How is a "portable" SSD a great thing?

Other than speeds, an SSD is silent compared to a HDD.
That can be important depending on how background noise sensitive one is.

Also they are cooler, so in warm environments that's a plus.

And lastly if you plan on carrying it around(to work or where ever), if it falls, you won't lose any data(or forbid the whole disk) from a head hitting your disk.

orlando1974 said:

Hi, it sounds like you're saying that dropping an SSD in an enclosure gives you faster speed than if it was connected internally. How is that possible??

He said "Theoretical" and that's theoretical speed of USB3 while the rest depends on the speed of device connected thru it.

@orlando1974

You've got a lot of good reasons, why and USB SSD can be a good thing. Another is read and write access times. If you store a lot of small files, or add and remove a lot of small files, an SSD will be several magnitudes faster than a HDD, because of two reasons.
1. SSDs don't fragment (while they do require occasional TRIM)
2. SSDs work similarly to RAM and are not limited by the speed of moving parts found in a HDD.

In a nutshell:
SSDs are generally faster than HDDs and thumb drives. They are more shock resistant than HDDs. They are quiet. Run cool. Lighter. They don't require external power. BUT they are also more expensive than HDDs.

It's up to you to decide if it's worth it.

@CountMike thanks for the clarification.

f14tomcat said:

What $10 adapter is that? Love to hear about it.

This one is freaking Awesome for its price! Inateck FE2005