Safepal hardware wallet review and opinions

[taufik123]

To those who missed the chance ^{[in 2024]} to get their hands on a free USDC Limited Edition of X1, here's the second chance with completely different campaign tasks: SafePal x USDC Limited Edition Walletdrop
^{- They'll be giving away 1000 of these HWs and the event might last until the 31st of December.}

The long-awaited event to be able to get the Safepal X1 Special Edition for Free, but you have to do several conditions to be able to participate.
Have registered for Mastercard but don't see the Get Free USD and X1 Banners, Is it possible because I haven't completed the Fiat42 registration which requires KYC
but the type of Identity I provided is not suitable and cannot be scanned, finally stopped at this KYC step.

[SFR10]

Have registered for Mastercard but don't see the Get Free USD and X1 Banners, Is it possible because I haven't completed the Fiat42 registration which requires KYC
but the type of Identity I provided is not suitable and cannot be scanned, finally stopped at this KYC step.

Based on your local board ^{[Bahasa Indonesia]}, I'm going to assume you're residing in Indonesia and AFAICS, "SafePal banking gateway" doesn't have Mastercard support for Indonesians... In other words, you'll not be able to fully register to take part in the event ^{[unfortunately (I hope I'm wrong)]}.

[taufik123]

Based on your local board ^{[Bahasa Indonesia]}, I'm going to assume you're residing in Indonesia and AFAICS, "SafePal banking gateway" doesn't have Mastercard support for Indonesians... In other words, you'll not be able to fully register to take part in the event ^{[unfortunately (I hope I'm wrong)]}.

Yes you are right, I just read about regions that are not supported by the use of Mastercard,
You can only use it as a transaction in the application with a limit of $1000 only.

But I hope there will be a few more events for all regions, I myself still use the Safepal S1 and it's quite good at the moment,
it's just that the battery is quite wasteful and drains quickly even though it is not used at all.

[SFR10]

it's just that the battery is quite wasteful and drains quickly even though it is not used at all.

Unfortunately, one of the cons of using an S1 is its lithium battery ^{[it requires a lot of care to function properly]}... SafePal recommends "charging it at least once every few months" and they claim "the charging plug of a laptop damages it": Source
^{- Luckily, as long as it's plugged in, you can use it without a replacement.}

[taufik123]

Unfortunately, one of the cons of using an S1 is its lithium battery ^{[it requires a lot of care to function properly]}... SafePal recommends "charging it at least once every few months" and they claim "the charging plug of a laptop damages it": Source
^{- Luckily, as long as it's plugged in, you can use it without a replacement.}

Yes, Lithium batteries are indeed prone to damage when not done with good charging, that is, if you do not use the recommended charger.

Found several reviews saying that the Safepal S1 should use a stable 5V 1A charger to keep it durable, compared to directly using a laptop or pc USB port because the voltage produced by the USB 2.0 port is around 0.5A and USB 3.0 up to 0.9A.

But the problem is that charging with the laptop's USB port is unstable, When charging the load goes up and down, voltage can drop or fluctuate making the charging IC in SafePal work not optimally and that is the cause why it can damage the Safepal S1 battery or maybe other HW devices with Lithium batteries.

https://cryptoken.nl/en/pages/handleiding-safepal-s1

[dkbit98]

Unfortunately, one of the cons of using an S1 is its lithium battery ^{[it requires a lot of care to function properly]}... SafePal recommends "charging it at least once every few months" and they claim "the charging plug of a laptop damages it": Source
^{- Luckily, as long as it's plugged in, you can use it without a replacement.}

That is why I love the idea of using old style Nokia compatible BL-5C batteries in some hardware wallets.
And with modern day power banks you can easily connect any hardware wallet to it and have power when you need it.
If you don't use hardware wallet often than it's probably better to have one that works without battery.

[BernyJB]

Ok, I've been doing some reading, and now I have more questions than answers.

So, after looking at a lot of reviews (and yes, I know a lot of them are fake), the three "best" hardware wallets seem to be the SafePal S1 (cheap), the  Ledger Nano X (security) and the Trezor Safe 5 (open source). But then I started digging a little.

The trezor is definitely expensive for me. I might be able to get one, but is it really that much better than the rest?

The ledger claims to be open source, but in walletscrutiny it shows as closed source. So after some reading, it is "mostly" open source, but "some portions of the firmware" are closed source "for security reasons".

My biggest question is: Is that a deal breaker? How much weight should that have in time to make a decision?

And then there's the safepal one: it's the cheapest one of the three, it seems to be close source, and what bugs me is that SafePal doesn't talk about it. And also it doesn't seem to be compatible with Linux (which is the OS I use), and I have t use it exclusively on Android. With this  one, the big question would be how safe is Android to be used on a crypto wallet?

So, if you guys had to decide, which one would you pick, and why?
So far, all I can say is I could buy 2 S1s for 2/3 the cost of a Ledger Nano or for 40% the cost of the Trezor 5. I could probably buy that 2 safepals combo in a couple of weeks, when I get paid. For the ledger it'd be next month, or maybe (with luck) year's end for the trezor. Is either one worth the extra expense?

Thanks in advance.

[SFR10]

So, if you guys had to decide, which one would you pick, and why?

If I were to pick a hardware wallet, I'd go with Trezor, but not the Safe 5 model... For half the price, you can get the Safe 3 model instead ^{[it's basically the same HW, without the colored touchscreen and MicroSD]}.
^{- IMO, the nano X is the worst among the three (read: Ledger Nano X Circus) while S1 lacks some features and you can't use it with other third-party apps.}

For more information, I'd recommend comparing their features on "TheBitcoinHole" website.
^{- BTW, Trezor is going to release a new device tomorrow, so prices could go down.}

[BernyJB]

Thank you SFR10. I'll look on TheBitcoinHole site. 

[dkbit98]

The trezor is definitely expensive for me. I might be able to get one, but is it really that much better than the rest?

Expensive?
You can literally purchase Trezor One for less than $50, even less with discounts.

The ledger claims to be open source

This a not true.
Ledger never claimed they are open source, and yes it is a deal breaker if you are wasting money on closed source crap.

There are plenty of cheaper open source alternatives, like Satochip cards, or for free you can just use old smartphone with CupCake wallet or similar.

So, if you guys had to decide, which one would you pick, and why?
So far, all I can say is I could buy 2 S1s for 2/3 the cost of a Ledger Nano or for 40% the cost of the Trezor 5. I could probably buy that 2 safepals combo in a couple of weeks, when I get paid. For the ledger it'd be next month, or maybe (with luck) year's end for the trezor. Is either one worth the extra expense?

I would not use ledger crap even if I got if for free, those assholes publicly claim they can restrict your transactions and spy on you.
Trezor 5 is not worth of the money, Trezor 3 is cheaper and good enough.

[taufik123]

So, if you guys had to decide, which one would you pick, and why?
So far, all I can say is I could buy 2 S1s for 2/3 the cost of a Ledger Nano or for 40% the cost of the Trezor 5. I could probably buy that 2 safepals combo in a couple of weeks, when I get paid. For the ledger it'd be next month, or maybe (with luck) year's end for the trezor. Is either one worth the extra expense?

I would not use ledger crap even if I got if for free, those assholes publicly claim they can restrict your transactions and spy on you.
Trezor 5 is not worth of the money, Trezor 3 is cheaper and good enough.

Never used Ledger or Trezor, Safepal is still my main HW at the moment and that's enough with the continuous updates.

And for the Trezor you mentioned, Trezor safe 3 is indeed the HW base to develop Trezor safe 5 and even now there is a more modern Trezor safe 7 with more features.

For the security of the Trezor safe 3, 5, 7 it is the same and the only difference is the more modern and UX features with the touch screen.
Trezor Safe 7 is now a bigger screen, 2.5" (520x380px) color LCD touch screen, Battery + USB-C + Wireless charging and has Weather Resistance IP54 certification

https://trezor.io/trezor-safe-7

[m2017]

For the security of the Trezor safe 3, 5, 7 it is the same and the only difference is the more modern and UX features with the touch screen.

I think you are mistaken, because the new model 7 has 2 chips (+ Next-gen TROPIC01 secure chip), which are not present in previous models.

https://trezor.io/compare

As we can see, Trezor focuses on a more improved level of protection for Trezor Safe 7.

Trezor Safe 7 is now a bigger screen, 2.5" (520x380px) color LCD touch screen, Battery + USB-C + Wireless charging and has Weather Resistance IP54 certification

https://trezor.io/trezor-safe-7

So, this isn't just the same old model with an updated case, battery, wireless charging, and bluetooth, but a true upgrade for the top-of-the-line model (for more financially secure and slightly paranoid users, due to the protection against quantum computing, who are looking for improved security).

[taufik123]

I think you are mistaken, because the new model 7 has 2 chips (+ Next-gen TROPIC01 secure chip), which are not present in previous models.

Yes I forgot to pin about the addition of the Next-gen TROPIC01 secure chip as the best safety for the latest Trezor safe 7 and actually the same and only Trezor 5 and 3.
Trezor safe 7 is the hardware wallet needed today with a modern appearance and more powerful chip security and charging the battery using wireless charging will be easier.

[Wind_FURY]

I'm asking the current owners of SafePal X1 hardware wallet. Have you felt that this wallet is "'unsafe"? People say that some parts of it is closed source.

But I did some research, and it said that the parts of SafePal that are open source are the software parts like, the communication modules, core functions related to private key generation, storage, and cryptographic signing, smart-contract approval mechanisms, and firmware components that touch security-sensitive parts of the hardware wallet.

My SafePal X1 will be arriving in December and I'm merely curious what current owners say about the product.

[taufik123]

I'm asking the current owners of SafePal X1 hardware wallet. Have you felt that this wallet is "'unsafe"? People say that some parts of it is closed source.

But I did some research, and it said that the parts of SafePal that are open source are the software parts like, the communication modules, core functions related to private key generation, storage, and cryptographic signing, smart-contract approval mechanisms, and firmware components that touch security-sensitive parts of the hardware wallet.

My SafePal X1 will be arriving in December and I'm merely curious what current owners say about the product.

I have been using the Safepal S1 since 2020 and so it is the first Safepal Edition and now it is my 5th year using it,
So far it is still quite safe and the problem may be just the battery that is not too strong.
For security, there are no obstacles whatsoever, everything runs smoothly and continues to be updated.

Regarding Opensource, there are several parts that are indeed Open-Source and Closed Source.
The Open-Source part of Safepal is useful to increase user security and trust
and the Closed Source part of Safepal is the Secure Element Chip because this is an important part for the security of the safepal wallet.

My Safepal S1 is the first product to use the CC EAL5+ chip version while the new X1 uses the SE CC EAL 6+ chipset.

Not only safepal, HW like Ledger also has a closed Secure Element so that the community cannot fully verify,
because the chip is the most important part of HW security

[rdluffy]

...
My SafePal X1 will be arriving in December and I'm merely curious what current owners say about the product.

My Safepal x1 is also scheduled to arrive in December (and I hope it won't be too delayed)
Did you also get yours through Jumper or did you buy it directly from Safepal?

Since I already have a Ledger and a Trezor, I think I'll use SafelPal together with my cell phone to sign transactions via Bluetooth