In cursory

  • The Ledger Nano Due south Plus is the latest hardware wallet from Ledger.
  • Information technology sits in betwixt the Ledger Nano S and the Nano X models.
  • Information technology sports a bigger screen than the Nano S, plus upgraded storage capacity.

Since the Ledger Nano S was offset launched in 2016, a lot has happened in the cryptocurrency world.

Bitcoin'southward cost has gone from $700 to an all-time-high of almost $70,000. Ethereum, then less than a yr one-time, is now a mainstay of the crypto space, underpinning ICOs, NFTs, DAOs and other iii-letter acronyms that have come to define cryptocurrency for the mainstream.

And through it all, Ledger'south trusty little workhorse has trudged on, with millions of users trusting the hardware wallet to secure their individual keys, squinting at its tiny screen as they ship crypto to and fro.

Now, Ledger's all-time-selling hardware wallet is getting a long-overdue refresh. So what's new—and tin can it compete in 2022?

What is the Ledger Nano S Plus?

The Ledger Nano South Plus is an updated version of the French company's entry-level Ledger Nano S hardware wallet, with a refreshed design incorporating a larger screen and revised internals.

The Nano South Plus will proceed sale later on this month, priced at $79—sitting neatly in betwixt the $59 Nano S and the superlative-of-the-line Ledger Nano 10, at $119.

Ledger Nano S Plus: Blueprint and Build

If you've seen a Ledger Nano wallet earlier, then you lot'll know what to expect. The hardware wallet resembles a chunky USB wink bulldoze, with an aluminum shield that rotates to reveal the main body of the device.

The Nano S Plus. Image: Decrypt

While it'southward no Jony Ive product pattern masterpiece, it's unimposing, and it's a lot nicer looking than some of its rivals. Etched into the aluminum shield is Ledger's new logo, following a rebrand in tardily 2021; it's a fleck slicker than the onetime logo, and more self-consciously "crypto."

The Nano South Plus sports a more than curved design with rounded-off buttons. It also features a USB-C port, equally seen on the Nano Ten, in identify of the old micro-USB found on the Nano South.

The Nano S Plus sports rounded corners and a bigger screen. Prototype: Decrypt

Most importantly, the Nano South Plus boasts a much bigger screen than the base model Nano S—the same 128 x 64 pixel screen found on the Nano X, in fact. At twice the height of the Nano South model'south 128 10 32 pixel screen, that ways no more than scrolling through wallet addresses beyond multiple screens when trying to send crypto.

Ledger Nano Southward Plus (tiptop) and Nano Southward (bottom). Image: Decrypt

As Nano X users will know, it'south also much clearer and sharper than the tiny, fiddly thing seen on the Nano South, with graphics and text rendered in crisp black and white, instead of blue and white.

Ledger Nano South Plus: What's in the box?

Since Ledger'south rebrand information technology'southward abased the faux-Apple packaging in favor of a sleek gray-and-blackness affair. Ledger doesn't apply an anti-tamper seal, arguing that they can be hands counterfeited and are misleading; instead, the box is shrink-wrapped.

The Ledger Nano S Plus box. Paradigm: Decrypt

Fissure the packaging open and yous're greeted with a quick offset guide (which basically tells you to download the visitor'south Ledger Alive app), an envelope containing cards to record your recovery phrase, a USB-C cable, a loop for attaching your Ledger to a keyring, and the ubiquitous brand stickers plant in every tech product box.

What's in the Ledger Nano South Plus box. Image: Decrypt

Everything feels high-quality—the USB-C cable is braided, the packaging is well-designed and there are jazzy accent colors everywhere (you're not going to misplace that vivid orange recovery phrase envelope, that's for certain, unless you accidentally throw it out).

Ledger Nano S Plus: Getting Started

To gear up the Ledger Nano S Plus, you'll showtime need to navigate to Ledger'southward website on your calculator and download the Ledger Live application, which will crave you to gear up a password.

Once yous've washed that, you'll need to connect your Ledger to your estimator.

Ledger Alive provides a simple setup guide for beginners. Image: Decrypt

While Ledger Live provides a handy walkthrough for beginners, the majority of the setup steps are performed on the device itself. Outset, you'll need to choose whether yous're setting it upwardly as a new device, or restoring it from a recovery phrase. And then, y'all'll need to set up a Pin.

Outset you'll need to enter a Pin. Epitome: Decrypt

To navigate through the menus, you use the ii buttons on tiptop of the device; clicking both buttons simultaneously selects the current option.

If you're setting the Nano Due south Plus up every bit a new device, you'll be prompted to notation down your 24-word recovery phrase, so verify each discussion in turn. This is a laborious, but necessary, process; technically speaking the 24-word phrase is your wallet; the Ledger device itself is just a ways of accessing it.

As Ledger repeatedly tells yous, that means if you lose your recovery phrase, you lose admission to the funds in your wallet; Ledger has no way to help you.

For the same reason, you should never, ever share your recovery phrase with anyone, enter information technology into whatsoever apps or websites, have a photo of it, or save information technology to cloud storage. Anyone who has those 24 words has admission to your wallet and all the funds in information technology.

Once your device is set up, y'all tin can connect to Ledger Live, where you'll exist prompted to verify that it'due south a genuine Ledger device.

Ledger Alive verification screen. Epitome: Decrypt

Ledger Nano South Plus Review: Ledger Alive

Your main signal of interaction with the Ledger Nano Due south Plus volition be the desktop Ledger Live software, which is a nicely-designed, streamlined affair.

Like the Nano Due south, the Nano Southward Plus doesn't have the Bluetooth connectivity and internal bombardment found in the Nano 10, meaning you'll need to connect it using a USB-C cable. The ane supplied in the box is a lot nicer than the flimsy mini-USB cable that came with the Nano S, but it'due south a flake short—clearly aimed with laptop users in listen rather than desktop owners.

You lot can also purchase a Ledger OTG kit (or use an appropriate cable) to connect your device to an Android phone using the Ledger Live app; iOS users are out of luck, nevertheless.

To add apps to your newly-installed Ledger, you'll need to click on "Manager" in the left-hand sidebar of Ledger Live. You'll and so be prompted to "Permit Ledger Manager" on the hardware wallet itself. From there, yous can bank check that your device is running the latest firmware, update it if it isn't, and add or update apps.

Apps effectively represent cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Installing an app prompts you to add an account, which appears in the "portfolio" section of Ledger Live.

Ledger Live is your main interface for the Ledger Nano S Plus. Image: Decrypt

With your apps installed, you can buy crypto directly through the Ledger Live app's "buy/sell" option using their supported providers, or transport and receive crypto. This entails navigating to the "accounts" department of Ledger Live and clicking on the relevant account, or using the "send" and "receive" buttons in the sidebar.

You lot'll also need to open up the app for the crypto in question on your Nano South Plus.

Sending or receiving crypto prompts you to confirm the sending or receiving accost on your Nano S Plus device. Fifty-fifty with the bigger screen, it can be a fiddly affair, though at least you lot no longer accept to click through multiple screens to see the whole address.

Note that Decrypt's review unit was running pre-release 1.0.0-rc5 firmware; we'll update this review when nosotros have access to the latest public firmware release.

Ledger Nano S Plus: features and assets

Too as Ledger Alive, yous can also utilise the Nano S Plus with over 50 web wallets such as MetaMask, MyEtherWallet and MyCrypto.

The Nano S Plus supports the same five,500+ coins and tokens as the Ledger Nano South and X models, via Ledger Alive.

These include, among others:

  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-twenty tokens
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • XRP
  • BNB Chain
  • Cardano (ADA)
  • Polygon (MATIC)
  • Litecoin (LTC)
  • Tron (TRX)
  • Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
  • Algorand (ALGO)
  • Stellar (XLM)
  • Zcash (ZEC)

The original Nano S could only shop upward to iii apps on the device at whatever given fourth dimension—which was fair plenty in 2016, when the number of cryptocurrencies was limited. Nowadays, with thousands of avails bachelor, that's not sustainable; happily, the Nano Southward Plus sports a much healthier one.5MB storage chapters, assuasive for multiple apps to be stored on the device simultaneously (though but nearly 1.28MB is actually bachelor for apps).

It's worth noting that our review unit didn't have access to the total complement of apps, presumably due to its pre-release firmware. These included the Cosmos app and the FIDO U2F app that enables Ledger devices to be used as a hardware cardinal for two-factor hallmark.

Ledger Nano S Plus: Security

The Nano Due south Plus sports the same security credentials as its Ledger stablemates; that is to say, a physically isolated secure element that'southward CC EAL 5+ certified. That means they've been independently certified past a third party to the same standard equally the secure elements used in credit cards, passports and SIM cards; EAL 5+ is considered the highest level of security against penetration tests.

The Nano S Plus and its stablemates are also the but hardware wallets to receive CSPN (First Level Security Certificate) certification, from ANSSI—the National Cybersecurity Agency of French republic.

Ledger devices apply a proprietary operating system, BOLOS, that requires users to verify transactions on the hardware wallet itself, while displaying the transaction details on-device. This ensures that should your computer be compromised, the Ledger will still show the correct transaction details.

The company runs bounty programs to identify vulnerabilities in its products, and maintains an in-house "attack lab," the Ledger Donjon.

For the extremely security-conscious user, the Nano Southward Plus also requires a physical connection to a reckoner or mobile device, different the premium Nano 10 model. While Ledger maintains that the Nano X'south Bluetooth connection is only used to send public data, and that wallet individual keys and the seed remain in the device's secure element, for some users Bluetooth connectivity represents a potential vulnerability too far.

For these users, the Nano S Plus offers a neat compromise between the hardware upgrades of the Nano X while maintaining the physical-only connection of the Nano South.

While Ledger'due south on-device security is extremely tight, the company has suffered some security lapses, notably in June 2020 when over a million client records were leaked from an e-commerce database. Ledger subsequently committed to changing its procedures for treatment client information, but it remains an embarrassing blot on the visitor's record.

Ledger Nano S Plus review: Verdict

Ledger'due south base-model hardware wallet was long overdue for a refresh. With the Nano S Plus, it's accomplished a balance betwixt overhauling outdated components without resorting to the (some would say, unnecessary) bells and whistles of the premium Nano 10 model.

Unless you badly want the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity, or the ability to employ your Ledger with iOS devices, the Nano Southward Plus is the only device you lot'll demand. And with its enlarged screen and increased storage capacity, it's leagues ahead of its predecessor the Nano S.

For most users, the Nano S Plus is an ideal storage solution for your digital nugget portfolio, and comfortably ranks among the best hardware wallets in the market.

Rating: 4.v/5

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