Samsung’s New Portable SSDs

credits: Samsung

Samsung is not letting the volatile flash memory market stop it from releasing some pretty fast new portable SSDs. The company has introduced the P7 and P9, two new drives that make the jump to USB4 and bring a big increase in speed over Samsung’s previous portable SSDs. Models like the T7 and T9 have been popular with photographers and other creatives for years, and the new P7 and P9 take things a step further, with those faster transfer speeds and capacities going all the way up to 8TB.

The P9 is the higher-end model, with sequential read speeds of up to 4,000 MB/s and write speeds reaching 3,800 MB/s. That is roughly twice what the previous T9 could manage, which topped out at around 2,000 MB/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. Samsung also says the 8TB P9 is the world’s first 8TB USB4 portable SSD capable of reaching 4,000 MB/s. More importantly, the P9 is designed to maintain high write speeds for longer periods rather than only hitting those numbers in short bursts. Samsung says that makes it fast enough for demanding workflows including 8K and 12K RAW video recording, while photographers could use it as a working drive for large collections of high-resolution RAW files.

Interestingly, the P7 has the same peak read and write speeds as the P9, but it is meant more for everyday use. The main difference is sustained performance. It does not have the same optimisations or thermal design as the P9, so it is not as well suited to long, heavy writing sessions. Both drives are drop-resistant from up to two meters and will be offered in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities. Sales are expected to begin in early September. The P9 will cost $339.99, $649.99, $1,349.99, and $2,699.99 depending on capacity, while the P7 starts at $289.99 and goes up to $2,289.99 for the 8TB version.