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Thereâs a lot to love about Ledgerâs hardware wallets. Thereâs also a lot to loathe. From a design, manufacture, and presentation perspective, theyâre a dream. From a software perspective, theyâre capricious, prone to connecting and disconnecting on a whim. The new Ledger Nano X continues that tradition.
Also read:Â Ledger Unveils Bluetooth-Enabled Hardware Wallet
Nano X: Has Potential, Needs Work
Iâve got something of a love-hate relationship with Ledger hardware wallets (HWs). I love their aesthetics and theoretical functionality. I hate their practical functionality, because in practice, Ledgers never work for me. Iâve got four of âem sitting in a drawer somewhere, one of which I purchased myself and the others sent by Ledger for reviewing purposes. I managed to get all of them to work, eventually, after much cursing and teeth-gritting, but predicted that I would be unlikely to use those particular devices again. Iâve kept my word.
My review edition of the Nano X was great until I unboxed it.
The new Ledger Nano X, unveiled at the start of this month, is a device I want to crush on, or at least develop as much of an affinity for a HW as itâs natural for a man to have. And, straight out the box, I feel all those feels. No other HW manufacturer makes devices that look as good as Ledger. You name them â Cold Card, Ellipal, Cobo Vault â Iâve reviewed them and found them functional, but none looked as slick as Ledgerâs wallets when the cellophane was peeled off.
Thereâs a much more desirable attribute of hardware wallets, however, than looking good in the palm of the hand, and thatâs where Ledger and I donât see eye to eye. I donât know if itâs my laptops or my attitude, but Ledgers hate me. I had been hoping their new Nano X, scheduled to ship in March, would end my lousy run of luck with Ledgers, but it wasnât to be.
âOur Most Advanced Hardware Wallet Yetâ
Ledgerâs âmost advanced hardware wallet yetâ is basically the best-selling Nano with Bluetooth bolted on, an extra button, and the new Ledger Live mobile app as a companion. The X is the future of Ledgerâs production line, with the original Nano now reduced to 70 bucks, as the French firm looks to get shot of stock and make way for the sleeker Nano X, which will retail for around $140.
The Nano doesnât feel dated until you look at the Nano X, whereupon it feels as obsolete as a first edition iPhone. Thatâs not to slate the trusty Nano however â it remains a highly regarded hardware wallet, and there is no need to upgrade to the X. If youâre shopping for a new Ledger, however, itâs all about the X. Itâs hard to overstate how much utility is added by simply upgrading from one push button to two. Entering your PIN into the device is much easier now, with the buttons serving as left and right respectively, while pushing them in unison acts as âenterâ.
The Nano X comes with 5x the storage capacity for applications as its predecessor, allowing it to store more cryptocurrencies than any other major HW on the market. The test version of the device I received came with instructions noting that âMany things will be improved [in final production] including firmware, battery life, laser engraving quality, screen luminosity, general quality.â So pretty much everything then. The build and finish quality of the X look perfectly good to me. My only issue â and itâs a major one â is with the software.
In theory, software is a lot easier to fix than hardware, not least because it doesnât require recalling 100,000 devices. That said, Ledger have been working on their Ledger Live wallet management software for over six months now, and itâs yet to work for longer than a few minutes at a time for this reviewer.
My laptop would ideally have one Ledger application â not four.
A Long and Fruitless Week
When it comes to product reviews, my policy is to wait until everythingâs working correctly before putting fingers to keyboard. After a long and frustrating week with the Nano X, however, in which far too many hours were frittered away on fruitless troubleshooting, it behoves me to write this review. As I type these words, I have yet to send or receive cryptocurrency using my Nano X, but despite this failure, I feel well qualified to expound on what the X can and cannot do.
Given that bluetooth and a standard mini USB are fitted to the Nano X, there are two ways to install the Ledger Live software onto the device. If I canât get Ledger Live on desktop to work, I figure, Iâll just do it over bluetooth using the Ledger Live mobile app. It was a nice idea, but it wasnât to be. I was stymied at first by this error message:
After reaching out to Ledger support, I was informed that âYesterday, we announced a new firmware version. Our servers were overloaded thatâs why you have this error message. Can you retry tomorrow?â I certainly could. Only, the next day Ledger Live was still producing the same error message â on two desktop devices and also on mobile. The next day it was the same. And the day after, and the day after that. This evening, however, while the desktop software was still being unresponsive, I made a breakthrough on mobile at the umpteenth attempt.
Hope Springs Eternal
With some relief, I sat down to write my Nano X review in the knowledge that I was just a few clicks away from having the device fully operational. The last step was to install a cryptocurrency app, because Ledger insists on forcing users to install apps within apps. If you want to store 100 cryptocurrencies on the X, for example, you have to install 100 apps onto the HW. Utter madness.
Pretty soon, Iâm installing the BTC app, though I canât tell from the onscreen prompt whether itâs being downloaded onto the mobile app or onto the HW itself. Whatever the case, it doesnât matter, as Iâm soon greeted by a message that reads âOperation was cancelled. Something went wrong. Please retry or contact us.â I try a different app, ETH this time. âInstalling Ethereum. The installation of Ethereum app may take a while, please keep the app open,â Iâm informed. Again, Iâve no idea whether this means the app on my phone or that I should keep the Nano X open and powered on. A moment later, Iâm greeted by an entirely new error message:
And thatâs about the point where I gave up. I would have no problem cutting Ledger some slack on whatâs an early production model of their Nano X, were it not for the fact that the problems with this device have nothing to do with manufacturing and everything to do with coding. The Nano X works as well as its predecessor, which for this reviewer means barely/not at all. I still want to find a Ledger HW I can love, and I still dream of opening one of their devices to find it works straight out the box. Until that happy day arrives, however, Iâm resigned to composing verbose reviews that donât even begin to convey the lengths I went to in order to get this damn thing to work. Better luck next time.
What are your thoughts on Ledgerâs hardware wallets? Let us know in the comments section below.
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