Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

I know .. I know .. at 179 EURO for 250GB these units are not cheap, but hellohooow  ...blimey are they fast ! The Samsung T1 is an incredibly exciting product. The overall performance is as expected really at the maximum levels the SSD can handle, up-to 450 MB/sec if it has the right circumstances.  You'll be hovering at roughly 200 to 400 Mb/sec for reads and writes over USB 3.0 on average and well, there's nothing wrong with that. USB 3.0 obviously adds a little latency so in that sense it is not entirely fair to compare the product with an SSD. But it is damn close. This is also the main reason that you see great sustained and linear performance, while IOPS performance is lower. But with values in the 20 to 30K IOPS 4K overall, that again is impressive for a USB 3.0 storage unit.

What is however key to this release are three things; the aesthetics, an added security level and of course performance. And on all three key factors the T1 manages to do an exemplary job. The storage unit is simply ultra thin, light-weight and very easy to carry around. Armed with its sexy dark design looks the Samsung T1 simply has stunning aesthetics while easy to carry around. The weight as well, I mean 30grams. And the best thing yet, you don't need to power is externally. Simply plug it into a USB 3.0 connector with preferably Windows 8.1 and it will feed of the host controller as incredible speeds. 
 

For those that need a layer of protection, you can secure the unit with a 256-bit AES encryption through a username and password. Where you need fast read performance, the T1 will do its job exemplary. Copying many small MP3 files resulted at 200MB/sec, which we find to low for a USB 3.0 device like this. Once you move on-wards to big sized files and content speed will picks up real fast. Copying an ISO for example would get you great write speed at roughly 400+ MB/sec (depending on the source). When we fire off synthetic tests at the storage unit we see it max out at roughly anywhere from to 400 MB/sec if you give it the perfect conditions. That is just really nice.  Each and every test we performed confirms these findings.

Concluding

The Samsung T1 matches its advertised read speed and writes well almost, but as stated it will be slower with small write files, however small file I/O operations in terms of IOPS is for a USB 3.0 unit, really good. 

Final Pricing:

• 250GB £136.99 - 180 EUR - 199 USD
• 500GB £228.99 - 299 EUR - 339 USD
• 1024GB £456.99 - 599 EUR - 679 USD

Keep in mind if you can’t find a USB 3.0 port, it will work just fine at USB 2.0 port with speeds 10x slower, but still in the 30 MB/sec range. The T1 is a fast device for what it needs to be, easy to carry around and you get a 3 year warranty. The 500GB model as tested today will sell for roughly 350 EUR, we think that is a lot of money, but compared to other units in the category it seems to be a fair. We had no problems whatsoever with it and it is just the coolest looking easy to carry around portable storage unit. As such we can highly recommend it if you have the budget for it as it is an amazing USB 3.0 storage solution.

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