Samsung’s T9 portable SSD is the first with USB 3 Gen 2×2 and achieves transfer speeds of 2,000 MB/s

The Samsung Portable SSD T9 is the company’s first with a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface. This allows the external drives to achieve sequential read and write speeds of 2,000 MB/s, twice as fast as the previous T7 drive (that one had a Gen 2×1 interface).

To help the drive stay fast, Samsung has equipped it with its “Dynamic Thermal Guard,” which helps minimize slowdowns due to thermal throttling. This is only for extended transfers, which can be rare: the drive is so fast that you can send it a 4GB file in just two seconds.

The Samsung T9 SSD is available in four capacities: 1TB, 2TB and 4TB. Physically they all have the same dimensions, 88 x 60 x 14 mm and weigh 122 g. The outside is covered with a special pattern that makes it look like fabric.

It is much more durable than fabric, however, as it can withstand drops of up to 3m (10ft). The unit also has an operating temperature of 0°C to 60°C (32-140°F). It also provides a different kind of security with 256-bit AES hardware encryption.

External storage is pretty much plug and play these days, but there’s still a benefit to having an app: Samsung Magician 8.0. This takes care of maintenance tasks like firmware updates and health checks, but also allows you to benchmark the drive and manage its security features. Mago is available for Windows, Mac and Android.

The drive also comes with two cables, USB C-to-C and USB A-to-C, so you can connect it to anything. This includes new iPhones for things like ProRes video recording, albeit without the benefit of Samsung Magician. We should note that most USB-C cables you have lying around are probably not USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, so they won’t be able to drive the SSD at its maximum speed.

The Samsung Portable SSD T9 is available worldwide starting today. Check the prices below:

By the way, if you’re looking for an internal drive instead, Samsung recently launched a 4TB version of its 990 Pro SSD model (the 1TB and 2TB models were already available). There are two versions: with and without heat sink.

The latter has a graphene heat sink for devices that don’t have enough space for a proper heat sink. This does not include the PlayStation 5, however, the heatsink version fits the console perfectly.

Samsung SSD 990 Pro 4TB (with heatsink)

This is a PCIe 4.0 drive that offers sequential read speeds of up to 7,450 MB/s, sequential writes of up to 6,900 MB/s, and random operations at 1,600,000 and 1,550,000 IOPS respectively. The basic model costs $345, the one with the heatsink costs $10 more.