Samsung is getting ready to announce the Samsung T9 portable SSD, according to leaked documents posted on the Computerbase forums. This new solid state drive, according to those documents, will be twice as fast as Samsung’s existing T7 SSD line, being capable of incredible read and write speeds of 2,000 MB/s.
Samsung’s secret sauce seems to lie in the new USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface used in the new device. This interface is capable of 20 Gbps, again twice as fast as the T7’s interface, which was capable of 10 Gbps. This is a disappointment to some, who had hoped the high read and write speeds would be as a result of using a Thunderbolt interface. However, the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface offers better backwards compatibility than Thunderbolt, likely being the reason why Samsung opted for the interface it did. Also, there would have been worries about adopting Thunderbolt for the T-series, as it would risk competing with Samsung’s existing Thunderbolt-equipped X-series.
We know the capacities on offer for the T9, too, and it’s a promising line. The Samsung T9 is ditching anything lower than a terabyte, and will offer 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. This is the same as the T7 Shield, so not much of a surprise. Pricing is unknown, but French retailer PC21 has the 1TB and 2TB variants listed at $133 and $226 respectively. The 4TB option hasn’t been listed though, so these numbers may be largely speculative.
It’s also become clear that Samsung is expanding the warranty for the T9 to cover five years, rather than the three years it had previously promised. In addition to this, leaked specifications for the new device show that it’s markedly smaller and lighter than the T7.
The Samsung T9 is an upgrade that’s been a long time coming. The Samsung T7 launched in 2020, and while it contained a number of variants, Samsung’s range of SSDs hadn’t received any real upgrades in terms of speed and performance. The Samsung T9 doesn’t have a definite release date in the U.S. yet, but we have to imagine it’s just around the corner.