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Samsung Announces Next-Generation 'Portable SSD T3' With USB-C Port

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Ahead of this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Samsung has announced its latest external solid state drive, the SSD T3. An evolution of the SSD T1, the Portable SSD T3 is Samsung's first SSD to include a USB 3.1 Type-C port instead of a standard USB B port.

Devices that use USB Type-C are proving popular at this year's CES, with multiple companies introducing new USB-C docks, connectors, and more. All of these products, including Samsung's SSD, are compatible with the 12-inch Retina MacBook, Apple's first computer to take advantage of USB-Type C.


Samsung's Portable SSD T3 features a body that's encased in silver and gray aluminum, an upgrade from the plastic body of the SSD T1. Internally, the SSD T3 features the same controllers with SSD TurboWrite technology and Vertical NAND flash used in each of Samsung's 2.5-inch SATA solid state drives.

The SSD T3 offers sequential read and write speeds of up to 450MB/s, and it's also lighter and more durable than most standard hard drives on the market. According to Samsung, it's smaller than an average business card. It can survive up to 1500G of force and will remain functional even after a drop of up to two meters.

samsungportablessdt3.jpg

Available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities with AES 256-bit hardware encryption, the SSD T3 ships with a USB Type-C to Type-A cable in the box, so it's able to be used with Macs that don't have a USB-C port. With its aluminum case, the SSD T3 is slightly heavier than the original T1, weighing in at 51 grams, and it measures in at 74mm x 58mm x 10.5mm.

Samsung has not unveiled pricing on the new SSD, which is expected to start shipping out in February of 2016.

Article Link: Samsung Announces Next-Generation 'Portable SSD T3' With USB-C Port
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/04/samsung-portable-ssd-t3-usb-c/
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cmChimera

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
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I want one of these badly.

Sandisk makes one with about double the read/write, but I don't think it's Type C. It's also more expensive. Wonder if they'll update that line as well.

robeddie said:
With the limited amounts of internal SSD storage Apple will put in their computers (and then zero after purchase internal upgrade ability), solutions like this will become increasingly necessary unfortunately.
Click to expand...
They offer up to 2TB SSDs right now right? At least 1TB. That's not really limited.
 
W

Woyzeck

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2012
441
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macintologist said:
Yea but when you plug this into the Macbook it will drain the battery even faster because you it only has one port. When you want to charge you have to unplug the drive.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, in the 80s we were used to swap disk media, now we swap the whole drive.
 
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ptb42

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Oct 14, 2011
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BeSweeet said:
So the internal SSD is SATA-based? Thought it would've used a different interface for the sake of increased speed.
Click to expand...

It does: It's PCI Express.

The 2015 MacBook Pro doubled the I/O bandwidth from a PCIe 2.0 x2 (or two I/O lanes) to PCIe 3.0 x4 (four I/O lanes).
 
D

drewyboy

macrumors 65816
Jan 27, 2005
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ptb42 said:
It does: It's PCI Express.

The 2015 MacBook Pro doubled the I/O bandwidth from a PCIe 2.0 x2 (or two I/O lanes) to PCIe 3.0 x4 (four I/O lanes).
Click to expand...

I think he was referring to the "internal" SSD for this external.
 
rtdunham

rtdunham

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Jun 21, 2003
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Not as simple as it seems. The T1 weighs 26 grams, about half the weight of the new one. Users might be better advised to get a T1 at a discounted price once the new ones are out, and rely on the USB C to USB adapter they already have.

Also give this thread a careful read. The T1 doesn't work as simply as all other external drives I've ever used, possibly due to its encryption or other software schemes. It's unclear whether the T3 works the same proprietary way or "fixes" the problem/inconvenience. That said, I've been using a 500 GB T1 for external backup and am very happy with it, and in awe of the speed and tiny size and weight. If I could overcome the confidence issues referenced in the thread below, I'd replace all my external drives with T1s (or T3s).

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/arti...off-on-new-samsung-t1-flash-ssd#comment-87207
 
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mangonights

macrumors member
Jun 9, 2013
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About time! The USB-C takeover can't come soon enough. Every USB-C product should come with a bag to ship off to recycling all the ******** cables of years past.

WiFi, Bluetooth and USB-C is the only thing the consumer sphere should ever need.
 
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ptb42

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Oct 14, 2011
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drewyboy said:
I think he was referring to the "internal" SSD for this external.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see your point. It's not very clear.

450 Mbytes/sec is 3.6 Gbit/sec -- well under the 6 Gbit/sec supported by SATA 3.0/3.1. So, there's really no need for anything faster in this device.

However, the SATA 3.2 (or SATA Express) specification supports up to 16 Gbit/sec, which would far exceed the maximum data rate 10 Gbit/sec provided by USB 3.1/-C.
 
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