Rumor mill: Samsung’s T7 series SSDs remain highly rated three years after their launch, and the T7 Shield is currently our top pick among portable SSDs. Obscure retail listings suggest a successor may arrive soon with a significant speed boost and price increase.

TechRadar reports that a few online retailers have hosted listings for Samsung T9 portable SSDs. They are likely follow-ups to the company’s venerable T7 lineup, but Samsung hasn’t announced a T9 SSD.

Currently, French vendor Grosbill has product pages for 1TB and 2TB T9 models under the product number MU-PG2T0B. Similar listings also appeared at P12.fr and Australian retailer Microboss. Details are scarce, but the new SSDs could debut as premium products.

Microboss removed a page that mentioned a 2GB/s read/write speed – twice the T7’s performance – which comes with a hefty cost. Although the Grosbill pages don’t include technical specs, they list prices nearly double each size’s T7 counterpart. The 2TB model sits at €199 ($212 US) compared to the 2TB T7’s $119, while the 1TB T9 is €124 ($132 US) to its predecessor’s $79.

The shift may be less a sign of flagship performance than how far SSD prices have crashed over the last year. Although the T9 may be significantly costlier than the T7, the listed prices are far below the T7 debut price.

When Samsung released the original portable T7 in 2020, it wanted $200 for 1TB and $370 for 2TB. When the T7 Shield launched two years later, adding a protective rubber guard that can withstand falls of almost 10 feet, prices fell to $160 for 1TB and $290 for 2TB. That decline was significant, but we’ve come a long way since.

It’s a dramatically different world now. Post-pandemic oversupply contributed to a crash in SSD prices that began early in 2023 and may continue until this holiday season, after which analysts expect costs to stabilize before increasing slightly in 2024.

There’s no word on when the T9 series will ship, but before the end of the year seems reasonable considering the timing of the product pages. Another potentially important detail the retailers didn’t reveal concerns the cable interface. The T7 utilizes USB 3.2, but adding Thunderbolt support could give the T9 a notable advantage to help justify its higher price.