Samsung is giving its portable SSD line-up a serious speed boost, unveiling the new P9 and P7 portable SSDs with USB4 connectivity and capacities stretching all the way to 8TB.
Revealed at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, the new P Series is Samsung’s answer to storage requirements that aren’t exactly getting smaller. Between 4K and higher-resolution video, RAW photography, increasingly enormous games and AI-generated content, shifting hundreds of gigabytes around isn’t particularly unusual anymore.
The flagship Samsung P9 is aimed squarely at creators and professional workflows, while the P7* takes the same USB4 foundation and packages it for more general-purpose portable storage.
And if you’ve spent enough time watching progress bars crawl across the screen, the headline numbers on the P9 should get your attention.
Samsung P9 pushes portable storage to 4,000MB/s
The P9 uses USB4 to deliver claimed sequential read speeds of up to 4,000MB/s, alongside sequential writes of up to 3,800MB/s.
That’s roughly twice the sequential performance Samsung quotes for its previous-generation T9. The 4TB T9 uses USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and tops out at a claimed 2,000MB/s for sequential reads and writes.
Of course, you’ll need a suitably fast USB4 host and a workload capable of taking advantage of that bandwidth. Plugging a P9 into an older USB port isn’t suddenly going to make the interface twice as fast.
But for creators regularly shifting enormous video projects or working directly from external storage, USB4 starts making portable SSD performance considerably more interesting.
Samsung says the P9’s sustained write performance is sufficient to support **direct 12K recording**, opening it up to professional video production as well as editing large RAW image and video files directly from the drive.
Perhaps equally significant is capacity.
The P9 is Samsung’s first 8TB USB4 portable SSD capable of speeds up to 4,000MB/s, giving professional users a substantial amount of genuinely fast storage without needing to juggle multiple external drives.
The drive was also recognised with a CES 2026 Innovation Award earlier this year.
“As AI-powered content creation and ultra-high-resolution video make large amounts of data part of everyday life, users increasingly expect faster and more reliable storage experiences,” said Tommy Kwon, Vice President and Head of Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics.
“With fast file storage and backup, the P Series is designed to provide professionals and everyday users alike with the performance they need to work efficiently across a wide range of applications.”
Samsung P7 brings USB4 to everyday portable storage
The Samsung P7 sits below the P9, but importantly Samsung hasn’t restricted USB4 to its flagship model.
It’s pitched as the more versatile everyday option, designed to work across desktops, laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles and cameras.
That could make the P7 particularly interesting as USB4 and Thunderbolt-compatible ports become increasingly common across notebooks and higher-end mobile devices. Portable storage is only genuinely useful when you don’t need an assortment of adapters and different drives depending on which device you’re using.
Samsung is also putting some emphasis on durability.
The P7 has completed two-metre drop testing, along with shock and vibration durability testing, reflecting the reality that portable SSDs tend to spend their lives being thrown into laptop bags, camera kits and backpacks rather than sitting safely on a desk.
Samsung hasn’t provided performance figures for the P7 in its announcement, so we’ll have to wait for more detailed specifications before seeing exactly how much of USB4’s available bandwidth the more mainstream model can use.
Up to 8TB, but Australian pricing is still to come
Samsung says its new Portable SSD P Series will be offered in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities, with the global rollout beginning 31 August 2026.
There’s one important detail missing for Australian buyers, though.
Local pricing and availability haven’t yet been announced.
That’s going to matter, particularly for the 8TB P9. High-capacity flash storage remains expensive, and the combination of 8TB capacity and USB4 performance puts Samsung’s flagship drive firmly into professional territory.
Still, portable SSDs have reached the point where interface speed can genuinely become the bottleneck. Moving from the T9’s USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface to USB4 and potentially doubling sequential transfer performance is a meaningful generational change rather than another incremental storage refresh.
We’ll update Australian pricing and availability once Samsung confirms the local details.
