Published: October 3, 2023 | Source: Samsung | Author: Von Blade

Samsung T9 2TB Portable SSD Review

Conclusion

Conclusion

Sometimes we have a product which, to borrow the famous Ronseal advertising slogan, does exactly what it says on the box. We’d already seen from the Samsung T7, and indeed their reputation in the world of internal storage, how capable their SSDs are, and this latest addition does nothing to diminish that fame.

By utilising the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 interface the Samsung T9 2TB has got plenty of throughput potential, and it is potential that it fully realised during our performance tests. Beneath the hood Samsung have increased the TurboWrite buffer to a possible 180GB, and this means that the transfer speeds are always maximising the possibility of the interface. If you’ve ever found yourself needing to move big files around, backup your entire OS install, or just store games you don’t want to currently play then this big capacity, speedy drive is the perfect solution. Samsung even provide you with a copy of their Magician software, which now integrates data migration alongside it’s drive health tools. It’s lovely when something just works.

If we have a tiny quibble it’s the nature of the rubber coating. We understand that their design philosophy was to add ruggedness to their underlying aluminium body that was exposed on their older T7 model. Anything that can handle a 9ft/3m drop means that even if you’re an NBA centre you can drop this off your head without concern. However, because it’s such a soft, almost tacky, rubber it very quickly picked up all the fluff and grit on our desk, as you could see from the images. How it would look after six months in and out of your pocket or bag we can’t imagine. Perhaps not a drive you’ll show off then, but one that shows off in robustness and performance. Which, after all, are the only things that actually matter.

Samsung have a well-deserved reputation in the storage world, with nearly all of their drives living permanently at the top of our graphs. The Samsung T9 2TB portable SSD does nothing to change this reputation, unless ‘enhance it further’ counts. It’s big enough to handle all your needs, fast enough to not leave you sitting about, and flexible enough to have a dozen uses. Fast, reliable storage is right in our sweet spot and the Samsung T9 2TB wins our OC3D Enthusiast Award.