Get the Samsung T7.

It’s the best balance of speed, price, and reliability for a MacBook Air. No question.

The T7 hits around 1,050 MB/s read and write over USB 3.2 Gen 2, which is more than fast enough for transferring big files and loading games. It’s small, tough, and doesn’t need an external power brick. Your MacBook Air’s Thunderbolt ports will negotiate down to that speed, and you won’t notice the difference unless you’re doing pro video work.

For gaming specifically? Any external SSD that can saturate USB 3.2 Gen 2 will load games about as fast as an internal SATA drive. You won’t get PCIe 4.0 speeds over that connection anyway, so the T7 is the sweet spot. If you absolutely need Thunderbolt speeds (like 2,800 MB/s), you’ll need a Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure and a separate NVMe drive—costs more, bigger, and overkill for most.

Just grab the T7. It works instantly, comes with a USB-C