Today you can get a fantastic portable SSD at its best price yet. Amazon is selling the 1TB Samsung T5 portable SSD for $120. That’s the all-time low price, and $10 cheaper than its most recent price.
We reviewed the T5 when it first came out in 2017, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. “The T5 is the external SSD most users will want,” we said in our review. “[Its] superior combination of small size and big performance makes it our overall favorite.” It’s no longer our favorite portable SSD, but it’s still diminutive, measuring just under three inches by 2.25 inches. You’ll have no problem slipping it into your pocket.
It’s still fast, too. The Samsung T5 supports transfer over USB 3.1 Gen 2 with a Type-C port. The box includes a Type-C to Type-A cable, as well as a Type-C to Type-C cable. Samsung says the drive can hit up to 540MB/s for sequential read speeds, and sequential write speeds up to 520MB/s.
In our tests, the drive didn’t quite hit those speeds. We saw sequential write speeds of 483MB/s and sequential reads of 507MB/s. That’s still plenty speedy, however, and much better than an external hard drive.
The Samsung T5 also features AES 256-bit hardware encryption, and it comes with a three-year limited warranty. If you’re looking for a good backup drive, or something small so you can tote around your media library, this is the drive for you.