Amazon typically sells the Samsung X5 500GB portable SSD (opens in new tab) for around $220 these days, though it has sold for as much as $300 in the last year. Thankfully, it's down to just $199.99 there right now. That's a match for its lowest price to date, though we don't know exactly how long this discount will stick around for.
(opens in new tab)Portable SSDs have always been appealing because hard drives, even great ones like the Seagate Backup Plus Slim (opens in new tab), are slower and far more vulnerable thanks to all the moving parts. Solid state drives have no moving parts. Unfortunately, they are also usually a lot more expensive. Samsung's T5 lineup (opens in new tab) of portable SSDs have been one of the most successful consumer-level portable SSDs around and they still run a lot more than your average portable hard drive.
The more-recent X5 SSDs (opens in new tab) use a combination of Thunderbolt 3 technology and NMVe, which speedy internal SSDs like the 960 Pro (opens in new tab) use, to deliver speeds far faster than the T5 or any other portable drive. It has read and write speeds of 2,800 Mbps and 2,300 Mbps, respectively. The T5's read/write speeds only go up to 540 Mbps, to put that in perspective. Externally, the X5 has a full-metal body and a non-slip mat on the bottom. It is shock-resistant and drop-resistant up to 6.6 feet, though you might still want to pick up a carrying case (opens in new tab) with your purchase for an extra layer of protection. There are also safeguards in place to keep it from overheating. You can use Samsung's Portable SSD Software to encrypt the data and password-protect sensitive files, too.
We named the Samsung X5 among our picks for the best portable SSDs of the year. It's worth noting that the X5 is not backwards compatible, so you must have a Mac or PC with a Thunderbolt 3 port to use it. Samsung backs up your purchase with a three-year warranty.
