Cobo Tablet Review - Is it the best value crypto seed storage?

A seed phrase, seed recovery phrase, or backup seed phrase is a list of words that store all the information necessary to recover your cryptocurrency funds on-chain. It is considered common practice to simply write this seed phrase on a piece of paper and store it somewhere safe.

But is paper really a safe and secure way to store your recovery phrase? What if you have a substantial amount of funds? What if, one day, the paper on which you store your phrases catches fire? Or gets wet? Would you be able to bear the loss of that recovery phrase?

The Cobo Tablet tackles this problem by providing an affordable (only $39!) and durable way to store your seed phrase. It has several key selling points which justify this price tag:

Fire-proof

• Made from 304-grade, corrosion-resistant stainless steel
• Fireproof threshold ranging from 1399 to 1455 ℃ / 2550 to 2651 °F

Flexible recovery phrase storage

• Supports 12, 18, and 24 seed/recovery phrases
• Supports double-sided storage. Example: two sets of 12 recovery seed words

Easy to assemble

• Tiles arranged alphabetically in four sheets, a total of 252 tiles
• Easy to find/remove; just peel it from a sticker

Padlock

• Hole near the top right of the tablet, just large enough to add a padlock
• Extra security for the extra paranoid
   

What’s in the Box? 

This was what I found after opening my box:

• Mnemonic tablet instructions (in Chinese and English)
• Tamper-proof stickers
• Screwdriver
• Extra screws
• Cobo Tablet stainless steel device
• 252 letter tiles (alphabetically organized)
   

Unboxing and Setup

 

The top of the box has a sleek black look.

The bottom provides additional information like the manufacturer and a barcode. It was sealed with a sticker, which I had to peel off to remove the top lid.

Upon removing the lid, I was greeted by my stainless steel Cobo Tablet.

Once it’s out of the box, we can see how the design enables us to store up to 24 seed phrases (or 12 seed phrases double-sided).

 

Upon removal of the top layer that holds the device, the bottom reveals other items, like the guide, screwdriver, tamper-proof stickers, and, most importantly, the letter tiles.

The guide is only two pages long and has a helpful diagram on how to set up the device. It provides instructions in Chinese and English.

A closer look at the diagram.

 

I decided to unscrew the tablet to test out assembly of a word. This is what it looks like after removal of the three screws located in the top left, top right, and bottom right.

 

The tiles are kept in place by two clear stickers. I had to slowly peel the plastic sticker before I peeled out the tile.

This is what the Cobo Tablet looks like after you insert four tiles/one word inside it. As you can see, there isn’t space to insert more than four tiles. The reasoning behind this is: “Per BIP39, the first 4 letters can represent an entire word if the word has more than 4 letters.” 

All in all, the Cobo Tablet was easy to set up and assemble. At $39, it’s worth every cent, especially if you have over $39 worth of crypto assets. After all, isn’t there an old saying that says it’s better to be safe than sorry?

For more information, check it out on the website here: https://shop.cobo.com/products/cobo-tablet