BitHD RAZOR - Unboxing and initial impressions (Full Review to come)

[HCP]

DISCLOSURE - BitHD sent me this unit for review.


So, after a somewhat lengthy wait due to the Covid-19 situation, the package arrived!

NOTE: Click images for large version



Card included for scale, As you can see, the box is shrink wrapped and also has a security seal on the box... there is plenty of debate as to the use of security seals, which I'm not going to get into here. But you can see below that the seal shows up as "VOID" once it is pealed.



The Box

The box itself is relatively understated... just a black logo on "dark grey" box (the box is actually a lot darker than the photo makes out)


Close up of Security seal...


I don't read Chinese... but Google Translate "live view" to the rescue!


As mentioned, once pealed... the seal indicates that it is "VOID"



Box Contents

Sliding the draw out of the outer box reveals some paperwork


Under that is the unit itself, sitting in a custom fit foam enclosure


Underneath the unit was a micro-USB cable, the micro-USB to power "blade" adaptor and a couple of "recovery seed" cards



The Unit

The unit itself certainly lives up to it's RAZOR moniker... it's VERY thin...


And very small in the hand... the aluminium alloy back just has the BitHD logo on it. Has a nice premium feel to it.


On the bottom, we have the charging socket... it's definitely a proprietary connector...


The front has the screen (monochrome OLED) and 2 buttons...


You can see here that the unit is actually slightly smaller than a standard credit card (the white outline in the 2nd pic is the card behind the unit)



The "Paperwork"

Standard 12 word recovery seed cards (2 included)


An advertising pamphlet with some details on other BitHD products (Double-sided, in English and Chinese)


The "User Manual" (also double-sided, in English and Chinese)



Was a little confused that there was no "verification code" in the box visible on the last page of the user manual... but then I found it on the chinese side of the user-manual :



"The Blade"™ proprietary power adapter

Note, I'm not sure if that is what it is actually called, but it fits with the RAZOR theme and it's less than 1mm thick!


As we can see, it is a micro-USB adapter.


Notes:

Quick teaser video I made of starting it up for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSLo_o4uXCA (apologies for the stupid audio, needed something "license free" and I was in a hurry )
BitHD RAZOR website: https://bithd.com/BITHD-Razor.html
Selling on Amazon for US$99.99 + shipping


A full review will be coming soon™... In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[mocacinno]

Looks sleek, however, i'm not really a fan of proprietary connectors.

Will you be testing this unit by actually funding addresses generated by this wallet? It does seem like their firmware is open source but it looks like they've actually just modified trezor's firmware: https://github.com/bithd

[o_e_l_e_o]

I agree about the proprietary connector. Do they sell replacements if your connector breaks or is lost, or do you have to purchase another entire wallet? Bit of hassle since you can't even charge your device without it.

Is the only way to interact with this device via their mobile app, and is the cable only for charging and firmware upgrades? There is no way to plug this in to a laptop, say, and interact with your wallets via Electrum or similar?

[Rath_]

Is the only way to interact with this device via their mobile app, and is the cable only for charging and firmware upgrades? There is no way to plug this in to a laptop, say, and interact with your wallets via Electrum or similar?

The proprietary connector is used only for charging the device. Firmware upgrades are transmitted via Bluetooth. There's no way to use it with any third-party app.

Note: I also got a test unit for a review.

[o_e_l_e_o]

There's no way to use it with any third-party app.

Thanks for the info. How does the app compare to something like Electrum in terms of more advanced functionality - having manual control over which UTXOs to spend from, sending to many, freezing coins/addresses, etc? Is is possible to use a passphrase with this wallet?

The device itself looks very sleek, and I like the design, but if I can't use it with Electrum and their app doesn't provide all the functions I regularly use, then it's going to be a no from me.

[Rath_]

How does the app compare to something like Electrum in terms of more advanced functionality - having manual control over which UTXOs to spend from, sending to many, freezing coins/addresses, etc? Is is possible to use a passphrase with this wallet?

You can set up a "Passcode account" which is basically a passhprase protected wallet. It looks like you can have one such account at a time. There's some kind of multisig implemented but it forces me to set an avatar and enter another person's UID (assigned by the Bitpie app). I was about to fund the wallet with a small amount of coins so I will get back to you once I have tested sending transactions.

The device itself looks very sleek, and I like the design, but if I can't use it with Electrum and their app doesn't provide all the functions I regularly use, then it's going to be a no from me.

The device officially supports only Android and iOS. I wouldn't expect PC support anytime soon.

[20kevin20]

I've been looking for months towards purchasing some "new-gen" hardware wallets and I think it's time to support some less-known brands too.

This one has a neat design but its thickness makes me a bit anxious and worried it may bend. It happened a few times to some things I tried to hold in my wallet, does the RAZOR feel sturdy enough to handle a little unintentional bending pressure?

[Lucius]

HCP, what I would be interested in when you test the device a little more thoroughly is that you try to make a comparison between Ledger&Trezor since you have them both (I think this is the case). What I can notice is that the advantage of this kind of hardware wallet is that it is the size of a standard card (or even smaller), and therefore can fit into any normal wallet. For those who do not want to draw attention with their Nano S&X, this kind of design is definitely an advantage.

Still, the price is not competitive with the Nano S or Trezor One, so i wonder if you think this device is worth $100+? I also did not find information on the total number of coins this wallet supports, all they say is "BTC, ETH, EOS, USDT, BCH, BSV, LTC, Zcash etc."

[Rath_]

It happened a few times to some things I tried to hold in my wallet, does the RAZOR feel sturdy enough to handle a little unintentional bending pressure?

It feels surprisingly sturdy considering its thickness. You shouldn't need to worry about putting the device in your wallet.

How does the app compare to something like Electrum in terms of more advanced functionality - having manual control over which UTXOs to spend from, sending to many, freezing coins/addresses, etc?

The only features I could find are: pay to many, spending only confirmed coins, labeling and adding OP_RETURN. No advanced coin control.

[Pmalek]

I thought the screen of the wallet would be bigger. How about the weight? If you put it in your actual wallet, is there a significant difference?
I like that they went for an aluminium body, instead of a cheap plastic one. Certainly looks HD in terms of its design compared to the competition. 
I am looking forward to reading your full review.

[Rath_]

I thought the screen of the wallet would be bigger. How about the weight? If you put it in your actual wallet, is there a significant difference?

The screen is exactly the same size as Trezor One's - it fits all the necessary information. The device weights 18 grams which is not really noticeable. For comparison, a credit card weights about 5 grams.

[dkbit98]

Interesting unboxing review.
I am waiting to see the rest of your review and opinion.
From what I know, Razor uses same open source software as Trezor, and even the STM32F2x5 microcontroller is same as in Trezor, and that is a good thing.

[HCP]

First up, sorry for the delay in replying... been a bit of a hell week waiting patiently for news of how many job losses are expected at my company due to Covid-19 and whether or not I'd be "above the line" based on seniority...

Will you be testing this unit by actually funding addresses generated by this wallet? It does seem like their firmware is open source but it looks like they've actually just modified trezor's firmware: https://github.com/bithd

Yep... I'll be throwing some funds on it and experimenting with various features of the unit itself and any associated software.

I agree about the proprietary connector. Do they sell replacements if your connector breaks or is lost, or do you have to purchase another entire wallet? Bit of hassle since you can't even charge your device without it.

I honestly don't know if you can buy a replacment, but I am keen to know as well. So, I'll message the company and see what they say and will include the info in my full review.

This one has a neat design but its thickness makes me a bit anxious and worried it may bend. It happened a few times to some things I tried to hold in my wallet, does the RAZOR feel sturdy enough to handle a little unintentional bending pressure?

It certainly feels pretty solid... and some very unscientific pressure application doesn't reveal any discernible "flex" in the unit. Having said that, I wouldn't put it in my back pocket and then sit down! As has been seen, there are a lot of phones that don't cope well with that sort of "abuse", so I wouldn't expect this unit to survive it either!

HCP, what I would be interested in when you test the device a little more thoroughly is that you try to make a comparison between Ledger&Trezor since you have them both (I think this is the case). What I can notice is that the advantage of this kind of hardware wallet is that it is the size of a standard card (or even smaller), and therefore can fit into any normal wallet. For those who do not want to draw attention with their Nano S&X, this kind of design is definitely an advantage.

That is my intended plan... to compare with both the Nano S and the Trezor ONE.

Still, the price is not competitive with the Nano S or Trezor One, so i wonder if you think this device is worth $100+? I also did not find information on the total number of coins this wallet supports, all they say is "BTC, ETH, EOS, USDT, BCH, BSV, LTC, Zcash etc."

You're right, it definitely doesn't compete on price... but we'll see how it does on features.

[BITHD Cold Wallet]

Looks sleek, however, i'm not really a fan of proprietary connectors.

Will you be testing this unit by actually funding addresses generated by this wallet? It does seem like their firmware is open source but it looks like they've actually just modified trezor's firmware: https://github.com/bithd

That`s true, thanks to Trezor`s  contribute to the open source firmware wallet, we will also do our best to make it more prosperous and safe.

[giszmo]

There is not much information on the product and I try to make a review for WalletScrutiny but am right now in the dilemma that the firmware binary is reproducible but the companion app appears to be going south, with mostly scam accusations recently.

Also on https://bithd.com there is no social media links or links to bitpie, while bitpie has broken links to Play Store and the relation of the two ... well, it gets explained in a medium post.

Are they still around? Is this just user errors and poor communication? Maybe a language issue?

I can't find the Razor on sale neither. At least not in English. And hardware wallets should probably always be bought from the manufacturer anyway but they never sold it on their website, right?

[Pmalek]

Also on https://bithd.com there is no social media links or links to bitpie, while bitpie has broken links to Play Store and the relation of the two ... well, it gets explained in a medium post.

The official site has no social media links. At the end of the Medium article you shared, you can find links to Bitpie's Facebook and Twitter pages. The only Telegram channel that still seems active is the Bitpie Wallet News group.

I can't find the Razor on sale neither. At least not in English. And hardware wallets should probably always be bought from the manufacturer anyway but they never sold it on their website, right?

I remember that they always linked to Amazon and Ebay since their ANN thread was created. You can check it out here. And yeah, there doesn't seem to be any devices on sale on those two platforms now. If you click on the buy button on their official website, nothing is available.

Regarding the verification of the source code, have you looked at this tutorial they posted?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235828.0

[dkbit98]

Are they still around? Is this just user errors and poor communication? Maybe a language issue?

It's probably the language issue, and it's interesting that I saw that with almost all hardware wallets coming from China, excluding maybe Keystone and Safepal.
You can try contacting them with private message on forum but I think they are also inactive.

I can't find the Razor on sale neither. At least not in English. And hardware wallets should probably always be bought from the manufacturer anyway but they never sold it on their website, right?

I know some people who received free BitHD Razor for promotional testing and they never could connect their device with mobile app.
They are using Trezor firmware but it's probably outdated and I don't see a single github contribution update in 2020 and 2021.

[giszmo]

I know some people who received free BitHD Razor for promotional testing and they never could connect their device with mobile app.

Well, that's probably worth mentioning in my review.

They are using Trezor firmware but it's probably outdated and I don't see a single github contribution update in 2020 and 2021.

How not? last commits were 23 days ago.

[dkbit98]

How not? last commits were 23 days ago.

You are correct, there is some activity and commits in bithd-mcu by one person nining, and I was looking at BitHD main github page that showed no activity for last two years.
However, I don't see any contribution from other people, and maybe you can try contacting them on github if you need more information from developers.

[DaveF]

I know some people who received free BitHD Razor for promotional testing and they never could connect their device with mobile app.

I had the watch: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5247313

Setup / communication with the wallet was never an issue once you got it working. But, it did take me two or three tries to get it to connect, never thought about it till I just saw this. At a guess it's a cheap knockoff BT chip and it just sucked. Since all their devices are really just running the trezor firmware, it's probably just easier to get a trezor....

-Dave