TWO: The Twelve Links of Christmas 2022*: Coolest Little Hard Drive

The coolest hard drive I have is an earlier version of the Samsung T7 SSD, the T5. I use it for a second backup.

What is there to say about an SSD drive? Very small (only 3.3 in. / 8.4 cm long, 0.3" / .8 cm thick, and 2.12 oz. / 60 g); cool (i.e., doesn't get hot); and fast, with no moving parts. Compatible with Windows 7 and higher, Mac OS X 10.10 and higher, or Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and higher. It comes in 500 GB, 1TB or 2TB sizes, and in festive Christmas red, blue, or titan gray.

The red 1TB drive pictured costs only $105, which might not be the cheapest terabyte of storage you can buy, but it's not that much, either. A svelte, stylish, and yet highly practical little stocking-stuffer.

Mike
Flickr page / New Yorker author page

*A list of a dozen beautiful gifty things in the spirit of the season.

Original contents copyright 2022 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Michael Fewster: "Agreed. I have the 2TB version along with my Mac Airbook M1 512. It has revolutionized my travel photography."

Kodachromeguy: "These are great. With an older Mac, load the operating system on the SSD, and the computer will boot up much quicker."

Comments

[Matt O'Brien]

These are brilliant for travelling. I always carry 2. The Red coloured drive is the target for my backing up of cards to disk (each card is copied to its own folder and is a full copy of all folders and files from the media card). I use this drive also for reviewing images while travelling and creating temp jpgs for email or web.

I carry a second Blue drive .. I use Beyond Compare to create a full synch copy from the Red to the Blue Drive.

When I get home I ingest the images and videos from the Red card to my Image repositiary, which then gets backed up. The Red and Blue cards are then formatted in prep for the next trip.

[Rube]

I have one and it works great. I divide my time between Van Isle and Northern Spain. This little drive goes with me back and forth, for both back-up and as an emergency start up disk. No troubles so far.

Rube

[Allan Graham]

Absolutely. I recently got a new old stock 2018 Mac Mini Core i7, 16 GB, but with a crippling 125 GB of storage. (It was cheap: I'm Scottish, ok?) But booting it from one of these, it runs just as fast as from its internal disc.

[Jim Arthur]

These USB 3.2 SSD’s are a great deal these days and I think this is due in part to the techs age and the fact that manufacturers are preparing to release new USB4 peripherals. We now have quite a few USB4 laptops available but I only see USB4 hubs and cables available at B&H.

It appears that the new USB4 stuff will come in two speeds (20Gbps and 40Gbps) which will provide a nice speed boost. There doesn’t seem to be a speed difference between Thunderbolt 3 and the new Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps) but Thunderbolt 4 does have some nice display, charging, wake from sleep and longer cable support. I find all of these new USB and Thunderbolt specs to be rather confusing but PCMag.com has a decent summary available.