Samsung already has a fast and light external drive, but the next version is about making things more durable, and possibly life-proof, so to speak.
Safeguarding your data is important, which is why you probably spend a few minutes out of your life every so often backing it up. It’s a chore, sure, but it’s one that modern external drives can make easier thanks to the speed with which they operate.
Hard drives can provide heaps of space, but they’re slower than solid-state technology, and if you have one of those, you’re probably laughing, because they move files so darn quickly.
Solid-state drives also come with the benefit of being a little more shockproof due to the lack of moving parts, but they’re not entirely impervious to the elements, and that’s an area Samsung appears game to improve, announcing an update to its T7 SSD, which is now getting a little more ruggedisation.
The Samsung T7 SSD is about two years old, but still good, competing well against its obvious competition in the WD My Passport SSD, and now we’re seeing Samsung add another notch to the line in the T7 Shield, a variant proofed for a little more of what life throws your way.
Still small but missing the fingerprint sensor of the T7 Touch, the “Shield” variant boasts shock resistance from drops of up to three metres, while also getting dust and water resistance with an IP65 rating. Like the other models, it’s another Type C drive, arriving with bold the older rectangular Type A cable and a Type C one to go with it, and it’ll come in 1TB and 2TB sizes.
What Samsung hasn’t quite nailed is local availability for the T7 Shield, with Samsung Australia quiet on release details. Hopefully we’ll have that soon, but in the meantime, the regular T7 variant appears to be sticking around, even if it’s not quite as rugged as this model.
