Ledger Nano X review: still the most convenient hardware wallet, with a trust asterisk

The Nano X remains the device we recommend most often to people who want cold storage without reorganising how they use crypto, and it remains the device we caveat most often too.

Setup follows the familiar pattern: generate a recovery phrase on the device, confirm it, set a PIN, then install the apps for the chains you use. The constraint is app storage rather than key storage, and holders of a dozen or more chains will find themselves uninstalling and reinstalling apps, which is safe but tedious.

Bluetooth is what separates it from cheaper siblings. Signing from a phone while the device stays in a pocket sounds like a minor convenience until you do it daily; the pairing held up reliably across our test period, and the transaction still requires physical confirmation on the device.

Security architecture is strong at the chip level. The secure element is the same class used in payment cards, and there has never been a demonstrated extraction of a key from a properly configured Nano. The objection is not the hardware but the firmware, which is not open source; users are asked to trust that the code running on the element does only what Ledger says it does.

The 2020 e-commerce database breach continues to have consequences. Owners are still targeted with convincing phishing that references real purchase details, and anyone buying second-hand or from a marketplace reseller should treat the device as untrusted until it is reset and initialised fresh.

For most holders those trade-offs land on the right side of the line. If your priority is verifiable, auditable firmware rather than breadth of asset support, an open-source alternative is the better fit. If you hold a wide range of assets and want a device you will actually use, the Nano X still sets the standard.