Samsung's second-gen external SSD is sleeker, faster, and more spacious than competing drives-but it needs a price drop before it's a no-brainer buy.

Slim; durable-feeling shell; Available in capacities to 2TB; Improved write speeds compared to previous-gen T1 model; Future-looking USB Type-C port

High launch pricing makes older model (and a competing SanDisk drive) more appealing

I bought it 3 weeks ago and it is a great product.

Conclusion The Samsung Portable SSD T3 is an excellent choice if you need to carry or copy a library's worth of data in a device that will fit in your front pants pocket. It is certainly pricey, but if you're a power user, you will want nothing less, especially if you need to work on 4K or HD video...

Speedy performance; USB-C port; Mac, Windows PC, and Android compatible; Drop tested to 6 feet; Three-year warranty

Pricey; USB-C-to-USB-C cable not included

Samsung's T3 is the fastest and sleekest external drive available today.

Handheld external SSD; Up to 2TB of storage; Average read speeds of 442MBps; Almost as small as a thumb drive

Short cord included in the box; Extremely high price point

The Samsung Portable SSD T3 2TB is beautifully crafted, is compatible with Android and PC and offers a large amount of storage at a pocketable size. However, it comes at a hefty price tag, read our review to see how it performs.

If you're after a large capacity portable drive for backing up your photos, videos, music and other precious data, the Samsung T3 is a great choice. However, a traditional hard drive is still much, much cheaper if speed isn't your main priority.

Samsung leveraged its extensive NAND flash and storage IP and took aim at the high-performance portable storage market last year when it launched its impressive Portable SSD T1 external drive.

Nice Enclosure; Strong Performance; USB Type-C / USB 3.1; Capacity Up To 2GB

Still Not As Fast As Internal SATA SSDs; Price Premium

The Samsung Portable SSD T3 is a 1TB (roughly 1000GB) portable SSD hard-drive with high transfer speeds of up to 450MB/s when using USB 3.0, with a metal case with shock-resistant internal frame, and password protection.

Extremely compact USB3 drive; Comes with easy to use software installed; 256bit encryption; USB 2.0 and 3.0 compatibility; Fast read / write speeds with USB3; Three-year warranty

Higher capacities are quite pricey

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).

Outpaces thumb drives and rival SSDs; super light; runs cool; features USB 3.1 Type-C and a metal case versus the T1's Type-A connector and plastic case

A tad slower than the T1 in some tests yet the 1TB T3 is priced 20% over the T1 at $430 versus $350 (not to mention the 1TB 850 Evo mSATA at $300)

Once again, Samsung has introduced an industry leading product to the consumer with the T3 Portable SSD, one that quite frankly seems to be void of any competition. Not only does it rule in value, performance and capacity, but also, Samsung truly listened to what the consumer had to say in stepping...