The T7 Shield is Samsung's new portable NVMe SSD, about the size of a playing card. Thankfully, it is quite durable. Designed for "creative professionals and consumers on the go," it can be used outside or in a bag without worrying about breaking or putting data at risk.

The Samsung T7 is intended for content creators who travel for whatever reason and get a little wet or a little dirty. We have all been there. It is rated to IP65 durability, which classifies it as dustproof and waterproof. Water resistance is not the same as waterproofness, so if it gets dropped in the toilet, depending on how long it's been submerged, it's 50-50 if it will work.

To test, I left the SSD in a rainy courtyard for several hours. Some of the marketing materials for these rugged drives lead one to believe that this is a more everyday scenario than editing video in the desert.

When I removed the drive, I was able to open, copy, and transfer files without affecting performance. We also dropped the T7 Shield several times from desk height and were able to use the drive again without any problems until we were satisfied with the sound of the impact. It weighs only 98 grams, so I don't think you could do any serious damage to this thing if you dropped it from a high place, unless you were throwing it out of a window a few stories up. This is a borrowed item.

I really like the design of the T7 shield. Despite being quite light, it doesn't feel flimsy in my hand or in my pocket. In fact, the aluminum body, covered with a rubber casing, has a feel that withstands almost all weather. [But when it comes to external SSDs, especially NVMe-based SSDs, speed is everything, and the T7 Shield does not disappoint. Benchmarks show that the T7 Shield has a sequential read speed of 1021 MB/sec and a write speed of 896 MB/sec. A more practical test involved transferring approximately 8GB worth of This Week In PC Gaming clips to and from the drive, with each transfer taking approximately 6 seconds.

Thus, working with larger video files should not be a problem.

The T7 Shield is also compatible with gaming consoles. Great if you're looking for a no-frills way to expand your storage. I used to use it primarily to store games for benchmarking on my laptop and PC. However, I had no problems loading games like Horizon Zero Dawn from the SSD and saw no performance loss after about an hour of play.

Compared to other external drives, it was just as fast, if not faster, than some of our favorite NVMe external drives. However, we will not see anything that can match the durability and build quality of the T7 Shield.

The T7 Shield uses the Samsung Magician app to manage the drive, but all it can do is benchmark the SSD and add passwords; the T7 Shield does not see these features, so the Samsung 980 Pro appears to be intended for Samsung's internal storage drives.

The drive comes with a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a USB Type-C to Type-A cable and works with PC, Mac, console, and Android devices. the T7 is available in beige, black, and blue, with capacities of 1TB ($160) and 2 The 1 TB pricing is not bad, but almost $300 for 2 TB still seems too expensive, even if it is the same price as other products on the market.

One need not worry about this little drive breaking in everyday life. This rugged form factor may be overkill for some, but if you are a content creator working in a harsh environment or a clumsy person like yourself who is prone to falling, it is a safe choice.