Samsung T7 Shield review: Portable, protected storage

Samsung T7 Shield

MSRP $160.00

“The Samsung T7 Shield is the same ultra-fast SSD as the T7, just with a rugged exterior.”

Avg

• Blazing speed

• Lightweight and portable

• AES-256 hardware encryption

• IP65 dust and water resistance

Against

• It can get a little hot

• More expensive than the basic T7

Samsung expands its T7 family with the T7 Shield — an external SSD built on the bones of the best external SSD you can buy, but with a focus on durability. This comes in the form of a soft rubber casing, dust and water resistance, and a little extra drop protection.

Under the hood, however, the T7 Shield is identical to the T7, despite being more expensive. It’s a great drive, just like its non-rugged sibling, but you might not need to pay for the extra protection.

To shape

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The T7 Shield is not too different in size from the basic T7. It’s still light at 98 grams and compact, measuring 3.5 inches long, 2.3 inches wide, and just half an inch thick. It is slightly larger than the T7 and T7 Touch models thanks to the rubber casing around the outer part of the drive.

In exchange for its slightly larger size, the drive offers three meters of drop resistance, as well as IP65 water and dust resistance. The T7 Shield is far from the first rugged external SSD. However, it beats options like the SanDisk Extreme V2 with better drop, water and dust resistance.

The drive comes in blue, beige or black, and is available in 1 TB or 2 TB capacity. I like the extra bumps and the soft rubber shell to hold the disc, but the T7 Shield wears like a coat. The T7 was already prone to overheating, and with a large outer shell, the T7 Shield makes things worse.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

In the box you will find the drive, a USB-C to USB-A cable and a USB-C to USB-C cable. The unit I received has issues with the USB-C port on the drive, with the rubber casing fighting against a solid connection. Samsung says it has fixed the issue on units currently shipping.

Prices

Despite offering more physical protection than the T7 Touch, the T7 Shield isn’t more expensive. Samsung offers the drive for $160 for 1 TB or $280 for 2 TB. Both the T7 Shield and Touch are $10 to $40 more expensive than the base T7, depending on capacity.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends / Digital Trends

Interestingly, Samsung doesn’t offer the T7 Shield in a 500GB size — something that’s available on both the T7 and T7 Touch.

I also find it difficult to justify the additional protection. Although the T7 Touch and T7 are not waterproof, they are resistant to drops. Unless you’re traveling to dirty environments with the T7 Shield, most people can save some money with the T7 or access fingerprint security with the T7 Touch.

Performance

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The T7 Shield uses the same SSD inside the T7 and T7 Touch — a proper NVMe SSD capable of sequential read speeds of 1050MB/s. That’s not what you’ll get in most cases, as I’ll talk about below, but in the world of external hard drives, the T7 Shield offers the fastest storage you can access via USB.

It’s the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface that offers that speed, and you’ll need to connect the T7 Shield to a supported port to unlock the drive’s full speed. I plugged in the drive and ran it through CrystalDiskMark to get an idea of ​​the speed.

The T7 Shield offers the fastest storage you can access via a USB connection.

It came out with a sequential read speed of around 855 MB/s and a sequential write speed of around 835 MB/s. That’s less than Samsung’s highest possible speed, but it’s in line with other T7 drives. I tested the 1TB base T7 and it showed read and write speeds of 820MB/s and 800MB/s respectively.

Security and software

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While the T7 Shield doesn’t offer the fingerprint protection of the T7 Touch, it still comes with hardware AES-256 encryption, which you can set up via Samsung’s password software. It’s the strongest encryption you can find, and because it’s hardware-based, your data will be protected even if you lose your drive.

In addition to encryption, Samsung’s Magician software offers a suite of utilities for your drive. You can manage your files outside of File Explorer, see details about the drive’s health, and run it through a benchmark. It’s good software, much more than most external SSDs offer, but I can’t imagine opening Magician after setting up encryption for the first time.

Our opinion

The T7 Shield joins Samsung’s T7 as another great SSD with lightning-fast speeds, a slim and light design, and superior security. However, Samsung charges for extra dust, water and drop protection, so I’d recommend sticking with the base T7 unless you need that extra protection.

Are there alternatives?

There are several external SSDs that compete with the T7 Shield:

• SanDisk Extreme Portable V2 — Worse protection against water and dust, but available in more capacities. It is also smaller and lighter.
• Adata SE800 — Cheaper and with even better protection against dust and water, but limited to 1TB.

How long will it last?

I’ve been using the Samsung T7 for about two years now, and expect to use it for a few more. That should be the case with the T7 Shield as well, especially given its rugged exterior.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you need additional protection from dust, water and drops. For most people I would recommend the base T7 instead. It is cheaper, does not heat up as much, and although it is not resistant to water and dust, it can still withstand a few drops.

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

Links: Samsung T7 Shield review: Portable, protected storage – Tekmonk Bio, Samsung T7 Shield review: Portable, protected storage – Kungfutv, Samsung T7 Shield review: Portable, protected storage – Blogtomoney