Kobo has a long track record with issuing e-readers and it is the companies sole focus, aside from their fleet of e-book apps. The company has gotten out of the tablet game and every year they release a new e-reader or two. Their first new device in 2015 is the Kobo Glo HD. It has a lot going for it, but how would you change it?
The Kobo Glo HD features a six inch e-ink Carta screen with a resolution of 1448×1072 and 300 PPI. It has the same front-lit display as the Kobo Aura H2O, so you will be able to read in low-light conditions or complete darkness.
Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ processor and 4 GB of internal storage. When you take the e-reader out of the box for the first time you only have 3.1 GB of memory, primarily because the OS takes up a fair amount of space. This model does not have an easily accessible SD card, the one that exists is hidden underneath the back platting. The Kobo OS is on here, so its not easily swapped out, unless you know how to clone an image.
The build quality isn’t the highest, its made of a hardened plastic, but the screen has the same PPI and resolution as the Kindle Voyage.
What would you change about the Kobo Glo HD? Would you add in a user replaceable SD card? Are you a fan of the Kobo OS, or would you like to see the company embrace Android? How would you improve this device if you had five minutes with a team of engineers?
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
