Review on SAMSUNG Portable SSD 500GB MU PC500H by Joseph Rasmussen

A great little portable drive for me. I don't have any of the problems described by others. I connected my Samsung T7 directly to my iMac Pro with the included USB-C-to-C cable and measured 888.9 MB/s read and 844.2 MB/s write. This is in line with my expectations as in my experience the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test typically measures speeds 10-15% below the manufacturer's rated speed (presumably because it is a sustained speed test). I have NOT installed any Samsung software. I left the default ExFAT format. Yes, you should be aware that you will likely pay a 15% premium for the T7 over the T5 for the same disk capacity, with an expected benefit of around 70-75% higher read/write performance (840MB/s) over 480MB/s). For many, the gain in performance will not be worth it. In addition, there are caveats. For example, if your PC, Mac, or USB hub only supports USB 3.1, you'll still never see more than the theoretical maximum of 625 MB/s. So yes, in that case you should probably stick with T5. When it comes to Samsung software, I usually don't install the manufacturer's software for drives, printers, and other peripherals unless absolutely necessary. I've been bitten far too many times by incompatible, buggy, or just plain badly programmed drivers. I can't speak for the experiences of others, of course, but it's possible that their poor performance, slow startup, or overheating issues are due to the Samsung software installation.