Having the USB interface built into the drive would be useful to me to use this drive as an external, much like the SATA drive I already use in my eSATA/USB dual interface 2.5" enclosure. I get the eSATA speed on my PC and anywhere else it's available, and I have the USB to fall back on when there is no eSATA connection. But if I wanted to upgrade my laptap, I would rather get a regular SSD and a 2.5" USB enclosure than have the USB built into my new SSD drive. That way, after the upgrade/swap, my old drive can still be usefull in the enclosure.