Short answer

A hardware wallet's "lifespan" is not measured in years. The Secure Element chips inside Ledger, Trezor, OneKey are officially rated for 25 years of data retention. What actually determines whether you replace yours is firmware support status, physical damage, and changes in your threat model — not the calendar. After one year, almost no one needs to replace.

The four real replacement signals

1. Firmware no longer maintained. Manufacturers eventually stop releasing security updates for older models. Ledger Nano S (the original, not the Plus) lost firmware support in 2022 after seven years. If your model has been EOL'd for more than 12 months and a CVE applies to it, time to upgrade.

2. Physical damage. Cracked screen, broken button, water damage, fire exposure. The data on the secure element may still be intact, but a damaged device is unreliable for daily signing. If you can still read the screen and confirm transactions, restore the seed to a new device.

3. Lost confidence in supply chain. If you bought from a non-official channel and discover something off (warranty number missing from manufacturer database, device behaved oddly during setup), assume the seed is compromised — generate fresh on a clean device.

4. Significant change in threat model. Moved from $10K stack to $500K stack. Got married and now need to plan for inheritance. Moved to a high-risk jurisdiction. Each of these may justify upgrading to a different security tier (e.g., Trezor Safe 3 → Coldcard Mk4 + Sparrow multisig).

The Ledger Nano X battery question

Ledger Nano X has a built-in lithium-ion battery rated 2-5 years of typical use. The device still works on USB power after the battery dies; you lose only the Bluetooth-without-cable capability. Battery age alone is not a replacement signal.

What no one tells you

Most replacement happens for non-technical reasons: the holder upgraded to a fancier model (Stax over Nano S Plus), or wanted a touchscreen, or wanted multisig support. These are valid reasons to spend money, just not "the old device wore out" reasons.

Further reading: Hardware wallet, Secure element.