Samsung’s Portable SSD T3 is finally available in Australia, from major vendors including JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee and Officeworks, with a RRP of $1249 for the 2TB model, $649 for 1TB, $329 for 500GB and $199 250GB.

At those prices, traditional hard drives aren’t dead yet, with comparatively slow 2TB 2.5-inch hard drives selling for as little as $129 online, but with SSD’s vastly more compact size, supremely faster speeds and ever lowering pricing, the death of HDD is more inevitable than ever.

Billing its new drive as perfect for ‘consumers, content creators and business professionals,’ the T3 features Samsung’s proprietary Vertical NAND (V-NAND) and SSD Turbowrite tech, letting you ‘quickly and easily store and transfer large multimedia content across a variety of devices.’

Here’s Samsung’s corporate video showcasing’s the T3’s benefits and features:

I wrote about Samsung’s T1 drive just over a year ago here and clearly, the T3 is faster and better.

Indeed, about the only thing I would caution potential buyers about is that the drive is so incredibly small compared to a tradition hard drive that it can almost be as easy to lose as a USB stick.

Thankfully, Samsung has yet again included security features so that you can enable a password protection screen that will need to be filled before access to any data is granted, but you need to turn it on first, and of course, if you lose your T3 drive somewhere and can’t find it, security of your data is only a partial comfort!

Thus - be careful and treat your T3 like gold, and don’t be as obviously careless as me, as I’ve lost my T1 drive somewhere and haven’t been able to find it - but that’s my fault, not Samsung’s.

Perhaps future models will have a small battery and bluetooth module so you can use your smartphone to find the drive should it slip between couch cushions or elsewhere.

My sometimes-inadequacies aside, it’s clear that the T3 is even more impressive than last year’s T1.

More below, please read on!

Todd Lynton, Samsung Australia’s Director of Business Solutions said: “Samsung is committed to innovation in portable storage and have delivered an incredibly well designed SSD solution that is market leading in terms of form factor, capacity and transfer speeds.

“Many Australians travel throughout the country for work and lead mobile lifestyles. The T3 delivers outstanding performance, storage capacity and durability without compromising on style or security due to an on-board encryption functionality.”

With fast file transfers ‘based on sequential read and write speeds of up to 450MB/s with a USB 3.1 interface, which is up to four times faster than some alternative external HDD solutions,’ a figure based on Samsung’s internal testing using a 500GB external HDD.

This is perfect to accomodate ‘the rise of rick 4K content’ in homes and our ever insatiable need for speed, as well as the ever growing amounts of data that we and our devices create on a regular basis these days.

The T3 is small, as alluded above. It’s smaller than an average business card and weighs approximately just 51 grams.

Unlike an external HDD, Samsung reminds us that ‘SSDs do not have moving parts, which makes them better protected from damage or data loss due to accidental bumps or drops.’

The T3 upgrades the T1’s case by featuring /a new shock-resistant metal case and internal frame,’ allowing it to ‘withstand up to 1500G of force’ so it will ‘survive a drop of up to two metres.’

In addition, the T3 features an ‘integrated Thermal Guard’ to prevents overheating in extreme temperatures, and it comes with a three-year limited warranty.

Then there’s that USB 3.1 Type C connection, making the T3 ‘compatible with a wide range of USB supported devices, including the latest Android smartphones and tablets, and computers with Windows or Mac OS.’

You can can send data from the T3 to a PC and vice versa, access content on the T3 through compatible mobile devices, and view the drive’s multimedia content on large-screen devices such as TVs.

Samsung says ‘the T3 uses exFAT, a widely adopted file system, as its default file recognition format to create a seamless experience. The T3 also works with a brand-new Samsung Portable SSD Android mobile app which supports password changes and remaining capacity checks.’

The drive has a simple set-up process, with Samsung noting ‘users only needing to set one password,’ although setting up the password is optional.

The drive is equipped with AES 256-bit hardware encryption to ensure a high level of security and protection across Windows, Mac and Android OS based devices.

Even if the drive should fall into the wrong hands, we’re told, ‘with a password set up, the data stored on it would be virtually inaccessible.’

Naturally, Samsung notes the T3’s compatibility ‘with a range of Samsung smartphones and tablets including the newly released Galaxy TabPro S, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge and Galaxy S6.’

As noted above, Samsung’s Portable SSD T3 is finally available in Australia, from major vendors including JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee and Officeworks, with a RRP of $1249 for the 2TB model, $649 for 1TB, $329 for 500GB and $199 250GB.

Here are the key specifications:

• Category: Samsung Portable SSD T3
• Capacity: 250 GB/ 500 GB/ 1 TB/ 2 TB
• Interface: Compatible with USB 3.1, USB 2.0
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 74 x 58 x 10.5 mm
• Weight: 51 grams (less than 2 oz.)
• Transfer Speed: Sequential: Up to 450MB/sec
• UASP Mode: Support
• Encryption: AES 256-bit hardware encryption
• Security: Password setting (optional)
• Requires: Windows 7 or higher, Mac OS 10.7 or higher and Android KitKat (version 4.4) or higher.
• Certification: CE, BSMI, KC, VCCI, C-tick, FCC, IC, UL, TUV, CB
• RoHS Compliance: RoHS2
• Warranty: Limited 3-year