It’s been greater than a yr and a half since we reviewed Samsung’s T7 transportable SSD, and at this time we’ve got the brand new Protect mannequin within the lab. The T7 Protect takes the unique system and focuses on enhancing its bodily endurance, addressing considered one of our complaints with the T7 that lacked the Ingress Safety (IP) score that signifies it’s shock, water and dust-resistant. This caveat additionally utilized to the T7 Contact we reviewed method again in 2020.
The drive is available in three colours – black, cream, and blue – inside a shell that’s a bit thicker than its predecessors. This shell is constructed from an aluminum physique coated with rubber, thicker because of the exterior ribbing that helps shield towards drop injury. Moreover, Samsung has added two distinct limitations to guard the USB port, designed to maintain out environmental parts like water and mud. Collectively, all of those elements allow the T7 Protect to satisfy IP65 certification necessities.
What else is totally different in regards to the Protect? Effectively, quite a bit is definitely much like the T7. Samsung nonetheless makes use of the DRAM-less Pablo SSD controller paired with an ASMedia ASM2362 bridge chip. AES 256-bit laborious encryption is, fortunately, nonetheless supported. Many different specs, such because the three-year guarantee, stay the identical. The T7 Protect additionally comes with the identical quantity and sort of USB cables. Nonetheless, Samsung has opted for a more recent kind of flash, and the shift in the direction of a sturdy design is substantial.
Samsung additionally ensures compatibility with Home windows 7 or greater, macOS, and Android Lollipop or greater. Compatibility for cellular gadgets consists of the T7 Protect working throughout the USB energy specification, which suggests a most energy draw of between 2.5W and seven.5W, relying on the port. Regardless, Samsung guarantees to keep up adequate efficiency to satisfy high-resolution video recording necessities, outlined as the power to put in writing at 900MBps constantly.
Samsung additionally made a concerted effort to scale back waste on this product and earned a Product Carbon Footprint label from the Carbon Belief. This basically signifies that all steps concerned in creating the product and its packaging had been designed and verified to attenuate the resultant carbon footprint. For instance, Samsung makes use of pulp materials with one-third much less tray packaging. It’s laborious to complain about that.
This product is in any other case not too thrilling, provided that it doesn’t enhance a lot on fashions going again over two years. It’s most likely finest to concentrate on what it does higher – the T7 Protect has elevated sturdiness and assured efficiency. This makes it a superb alternative for photographers and videographers within the discipline who need one thing constant and dependable. We’ll see if this bears out in testing.
Specs
| Product | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $159.99 | $289.99 |
| Capability (Consumer / Uncooked) | 1000GB /1024GB | 2000GB / 2048GB |
| Type Issue | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Interface / Protocol | USB-C / USB Gen3 2×2 | USB-C / USB Gen3 2×2 |
| Included | USB Sort-C to Sort-C, USB Sort-C to Sort-A cables | USB Sort-C to Sort-C, USB Sort-C to Sort-A cables |
| Controller | Samsung Pablo | Samsung Pablo |
| DRAM | No | No |
| Reminiscence | Samsung 128L TLC | Samsung 128L TLC |
| Sequential Learn | 1,050MBps | 1,050MBps |
| Sequential Write | 1,000MBps | 1,000MBps |
| Random Learn | N/A | N/A |
| Random Write | N/A | N/A |
| Safety | 256-bit AES ({Hardware}/SED) | 256-bit AES ({Hardware}/SED) |
| Energy | Bus-powered | Bus-powered |
| Endurance | IP65, Shock/Vibration Resistant, Thermal Guard | IP65, Shock/Vibration Resistant, Thermal Guard |
| Endurance (TBW) | N/A | N/A |
| Dimensions | 88 x 59 x 13mm | 88 x 59 x 13mm |
| Weight | N/A | N/A |
| Half Quantity | MU-PE1T0R | MU-PE2T0R |
| Guarantee | 3-Yr | 3-Yr |
The Samsung T7 Protect is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities. It’s good to see a 2TB possibility, and contemplating this drive is right for many who seemingly want capability, the omission of smaller SKUs is just not a problem. The drive is rated for as much as 1,050/1,000MBps for sequential reads and writes, respectively. That is fairly modest on account of the 10Gbps bridge chip, particularly contemplating we’ve got 20Gbps and Thunderbolt 3 transportable SSDs in the marketplace. Nonetheless, Samsung ensures 900MBps and 1000MBps sustained efficiency for the 1TB and 2TB SKUs, respectively, which is especially wonderful for the supposed market. That is virtually twice as quick as SATA-based transportable choices.
The T7 Protect has many options designed round safety and sturdiness, together with {hardware} encryption. The drive can also be IP65 rated and consists of safety towards mud, water, shock, and vibration. This consists of with the ability to survive drops of as much as two meters. Samsung moreover has a Dynamic Thermal Guard, which adjusts the drive’s efficiency to verify the casing stays under 57C, which is notably decrease than the 60C worldwide normal — this reduces the danger of customers getting injured when grabbing the case.
Software program and Equipment
The T7 Protect comes with each Sort-C to Sort-C and Sort-C to Sort-A USB cables, providing flexibility to be used with a number of gadgets. Additionally it is appropriate with Samsung’s Moveable SSD Software program 1.0 and Samsung Magician. The previous has editions for Home windows, macOS, and Android, whereas the latter solely operates on Home windows.
The Moveable SSD Software program presents a streamlined UI to assist customers obtain software program and firmware updates for his or her machine. You can too allow a safety mode with a password or password and fingerprint. Samsung Magician, alternatively, is extra strong, providing the power to observe and benchmark the drive along with the options discovered within the Moveable SSD Software program.
A Nearer Look
Our T7 Protect pattern is clad in a pleasant blue case, clearly thicker than the older T7 fashions. With its appreciable contours, the rubber exterior helps cut back vibration and shock, together with from drops. One face has the USB-C connector and indicator mild, whereas the opposite has a label with a QR code and pertinent specs, together with the mannequin and serial numbers.
The T7 Protect has thermal padding and an in any other case understated, inexperienced PCB. We are able to see the anticipated controller, bridge chip, and two NAND flash packages, with notably no DRAM on board.
Samsung’s Pablo controller, labeled S4LR033, is a DRAM-less four-channel design. This controller can also be used within the different T7 fashions in addition to Samsung’s 980 desktop NVMe drive. The bridge chip is ASMedia’s ASM2362, able to 10Gbps switch speeds, and Samsung makes use of it on the opposite T7 fashions and plenty of different transportable SSDs. The flash as labeled is Samsung K9DVGB8J1B-DCK0, which we’ve got seen on different drives just like the Samsung 870 EVO. It’s Samsung’s 128-layer TLC.
This 128-layer flash tends to come back in 512Gb, or 64GB, dies, and every of the NAND packages right here is 8Tb or 1TB in capability. This means a 16DP (sixteen dies per package deal) configuration, much like what’s within the 870 EVO, for a complete of 32 dies at 2TB. Every die is able to as much as 82MBps in its native, non-SLC mode, which is greater than adequate to hit Samsung’s acknowledged speeds. This does require the right SLC cache design, significantly at 1TB, which is to say it must be extra conservative to make sure a excessive stage of efficiency.
This flash can also be seen in some newer 970 EVO Plus drives — notably slower in TLC mode at 1TB than the unique mannequin that launched with less-dense, 92-layer TLC — however, if mandatory for interleaving, it additionally seems in a 256Gb or 32GB per die configuration. Denser dies are significantly helpful at greater capacities with four-channel controllers, resembling we’ve got right here.
Let’s have a look at how the drive does in our testing.
MORE: Greatest SSDs
MORE: How We Take a look at HDDs And SSDs
MORE: All SSD Content material