Product Listing

Samsung Portable SSD T3 - A portable HDD for speed freaks

By Kenny Yeo - 24 May 2016

Test Setup, PCMark 8 and Timing Test

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.

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8.0
  • Design 8
  • Performance 8.5
  • Features 8
  • Value 7.5
The Good
Now available in 2TB
Good performance
Compact and light
Easy to setup on PCs and Macs
Support for Android devices
256-bit AES encryption and password protection
The Bad
Pricey
Only USB 3.1 Gen 1
Clumsy USB cable
No ability to reset password personally
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