Pricing
The T7 Shield is priced at $429.99 for this 4TB version, placing it at the high end of drives of this capacity with the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface. Primary competition (based on a cursory scan of 4TB external SSDs) seems to be the SanDisk Professional 4TB G-DRIVE SSD, which is currently available for $399.99. Naturally, lower-cost options exist in this capacity, but not all offer the same mix of rugged construction and hardware encryption.
I expect street prices to end up a bit lower than the $429.99 MSRP for this model, particularly as the 2TB capacity is currently just $179.99 direct from Samsung (the 1TB model is down to $99.99).
Final Thoughts
I found Samsung’s Portable SSD T7 Shield 4TB to offer effortless setup, excellent performance, and a reassuring measure of durability from the IP65 certification for dust and water (along with the 10-foot shock-resistance). As to security, I found Samsung’s implementation of 256-bit hardware encryption very simple to use; an essential feature if you want to keep your data safe even if the drive falls into unfriendly hands.
If you are in need of a pro-level external storage solution, this should be on your radar.