Bitcoin Magazine
Coinkite Launches Coldcard MK5: Major UX Upgrades to Flagship Bitcoin Hardware Wallet
Coinkite the Bitcoin-only hardware wallet manufacturer, recently released the MK5, a significant quality of life and user experience upgrade to the MK4 Coldcard, building on the strong security foundations set by its predecessor. The MK5 comes in many colors and styles. Today, I will review the Orange and Glow in the dark versions, as well as their form factor and user experience upgrades, to answer the question: are the upgrades to the device worth the money?
Building on the well-known and trend-setting MK4 security platform, which brought two secure element chips from different manufacturers and an MCU to the same device. The MK5 focuses instead on quality of life, improving the NFC connectivity, reworking the buttons and plastic chassis of the hardware wallet, as well as adding a much larger screen, among other new features. This is the first hardware upgrade to the Coinkite MK line since the launch of the MK4 in 2022, integrating into it some of the technologies debuted by the Coldcard Q in 2023.
Left MK5, center MK4, right MK3.
What is new with the MK5 Coldcard?
The big upgrades to the UX are immediately visible; the screen, for one, is much larger, perhaps 30% bigger. Their announcement blog describes it as a “1.54-inch display protected by Gorilla Glass,” which does look and feel much sturdier than older models.The next obvious upgrade is the buttons. Unlike the MK4 buttons, which are indented, requiring your fingers to go into the socket to get a click, the MK5 buttons are almost at par with the chassis of the device, making them much easier to press. The press feels good, it clicks, giving the user a solid tactile feedback. Much more comfortable than the warm, slightly uncomfortable, unresponsive feel of a touch screen, as seen in other hardware wallets.
You also quickly notice the chassis has been redesigned. The screen section no longer pops out above the keyboard; instead, it’s all one rectangle with comfortable curved edges. It looks more modern, more elegant, while keeping that cypherpunk transparency that shows off the underlying hardware, a signature design principle of Coinkite products.
The MK5 also comes with a button and screen protector half case that slides and clicks in and out. It can be entirely removed and fits perfectly from the back of the device, exposing the USB power input at the bottom of the device without issue.
NFC Push Transactions
Last but not least, Coinkite doubles down on NFC support with the MK5. An acronym for near field communication, the NFC antenna is an increasingly popular tech stack in the Bitcoin industry. From NFC tap to pay lightning Bolt cards with cool designs and laser eyes, or Coinkite’s own Tapsigners, to Cashu’s tap to send features developed by Calle.
NFC is a powerful alternative to other wireless connection technologies like Blu
