PC World - USA (2021-06)

(Maropa) #1
66 PCWorld JUNE 2022

REVIEWS SAMSUNG T7 SHIELD SSD


Though the Shield lacks the Touch’s
fingerprint reader, it can still be password
secured using Samsung’s Portable SSD
software. Of course, you must then install said
software on any computer you want to access
the drive from. That’s certainly not as handy as
a simple finger scan, but workable.

PERFORMANCE
The Samsung T7 Shield showed a
noticeable performance improvement over
its T7 Touch predecessor, especially when it
came to writing files. Then again, our Shield
test unit was 2TB, where the Touch was
500GB. This will make a difference,
especially during long writes as the drive
can treat more NAND as single-bit/level,
SLC secondary cache.
We recently switched to the latest
CrystalDiskMark, version 8.04, and a new
testbed so these charts are not direct
comparable with those for previous drives.

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

Sequential Write (Q=32, T=1)
875
931

1,059

Sequential Read (Q=32, T=1)

Samsung T7 Shield
LaCie Portable SSD

Samsung T7 Touch

1,070
1,052

1,0 92

CrystalDiskMark 6
MBps

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

Total Time
553
509

487

48GB Folder Write

48GB Folder Read

48GB Write

48GB Read

48GB Transfers
Seconds

215
175

182

152
165

160

122
90

80

64
79

65

Samsung T7 Shield
LaCie Portable SSD

Samsung T7 Touch

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

450GB Write
1,354
974

762

450GB Single File Write
Seconds
Samsung T7 Shield
LaCie Portable SSD

Samsung T7 Touch

The two drives the Shield is compared to
below were retested, however. That said,
CDM 8 demonstrates that noticeable write
speed improvement I just spoke of. (Right-
click on images and choose “Open image in
new tab” to see full-size versions.)
Free download pdf