Samsung Portable SSD T3 - A portable HDD for speed freaks

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A year ago, Samsung introduced the first of its portable SSD drives and it was called the Portable SSD T1. It was an extremely compact portable external hard disk drive that made use of the company’s cutting-edge V-NAND technology.

V-NAND or vertical NAND, is a relatively new type of memory that aims to overcome the problems of existing 2D planar NAND architecture. In order to create higher capacity drives, one way is to squeeze the cells in 2D planar NAND closer together. This causes problems because as cells are squeezed closer together, interference can occur. The alternative is to store more data per cell, but this results in decreased performance and also endurance. V-NAND overcomes these problems by simply stacking the cells on top of each other. It’s a simple and elegant solution.

Thanks to V-NAND, Samsung was the first to offer 2TB SSDs to consumers, in the form of their SSD 850 Pro and SSD 850 Evo. Now, they are taking that capacity point to their portable external drives, and have also given it upgrades in the process. The result is the new Portable SSD T3 that you see here.

In terms of design, the Samsung Portable SSD T3 is very comparable to the T1. Like the T1, the new T3 is incredibly compact, and only just about the size of a typical name card. If you are a stickler for details, the T3’s exact dimensions are: 74 x 58 x 10.5mm. Nitpickers will point out that the T3 is larger, but let us assure you, the differences are negligible. Both drives will easily slip into your pockets. The only difference insofar as design is concerned is that the T3’s chassis features metal components to improve heat dispersion.

That said, the same design issue that plagued the original T1 is present in the T3 as well. We are referring to the supplied USB cable. In fact, the supplied cable is even longer in the T3 and it makes the T3 more cumbersome to carry around. Like we mentioned before, an integrated retractable USB connector would have been a much more elegant solution.

Inside, the T3 uses components found on Samsung’s SSDs. There’s a MGX controller - the same found in the SSD 850 Evo - and four NAND packages which are made up of Samsung’s new high density 48-layer 256Gbit TLC V-NAND - that’s how they managed to cram 2TB into a drive the size of a name card.

While last year’s T1 only supported USB 3.0, the new T3 supports USB 3.1, but only up to 5Gbps. Another difference is that the T3 uses a USB Type-C connector, whereas last year’s model had a micro-USB connector. It doesn’t really affect performance and or usage (since the bundled cable still terminates in a USB Type A connector), but it’s something users should take note, especially if you forgot to bring the bundled cable along with you.

In terms of performance, the new T3 drive supports UASP just like its predecessor. UASP or (USB Attached SCSI) protocol is a standard aimed at improving USB 3.0 performance by transferring data and commands in separate "pipes" and executing multiple commands in parallel. So if you have a compatible system (most modern systems running Windows 8 and Mac OS X 10.8 and above should support UASP), one can expect better performance. Claimed sequential read and write performance is 450MB/s, which isn’t that far off from regular SATA-based SSDs which manage around 500MB/s.

Like the T1, the T3 has an emphasis on security and supports 256-bit AES encryption. The T3 is compatible with PCs, Macs and even Android devices. The first time you load the T3, it will prompt you to select a password. Thereafter, the security program will automatically run whenever you insert the T3. For Android devices, users will need to download the Samsung Portable SSD Android app from Google Play. In any case, without the password, users cannot access contents on the T3, and it’s worth noting at this point that the password cannot be reset on your own. If you happen to forget it, the only solution is to bring it down to the service center and have it reset by Samsung. Of course, doing so also means losing all your data. This all or nothing approach sounds a little drastic, but it’s actually the most secure.

Test Setup

The drives will be tested on our updated storage testbed using the Windows 10 operating system, which has the following specifications:

• • Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz)
• • ASUS Z97-Deluxe/USB 3.1 (Intel Z97 chipset)
• • 2 x 4GB DDR3-1600 memory
• • MSI GeForce 8600 GTS
• • Windows 10 Pro

We have also revised our benchmarks and the list used are as follows:

• • AS-SSD benchmark 1.8.5636.36856
• • CrystalDiskMark 5.0.2
• • PCMark 8 (Storage suite)

We will be comparing the new Samsung Portable SSD T3 drive closely against its predecessor, the T1. We are expecting the two drives to perform quite comparably, and we'll be keeping an eye on the T3's write performance. With its high density 48-layer 256Gbit NAND, we are expecting its write performance to suffer a tad. We have also included the results of a regular portable hard disk drive where possible just to show the difference in performance between a portable external SSD and a portable external HDD.

PCMark 8

We begin with PCMark 8 and we can see that the smaller capacity T1 has the advantage. Though the scores are close, the actual storage speeds achieved show a significant difference. The T1 managed an average speed of 255.19MB/s, whereas the T3 recorded just 173.16MB/s - a difference of 32%. Looking at the detailed breakdown of each individual workload, we can see that T3 was consistently slower, though not by very much.

Timing Test

Our timing test is a measure of the time it took for the drives to transfer 16GB worth of files including photos, music, documents and videos. Here, the new T3 drive stormed ahead by taking just 53 seconds. The T1, on the other hand, took 10 seconds or 18% longer with 63 seconds. An interesting point to note is that a traditional portable external HDD like the Western Digital My Passport Ultra took over twice as long (137 seconds) to transfer the same amount of files.

AS SSD Results

AS SSD is a benchmark that uses non-compressible and completely random data. This takes away the advantages of SSD controllers that compress data before moving them, such as the old SandForce SF-2281 controller.

We begin on the Copy benchmark which measures the copying speed of various types of files and it is apparent that the T3 and T1 drives are quite evenly matched. Their speeds on the “ISO” and “Game” workloads are nearly identical, and it is only on the “Program” workload that the older T1 was faster. Additionally, it must be noted that the portable external hard disk drive was simply no match for the faster flash-based drives.

Looking at the rest of the results from the AS SSD benchmark, the T3 and T1 drives were necked to neck in just about every workload. It was only on the 4K, 64 threads workload that the T1’s write speed let it down. We suppose thats because its TurboWrite cache has already been exhausted. With 2TB of capacity, the newer T3 can dedicate much more of its capacity to the TurboWrite cache to speed up write workloads.

CrystalDiskMark Results

CrystalDiskMark is an easy-to-run and quick utility to use to gauge a drive’s performance. It measures sequential read and write performance and random read and write speeds of random 4KB, 4KB (queue depth 32) and 512KB data.

On CrystalDiskMark, the T3 and T1 were just as evenly matched. The T1 exhibited slightly faster sequential read and write speeds, to the tune of about 10%; but on 4K and 4K, 32 queue depth workloads, their speeds were nearly identical. Again, the portable external hard disk drive was simply no match for the two flash-based drives. 

A capacious pocket rocket

The new Samsung Portable SSD T3 is a puzzling new drive from the flash memory giants. In many ways, apart from the larger 2TB capacity option, the new T3 is nearly identical to the older T1.

In terms of performance, there seems to be very little to separate between the two. And the decision to only support USB 3.1 Gen 1 (limited to 5Gbps) seems to us like a missed opportunity for creating an even faster portable external SSD. SanDisk’s competing Extreme 900 Series portable SSDs support USB 3.1 Gen 2, so there’s no reason why the T3 shouldn’t. That said, the new T3 will still run rings around any conventional mechanical portable external HDD and it is still a blazing fast drive.

Another thing that the T3 has going for it is its extreme portability. SanDisk’s Extreme 900 Series drives might be faster, but they are also considerably larger. The T3 will comfortably slip into pockets and bags. Now if only they could integrate the connector within the T3 itself, it will be perfect.

Speaking of connectors, the T3 now uses a USB Type-C to USB Type-A connecting cable which can cause problems for users since they aren’t as readily available as the micro-USB to USB Type-A connecting cable that the old T1 uses. But what really grieves us is the length of the cable. It’s so long that it makes the T3 more cumbersome to carry around.

As for pricing, readers will be happy to know that thanks to falling NAND prices, the T3 is more affordable than the T1. Here are the prices:

At S$1299, the 2TB model is undoubtedly pricey and is something that only hardcore power users with a need for large amounts of storage will consider. But if we look at the cost per gigabyte, the 2TB model doesn't actually fare that badly. Also worth noting is that the 1TB T3 model is S$599, which means its considerably more affordable than the 1TB T1 drive from last year, which had a launch price of S$899.

The T3 is also more affordable than its SanDisk rival. The SanDisk Extreme 900 Series portable SSD in 960GB and 480GB guises are priced at S$730 and S$428 respectively.

Unfortunately, despite the more wallet-friendly price tags, the T3 is still considerably more expensive than mechanical portable external hard disk drives. At S$259 for the smallest 250GB variant, that’s enough to get you a 2TB mechanical portable external hard disk drive and with enough spare change for another 1TB drive. If cost and capacity are important to you, mechanical portable external hard disk drives are still the way to go.

But if speed, portability, capacity, and security are high on your list of needs, then it's hard to go wrong with the Samsung portable SSD T3.

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