) type C-toA cable / ASRock Z97 Extreme4 motherboard, 2 years old: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 437/434 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 165/171 MB/sec.** Seq. Read/Write - 407/406 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 21/42 MB/sec.** Laptop - (USB 3.1) type C-to-C cable / Acer E5- 575G: Seq. (Q32T1) Read/Write - 434/376 MB/sec. 4K (Q32T1) Read/Write - 106/81 MB/sec. Seq. Read/Write - 375/341 MB/sec. 4K Read/Write - 24/39 MB/sec. (same on USB 3.0 C-to-A cable; suspect 3.1 port not optimized; maybe it's Gen.1 or maybe needs a BIOS update?) FILE COPY TEST on PC no.1 - Sequential. Copied folder containing 2 large video files - total size 9.56GB. The folder was copied from an internal Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB SSD to the Samsung T5 via USB type C-to-A cable. Sustained transfer speed (all 9.56GB) - 442 MB/sec. This sustained transfer speed means the T5 is suitable for video editing, scratch disk, RAW photo edits, etc. as well as handling all normal file duties. The speed combined with its small physical size makes it very desirable for use in the field, when traveling, and at home or office. Add to this the included encryption feature and out-of-the-box Windows/Mac compatibility and that makes it highly recommended. COMPARISON - At the time of writing, the T5 is around $30 more than the Sandisk Extreme 500 portable SSD which is a direct competitor model. Strangely, the Sandisk is offered in either 480GB or 500GB capacity compared to Samsung's 500GB. Each of them weighs only about 2 or 3 ounces. Both claim they are shock-resistant enough to withstand a 6-foot drop onto a hard surface. The Sandisk has a sort of rubber bumper and a cover for the USB port which makes it also splash-resistant. Both offer encryption and a 3-year warranty. Overall, the Samsung T5 is about 5% faster than the Sandisk Extreme 500, but it's nearly impossible to notice any difference when they are in use. Neither maker quotes an endurance rating; however, they both have very well designed controllers using advanced techniques to maximize performance across the board, so we may hope that endurance will be up there with the best. For example, the Sandisk X400 internal SSD, on which the Extreme 500 is based, has an endurance rating of around 360TBW. Samsung is advertising the T5 as a great choice for video and photo work on their website, and their track record suggests that they back that up with high endurance. There are other, cheaper portable SSDs - WD, PNY, ADATA, etc.. If you don't want or need USB 3.1 Gen.2 high sustained Write speeds, or high Mixed workload speeds, or hardware encryption, or high endurance, or cool running without any thermal throttling of speed, then you might be very happy with a lower value-driven design. But, when you examine these value-driven portable SSDs you will see that they lack one or more of those outstanding features of the Samsung and Sandisk. If you need the above-mentioned features from a major brand name that can give you years of reliable use, then the Samsung T5 is the latest and greatest you can buy without breaking the bank. Can you get even better results than this? Yes, you can step up to pro models at significantly higher prices and achieve more speed. Oh, I really hate that law of diminishing returns, don't you?

Not great with Mac or other Samsung devices

The 2-star rating applies to using this SSD with a MacBook Air (M2) and with Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and S8+ tablet. With windows laptop, the SSD works flawlessly. With a Mac and my other Samsung devices, it's a nightmare. On the Mac, the Samsung SSD laptop software doesn't show the SSD as attached and periodically I have to delete the software and reinstall it (which is why I'm visiting the Samsung website today).On the S21 Ultra and S8+, even if the Samsung mobile app is working and you manage to access the SSD, 2 things happen - the Phone and Tablet both want to 'fix' the SSD and re-format it (deleting all my files).. I ignore this, but it freaks me out every time. The second thing is that the Phone/Table send a persistent notification to restart the ... MoreThe 2-star rating applies to using this SSD with a MacBook Air (M2) and with Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and S8+ tablet. With windows laptop, the SSD works flawlessly. With a Mac and my other Samsung devices, it's a nightmare. On the Mac, the Samsung SSD laptop software doesn't show the SSD as attached and periodically I have to delete the software and reinstall it (which is why I'm visiting the Samsung website today).On the S21 Ultra and S8+, even if the Samsung mobile app is working and you manage to access the SSD, 2 things happen - the Phone and Tablet both want to 'fix' the SSD and re-format it (deleting all my files).. I ignore this, but it freaks me out every time. The second thing is that the Phone/Table send a persistent notification to restart the Phone/Tablet, which I eventually do just to get rid of the notification. I'm pretty sure the issue relates to having 'security' enabled and the structure of the drive having an un-protected volume and protected volume and the un-protected volume being 'ejected' when you log into the protected volume. I'm also sure this could be fixed (definitely by disabling security - but what is the point of an unprotected SSD??) or formatting the drive to only have one volume - but that's way beyond my technical capability. I just expect the SSD to work. Incidentally, I don't have any of these problems with Sandisk SSDs.Its funny that's the manufacturers Samsung devices seems to have the most issue with, is other Samsung devices...! Would I buy a Samsung SSD again? no way (unless it was to be used exclusively with a windows laptop)

Portable Funny Car

- Compared to an external traditional HDD, the T5 is about 5 times faster than it and even faster in benchmarking tests. Also, taking the price into account, it’s well within the bang-for-your buck budget range for fast external storage. - Below, I provide the benchmarks I ran. I didn’t include the usual depth of them, but summed them up with overall scores and impressions. All the benchmarks, unless otherwise specified, is megabyte per second. In HD Tune Pro, the first benchmark listed is for access time: - Write Access time: 0.049ms Read Access Time: 0.059ms In HD Tune Pro, this second benchmark is Average Transfer Rate: - Write Transfer: 319MB/s Read Transfer: 310MB/s In CrystalDiskMark, below is 512K Transfer Rate: - Write Transfer: 505MB/s Read Transfer: ... More- Compared to an external traditional HDD, the T5 is about 5 times faster than it and even faster in benchmarking tests. Also, taking the price into account, it’s well within the bang-for-your buck budget range for fast external storage. - Below, I provide the benchmarks I ran. I didn’t include the usual depth of them, but summed them up with overall scores and impressions. All the benchmarks, unless otherwise specified, is megabyte per second. In HD Tune Pro, the first benchmark listed is for access time: - Write Access time: 0.049ms Read Access Time: 0.059ms In HD Tune Pro, this second benchmark is Average Transfer Rate: - Write Transfer: 319MB/s Read Transfer: 310MB/s In CrystalDiskMark, below is 512K Transfer Rate: - Write Transfer: 505MB/s Read Transfer: 502MB/s In ATTODisk Benchmark, with a QD of 6, sequential read & write: - Write 8KB: 203MB/s Read 8KB: 238MB/s - Write 16KB: 342MB/s Read 16KB: 382MB/s - Write 32KB: 418MB/s Read 32KB: 499MB/s - Write 64KB: 481MB/s Read 64KB: 521MB/s - Write 128KB: 501MB/s Read 128KB: 532MB/s - Write 256KB: 515MB/s Read 256KB: 535MB/s - Write 512KB: 521MB/s Read 512KB: 543MB/s - Write 1024KB: 530MB/s Read 1024KB: 545MB/s - Write 2048KB: 533MB/s Read 2048KB: 548MB/s - Write 4096KB: 535MB/s Read 4096KB: 550MB/s - Write 8192KB: 538MB/s Read 8192KB: 551MB/s * As you can see, Samsung wasn’t lying in their advertisements, which is quite a relief. Most companies don’t hesitate to display their most extreme results and not conservative numbers. Samsung, however, showed rather right on speeds and you can expect when buying the T5 that you’ll get these blazing fast speeds, too. All in all, I couldn’t be less disappointed by the T5; it’s a top of the line, quick, light, quality device and, undoubtedly, a de facto choice. *

Refurbush was incomplete

I haven't used this hard drive *much*, altho I am looking forward to using it... I'm here today to let you all know, the refurbish of some of these drives was incomplete, and some people aren't going to know how to fix it. This is primarily b/c if you follow the trouble shooting guide for "I don't see my SSD in Drive Selection" (ie, the SSD does not show up as an accessible drive in your File Explorer), and you attempt to follow the instructions for #5, there's this statement: "Make sure that the disk is set up properly". These instructions are for techies.So, to add the remaining actions for anyone else who received drives that aren't showing up in their file explorer, but are listed as Disk Drives in your device manager:1) Follow the existing instructions to: ... MoreI haven't used this hard drive *much*, altho I am looking forward to using it... I'm here today to let you all know, the refurbish of some of these drives was incomplete, and some people aren't going to know how to fix it. This is primarily b/c if you follow the trouble shooting guide for "I don't see my SSD in Drive Selection" (ie, the SSD does not show up as an accessible drive in your File Explorer), and you attempt to follow the instructions for #5, there's this statement: "Make sure that the disk is set up properly". These instructions are for techies.So, to add the remaining actions for anyone else who received drives that aren't showing up in their file explorer, but are listed as Disk Drives in your device manager:1) Follow the existing instructions to: Right-click the My Computer icon => Select Manage => Select Storage => Click Disk Management2) Identify which disk is the SSD by disconnecting it and seeing which drive disappears3) reconnect the drive. when it reappears in the window, right click on it, and select "Initialize Disk"4) When it completes initializing, go to the lower portion of the window, and right click on the box that says "unallocated" next to the drive. Create a new Volume (Simple) that encompasses all of the available space on the SSD. Most of the defaults in the options to follow should be safe. Just do a simple format and click continue until the end.If this was the only issue, the SSD should now be accessible in the File Explorer

So far it's a good purchase that saved money.

So far I had put 3 different games on this drive which is 218 gb in total( Battlefield 5, Apex legends, and Rainbow six extraction. The drive is quick, small, and computer games can be played off of it. While installing big titles with prolonged use this 1tb ssd gets hot. I've only had it for two days and everything seems ok. I got both type-c to type-c cords and the type-c to USB. Two of my concerns were 1.) It's a refurbished memory device-2.) That the type-c would easily be pulled out from the port on the t5 SSD but it doesn't and about the refirb I will see if this lasts and if so for how long. When I first plugged this device into my laptop it wasn't showing up as a usable memory device. I thought the ssd came faulty but a quick YouTube video later helped me ... MoreSo far I had put 3 different games on this drive which is 218 gb in total( Battlefield 5, Apex legends, and Rainbow six extraction. The drive is quick, small, and computer games can be played off of it. While installing big titles with prolonged use this 1tb ssd gets hot. I've only had it for two days and everything seems ok. I got both type-c to type-c cords and the type-c to USB. Two of my concerns were 1.) It's a refurbished memory device-2.) That the type-c would easily be pulled out from the port on the t5 SSD but it doesn't and about the refirb I will see if this lasts and if so for how long. When I first plugged this device into my laptop it wasn't showing up as a usable memory device. I thought the ssd came faulty but a quick YouTube video later helped me enable my laptop to detect and use the t5 SSD as a storage device. So far things are good.

this is amazing to fit what I need

This drive comes with a hardware-based secure log-in system, and when you plug it in you'll see a choice of emulator/"activator" interfaces for login to a PC or Mac or device. I ordinarily use it with a Macbook or desktop Mac, but I've guest-visited PC's also, and what happens is: you plug it in and will see the initial choice of platform log-in apps. Choose your OS, click, and enter your password - whatever password you set up initially from your own computer/device, as once you do that your password is hard-wired into the drive, and you can access it from anywhere - if you have the password.Setting up hardware-based encryption/security is optional, by the way. But simple, and it works smoothly across my computers. The same routine brings up the system-specific ... MoreThis drive comes with a hardware-based secure log-in system, and when you plug it in you'll see a choice of emulator/"activator" interfaces for login to a PC or Mac or device. I ordinarily use it with a Macbook or desktop Mac, but I've guest-visited PC's also, and what happens is: you plug it in and will see the initial choice of platform log-in apps. Choose your OS, click, and enter your password - whatever password you set up initially from your own computer/device, as once you do that your password is hard-wired into the drive, and you can access it from anywhere - if you have the password.Setting up hardware-based encryption/security is optional, by the way. But simple, and it works smoothly across my computers. The same routine brings up the system-specific log-in screen, enter the password, you're in. Password required every time it's re-installed — great basic mobile security.For Mac, there's a known strangeness, despite full compatibility. When first plugging it in or upon ejecting it, you may see an upper-right-hand corner pop-up saying disk was improperly ejected (last time). Maybe on Windows "safely eject" avoids that, but on Mac, you'll likely see it. Not to worry, as long as you're not transferring data while unplugging. (In Mac I "eject" and it looks normal but still will get a pop-up nag about safely ejecting.)What else can I say? I know there are a few reputable makers of 250-500GB SSD portable drives worthy of consideration. (As a scientist, believe me, I read all the reviews and looked at "data," but as a typical computer user I chose based on things like the form factor, price, and experience).So this is my 3rd Samsung T (2 "3"s and one T-5 now). I've had no problem with any of them (thus my collection has expanded). They are fast, reliable, and practical between the various interfaces, portable security protection, and choice of cable/interface. I'm a fan.Five people found this helpful