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  • Manch - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    I was just about to buy a T3. Buddy has one and its great. Glad I hemmed and hawed a bit first. I prefer to get the drive with TRIM supt.
  • Xajel - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    I just like the design of WD My Passport SSD more... not to mention that it's more compact than this and uses Type-C port, this one has a lot of wasted volume inside.
  • timecop1818 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    what are you even talking about. T3 and T5 are USB-C drives. WD crap uses MicroUSB3, which is an ugly and easy to break connector.
  • ganeshts - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    The My Passport *HDD* external drives use micro-USB 3.0.. the My Passport SSD (a Best Buy exclusive that we reviewed a month or so back) does use USB Type-C. It is a M.2 2280 SSD inside a sleek enclosure.
  • svan1971 - Friday, September 1, 2017 - link

    "ugly" really ??? the "ugly" end was plugged into my passport 3 years ago and has remained there since. The other end is all that matters you know the beautiful usb end.
  • jdshewman - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    Yeah, I love the compact design of the WD My Passport SSD and it screams. The only issue I had when I bought it was slow because of exFAT. But I reformated to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and it flies.
  • AsParallel - Tuesday, January 2, 2018 - link

    For the cool design you're leaving 100MB/s large file r:w and any 4k random queue depth support on the table. It's a neat design, but its performance and lack of attention to detail puts it at the bottom of the pack, even below sandisk's offering.

    Hopefully someone releases a usb-c thunderbolt 3 nvme portable enclosure soon so none of this will matter.
  • edwpang - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Blame Microsoft(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT):
    exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) is a Microsoft file system optimized for flash memory such as USB flash drives and SD cards.[3] It is proprietary and Microsoft owns patents on several elements of its design.[2]
    ...
    Companies can integrate exFAT into a specific group of consumer devices, including cameras, camcorders, and digital photo frames for a flat fee. Mobile phones, PCs, and networks have a different volume pricing model.[3]
    Microsoft has entered into licensing agreements with BlackBerry,[32][33] Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony, Canon, Aspen Avionics,[34] Audiovox, Continental, Harman, LG Automotive[35] and BMW.[36]
  • melgross - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Isn’t that just for manufacturers of devices though? If macOS supports it, as said here, then why doesn’t Android?
  • niva - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Because, blame Microsoft. Just go with it.
  • melgross - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Heh, that’s true. I always thought that it was the OS itself that needed to have support for other file systems, not the other way around. So here it would be Google’s fault, but no one likes to blame them for anything, or Samsung either, for that matter.
  • coder543 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    There are Linux drivers for exFAT, but device manufacturers do not ship exFAT support with Android because they don't want to pay Microsoft additional royalties over what they already have to pay them. (some info here: https://www.howtogeek.com/183766/why-microsoft-mak...
  • coder543 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    https://www.howtogeek.com/183766/why-microsoft-mak...

    and AnandTech decided the closing parenthesis was part of the URL, so I've placed the link separately here.
  • Rocket321 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    I believe Samsung (and LG) android phones DO include an exFat driver out of the box. The stock aosp (ie Nexus/Pixels) do not.
  • BillBear - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    It's entirely possible that it's already covered under Apple and Microsoft's big patent cross licensing agreement.
  • AnTech - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Is it possible to use Samsung Portable SSD T5 to boot Mac and work from it all-day-long?
  • coder543 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    It should be, but why would you?
  • AnTech - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    To boot from Samsung Portable SSD T5 at work and home. Your stuff in your pocket. Always.
  • Manch - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    My buddy with the T3 drive keeps OSX on it. Uses VM to launch an instance of it on his XPS15. Works great
  • skavi - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    If you can, wait for a portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD, speeds would be much closer to native.
  • timecop1818 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    what workload on a Macintosh would require so much data transfer anyway? you don't need 3000mb/sec to stare at a desktop or play candy crush
  • jdshewman - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    Photographers, HD and 4K video. With the abundance of travel bloggers and drones, extra storage with speed is valuable.
  • AnTech - Thursday, August 17, 2017 - link

    Which one? Any of these or is there anyone else coming?

    Sonnet Fusion Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Drive
    http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fusiontb3pciefla...

    JMR Lightning LTNG-XTD portable Thunderbolt SSD
    http://jmr.com/product/jmr-lightningltng-xtd-porta...
  • name99 - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    Of course it is. Macs have handled booting from external drives since forever (at least the initial FireWire days). I run my iMac 2012 off an external USB3 SSD because the internal HD failed. Hell, you can even create a fusion boot drive between an external SSD and an internal hard drive if you like, and that's how I run my 2007 iMac (SSD connected via FW800).

    Being able to boot painlessly from external drives is one of the great Mac advantages that Win and Linux folks don't seem to know about because it's not part of their world. I do it all the time, sometimes for machines whose internal drives die, sometimes to give a speed boost to an old machine (like the 2007 iMac setup I described above), sometimes as a diagnostic when a machine seems to be behaving badly. (Good way to learn/test that an internal HD is going bad...)

    Obviously you will want to format the external drive to JHFS+ (or wait two months and format it to APFS...), you can't boot off exFAT or NTFS or whatever it comes formatted with.
  • VulkanMan - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    How long can these retain the data without being powered?

    Is that information included anywhere?
  • coder543 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    No one lists that information for any SSD that I've seen, but the minimum JEDEC spec for a consumer SSD is one year without power. Realistically, I have trouble imagining less than 5 years being a problem, but it would be interesting to have numbers.
  • VulkanMan - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Most SSDs have been internal and those usually get powered up daily / weekly.
    Since these are external, not everyone is going to know that they must power the devices up at least once every X months, so they shouldn't be used for long term storage.

    I would think they would put warnings on these that data loss is possible if you don't power them up semi-frequently.
  • Billy Tallis - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    Powering up the drive periodically or even continuously doesn't solve anything. All of the data has to be moved or re-written in order to prolong retention times. But since those retention times are measured in years not months, it's not worth warning about.
  • Billy Tallis - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    JEDEC spec is for one year of unpowered data retention after the drive's rated write endurance has been exhausted. A drive that hasn't been absolutely hammered with writes will retain data far longer.
  • Bullwinkle J Moose - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    I'll stick with an 850 Pro because it works on any USB 3 and 3.1 port with an adapter

    The 850 Pro is faster than this drive as well

    I avoid "USB Only" external drives because you can only install Windows 2 Go Spyware Platforms on them

    With the 850 Pro, I can also install Windows XP and use it with SATA and ESATA ports as well as any USB port

    With this one, you are stuck with USB only

    So sad!
  • timecop1818 - Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - link

    > Windows XP

    trolls usually bring up more obsolete stuff like lunix, you need to step your game up.
  • Liltorp - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    Since when has ​"Availability in multiple colors " been an "The important features". :-)
  • wilbert305 - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    Nice article pure informative and knowledgeable thank you for sharing it. http://vidmatedownloadforpc.com/
  • JKJK - Wednesday, August 16, 2017 - link

    I have a T3 at work and was considering buying one for private use as well. But seeing this, I'll wait for the T5 to become available.
  • AnTech - Thursday, August 17, 2017 - link

    Does TRIM on Samsung Portable SSD T5 work also on Mac?
  • JKJK - Thursday, August 17, 2017 - link

    ordered a T5 1GB today :)
  • martinsobers016 - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link

    Thanks for the info. I hope it works on Mac too. Will order one soon http://www.showboxappz.net
  • geokon - Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - link

    Is it possible to use hardware encryption on Linux? I can't seem to find any information

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