continue using Safepal or switch to Passport?

[Mike232425]

Hello
I am extremely grateful to all my friends who have guided me so far.
A question has been bothering me. Please help me.

When I decided to buy a hardware wallet, I found that the air gap was the most secure.
But I had and still have a very big limitation. I'm in a country where I can't buy wallets directly from original manufacturers (Postal, customs and embargo problems) and I use middlemen. I can't even buy directly from Amazon and i should use a middlemen.
There is a reputable exchange in my country and he sells hardware wallets. When I decided to buy a air gap hardware wallet, that exchange only had Safepal s1. I knew at that time that the passport wallet is also an air gap, but because that exchange did not sell passports, I bought Safe Pal. If I wanted to buy the passport, it would have cost me about $400 - 500, considering my limitations and the intermediary fee.
Now I thought of buying the passport through an middlemen. for the following reasons:
SafePal is Chinese but passport is American
Passport is open source. Because I heard from many people that it is important to be open source
(I trust middlemen. They do not manipulate the device. Their job is just to buy the product from foreign sites like Amazon and deliver it to the buyer in the embargoed country.)
I am satisfied with SafePal, but now I want to buy an open source wallet.
Which one do you think I should do?
I can use Safe Pal and there is no problem or risk (considering that it is not open source)
Buy a passport and use it ?
The most important thing for me is the security of my Bitcoin.
In short, is passport safe or safepal?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[Charles-Tim]

The fact is not about which one is made from America or China, but which one is open source and which one that gives more freedom like connecting the hardware wallet to open source software wallet like Passport or Electrum. It is advisable and highly recommended not to use close source wallet but use an open source one like Passport.

[BitMaxz]

Safepal has source code available the only problem is that the core parts is not there on their Github page unlike Passport almost all core parts are there on their GitHub page meaning we do not know what's inside the firmware of Safepal compared to Passport.

I think better check the comparisons of open-source hardware wallets here on the forum someone already has a good comparison between these two check the link below.

- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0

[RickDeckard]

Safepal has source code available the only problem is that the core parts is not there on their Github page unlike Passport almost all core parts are there on their GitHub page meaning we do not know what's inside the firmware of Safepal compared to Passport.

I may be wrong but I believe that Foundation has everything that is related with their hardware wallet (Passport 2) in their GitHub page[1], even including the hardware files[2] if you would like to make another color combination of the device. Their firmware is also 100% reproducible[2] which means that other users are able verify and replicate the results of the firmware published by Foundation by compiling their source code (found on GitHub as well). The same can't be said for SafePal[3]. You can see a good review about Passport 2 here[5].

I would say that if you are considering buying an open source hardware wallet, you should get one considering the benefits that come from it. Passport is a great device, and I recommend it, but it comes with a high price that you may not be willing to spend (which is understandable). Besides the link that BitMaxz provided - which is great - I would also recommend that you check out this[6] comparison by Athena-Alpha that can guide you in a good choice for a hardware device. As always, do not use these sources as the only point of information for your decision, but they should get you a good start.
[1]https://github.com/Foundation-Devices/passport2
[2]https://github.com/Foundation-Devices/passport2-hardware
[3]https://walletscrutiny.com/hardware/safepalx1/
[4]https://walletscrutiny.com/iphone/com.anbi.safepal/
[5]https://www.athena-alpha.com/foundation-passport-review/
[6]https://www.athena-alpha.com/crypto-wallets/compare/

[Synchronice]

I'm in a country where I can't buy wallets directly from original manufacturers (Postal, customs and embargo problems) and I use middlemen. I can't even buy directly from Amazon and i should use a middlemen.

Can't you use a freight forwarder company if you can't directly buy them? And make a fake declaration, don't say that you are buying a Bitcoin hardware wallet, just say that you are buying an old smartphone for a grandma. Well, don't really do what I say because I am not responsible for anything but are you sure that some cheating will get you in trouble? You might cheat a little about things and it might cross the border. What's worse that can happen other than confiscation? But if you live in a country that has as strict customs as Australia, don't risk.

I am satisfied with SafePal, but now I want to buy an open source wallet.
Which one do you think I should do?
I can use Safe Pal and there is no problem or risk (considering that it is not open source)
Buy a passport and use it ?
The most important thing for me is the security of my Bitcoin.
In short, is passport safe or safepal?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

I suggest you to buy Coldcard or Passport. Passport is open-source, Coldcard is partially open-source, I mean, their code is publicly available for everyone but they aren't called open-source technically because you can't build your product on their code for commercial purposes but when they were totally open-source, Passport used the same security architecture as Coldcard. If you are looking for more user-friendly interface, you might go with Passport but I love both of them, I personally use Coldcard.

[satscraper]

Passport is a great device, and I recommend it, but it comes with a high price that you may not be willing to spend (which is understandable).

Passport 2 offers the most bang for the buck thus its price strand drops off radar after this device lands  up your hands. I have tasted this myself after acquiring Passport 2 in 2023. It's real McCoy. Having said that, I would advocate OP  the switching to Passport if their budget permits.

[dkbit98]

In short, is passport safe or safepal?

Sorry to say this, but safepal s1 is junk, and probably one of the worst hardware wallets currently available.
It has closed source soice, device looks cheap, there is no support for third party wallets (electrum, etc.), and most important - there is no coin control feature 
I would never use this device to store anything important, except maybe some shitcoins.
Passport and many other open source hardware wallets are much better option.