APPLE CHOICE Mac/iOS hardware
Samsung T7 Touch
An impressive update for this SSD device
£194 FROM Samsung, samsung.co.uk FEATURES 1TB, biometric fingerprint
sensor, USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 2), AES 256-bit hardware encryptionSignificantly
accelerated data
transfer at a price tag
that’s very palatable.+++++++
Very fast transfer
Great construction
The included cables
could be a bit longer
IP68 would be
a nice touchVERDICT
By adding
biometrics,the T7 Touch
raises thebaseline for
securing data
on the move82 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2020biometric feature is straightforward, as easy
as doing it on a smartphone and so is adding
password protection to the T7 Touch.
Note that the device needs to be connected
at all times for the fingerprint reader to work,
which could be a bit of an issue if you have to
move the drive around.
Samsung claims that the drive can achieve
read/write speeds of up to 1.05GBps, which it
says is about twice what the T5 could reach.
In real life, we measured 1032MBps and
924MBps in our benchmark tests, which are
not that far from Samsung’s own readings.
It lacks an IP rating (although it is shock
resistant) and doesn’t have any of the security
certifications most of its more expensive
rivals have, but the T7 Touch can’t be touched
(pun intended) when it comes to the right
balance between security, speed, portability
and pricing. Indeed, what Samsung has done
with the T7 Touch is raise the baseline for
securing your data on the move by adding
biometrics to password protection; expect
others to follow suit swiftly both on external
SSD and f lash drives as well.
We’re slightly disappointed that Samsung
didn’t provide a free trial for its own Samsung
Cloud service (similar to what WD does), with
a reminder that you should always backup
their files, but this doesn’t distract from the
fact that this is a speedy and safe external
storage device that fully deserves a best-in-
class award from MacFormat.
Bravo Samsung! DESIRE ATHOWS
amsung’s T7 is available in two
versions; a plain-vanilla model
and one that packs a fingerprint
reader and is known as the T7 Touch.
Three different capacities are available
(500GB, 1TB, 2TB) and two colour schemes
(black and silver). Both the T7 and T7 Touch
come with a three-year limited warranty,
Samsung’s Portable SSD Plus 1.0 software
and AES 256-bit hardware encryption.
The 1TB T7 Touch on test here costs £194.
The T7 Touch looks very similar to the
old T5 but is a tiny bit bigger and heavier.
The hardware needed for the biometric
feature explains the 7g gain in weight.
Samsung has stuck with the solid
aluminium unibody construction which fits
snuggly in your hand. The LED square also
lights up with a cool blue glow to keep you
informed about what the SSD is doing.
There’s a Type-C connector to which either
of the two bundled cables can be connected.
Samsung has swapped the SATA-based
SSD of the previous T5 for an NVMe SSD
behind the USB 3.2 Gen 2 bridge to offer up
to significantly better performance. It is likely
that the T7 Touch uses sixth-generation
136-layer V-NAND as opposed to the T5’s
64-layer V-NAND.Use and performance
The T7 Touch came formatted as exFAT with
a usable capacity of 931GB. It had three files
on it, one of which was the bundled Samsung
Portable SSD Plus software needed to enable
fingerprinting capabilities. Setting up theThe T7 Touch looks good, and boasts superfast transfer
speeds and the convenience of fingerprint security.Image credit: SamsungThe Type-C port reaches USB 3.2 Gen 2 standard and two
USB cables (Type-C to C and Type-C to A) are included.