When Samsung released the Portable SSD T1 it sat at the top of the charts when compared to similar USB flash drives but wasn't what we'd call perfect. The reason I say this is because I could never figure out why Samsung decided to use a plastic enclosure with one such expensive USB 3.0 drive...

- Build Quality (850 EVO mSATA; - Top Of The Charts Performance; - Aluminum Enclosure; - Just 10.5mm Thick; - Available In 2TB; - Hardware AES-256bit Encryption (Password Protection; - 3 Years Warranty; - USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C Connector; - Price (For Some

- None

Much like the original T1, the new Samsung T3 proved itself with internal SATA SSD-like results, sustaining a throughput of 390MB/s when downloading (reading) a single large compressed file and 300MB/s when uploading (writing).

SSDs are awesome, and so is USB-C. What could be better than a combination of the two? That's the idea behind the Samsung T3, a portable SSD that operates over the USB 3.1 standard for extremely file transfers and access times.

Bonafide SSD speeds, Super portable; plug and play, Works on PCs and Android

Expensive (£300 for 1TB; Not as fast as internal SSDs; Cable remains unsightly

Samsung's portable SSDs bridge the gap between a small, throwaway USB flash drive -- usually with a tiny storage capacity -- and a larger portable USB hard drive. The new T3 really is the best of both worlds, and brings the luxury of high-speed USB Type-C too, but you'll pay a hefty premium for it.

Over a year ago we saw Samsung expand with the T1 creating a new category of extremely compact portable storage that offered fantastic speed. While at the time of testing we attested the T1 was virtually unrivaled, in the last twelve months we've seen companies attack this new category aggressively.

Small and very high-quality housing; Type-C connector; Very high performance; Large storage options

Expensive; No USB 3.1

Ordinarily we take some time to discuss price, performance, and the market as a whole when reviewing SSDs, but in this case we don't have test results for a full field of comparable drives to weigh the T3 against.

The Samsung Portable USB T3 is largely just a refresh of their previous T1 model. Even though the internals consist of the same size parts, the new model comes in a bit wider, thicker, and heavier than its predecessor.