Pros & Cons
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- Provides protection from rain, dust, and drops
- AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption
- Offers the raw speed of a USB 3.2 Gen 2 drive
- Comes in capacities up to 2TB
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- Relatively short three-year warranty
- Not the fastest external SSD for everyday storage tasks
Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield Specs
| Bus Type | PCI Express 3.0 x2 |
| Capacity (Tested) | 2 |
| Interface (Computer Side) | USB Type-A or Type-C |
| Internal or External | External |
| NAND Type | MLC |
| NVMe Support | |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Read | 1050 |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Write | 1000 |
| Warranty Length | 3 |
The latest member of Samsung's T7 line of external solid-state drives, the Portable SSD T7 Shield (starts at $159.99 for 1TB; $289.99 for 2TB as tested) raises the ante for ruggedness while maintaining the focus on data security seen in its predecessors, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 and Portable SSD T7 Touch. The T7 Shield is more shockproof than the previous T7 drives, and unlike them is rated for dust and water resistance. It's a good choice for travelers and outdoor workers who want a pocketable drive with good capacity that can stand up to the elements and won't cause them to lose sleep if it's lost or stolen.
Built to Take a Tumble
The T7 Shield measures just 0.5 by 2.3 by 3.5 inches and weighs a mere 3.5 ounces. The drive's aluminum frame is protected and hidden by a wraparound rubberized shield; our review unit was clad in blue, but the SSD also comes in black or beige. This non-removable sleeve has a corrugated texture that makes the drive easy to grip.
The top bears the Samsung name, with T7 Shield branding on the bottom. Only the two short ends are uncovered; one lists certifications and drive information in tiny type, while the other has a centered USB-C port and a small status or activity light. The T7 Shield comes with both a USB Type-C-to-A cable and a Type-C-to-C cable.
Like its predecessors, the Samsung T7 Shield supports USB 3.2 Gen 2, which offers speeds up to 10GBps. Nearly all relatively recent computers are compatible with this standard. You can find faster USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 external drives, but not many computers support them; to reach that spec's speed, you generally have to add a compatible expansion card if not a new motherboard.
The T7 Shield gets points for durability: It's rated as shock-resistant for drops up to 9.8 feet and its IP65 ingress protection rating means that it's impervious to sand or fine dust and resistant to rain or even pressurized water jets. It can't, however, be immersed in water. A rival rugged external SSD is the ADATA SE800, whose IP68 rating—the best of any consumer-grade drive we've tested—means that it's not only dustproof but can survive being submerged, thanks to its permanently attached, rubberized port cover, a feature the Samsung lacks.
Like the Samsung T7, the T7 Shield supports 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, considered the gold standard among civilian-level encryption solutions. The Shield omits the fingerprint reader found in the T7 Touch. Bundled software includes both Samsung Portable SSD and the Samsung Magician utility suite, which can monitor drive health, help optimize performance, control power usage, and protect your data.
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The three-year warranty Samsung offers is not unusual, but it's not lavish, either—some external drive manufacturers such as SanDisk, WD, and Kingston back their SSDs for five years.
Testing the T7 Shield: Nominal Raw Speed
We put the Samsung T7 Shield through our usual suite of external solid-state drive benchmarks, including Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, BlackMagic's Disk Speed Test, and our own folder transfer test. The first two are run on a PC with the drive formatted in NTFS, and the latter two on a 2016 MacBook Pro using exFAT. Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. The PCMark 10 Storage test measures an SSD's readiness for a wide variety of everyday tasks.
The Shield's speed in Crystal DiskMark landed within the same narrow range as the vast majority of USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives, with only the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 slightly exceeding its read and write speed ratings and the WD My Passport SSD 2020 just clearing its read-speed mark. The drives were packed even closer together in our Mac-based BlackMagic testing and drag-and-drop file copy test.
The T7 Shield posted a relatively low score in the PCMark 10 Overall storage test. It did edge its T7 Touch stablemate in that benchmark, but the SanDisk Extreme V2 and WD My Passport 2020, both Editors' Choice award winners, did considerably better.
An External SSD With Security and Durability
The T7 Shield is a well-rounded external SSD with competitive speed, hardware-based encryption, and a rugged exterior that protects your data from drops, dust, and rain. Its security isn't quite as convenient as that of the Editors' Choice-honored Samsung T7 Touch with fingerprint reader, but it should keep your information safe, and it's better protected than the Touch. Another portable SSD top pick, the SanDisk Professional G-Drive SSD, is just as secure as and even more water-fast than the T7 Shield, though it's optimized for Macs and will need reformatting for use with a PC. The G-Drive costs a bit more than the Shield but has a longer five-year warranty.
All that said, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield is a well-balanced, secure solid-state drive with more ruggedness than most. If you ever take your laptop on the road or into the great outdoors, whether for business or pleasure, you'll appreciate having a drive like the T7 Shield to keep your data safe.