The Kobo Glo HD is a new e-reader and its purpose is to heavily compete against the Amazon Kindle Voyage. When we received our early review unit there was no evidence of an SD card to boost the internal storage, which alienated users who want to store more books. When we removed the back plate off of the Glo HD we did find an SD Card, but it comes with a catch.

The Kobo Glo HD does not have any internal memory, the entire operating system and proprietary Kobo files are stored on a 4 GB Sandisk SD card. We tried cloning the OS and put it on a 2 GB SD and a 16 GB SD and the e-reader failed to boot properly. We also verified that there were no hidden files preventing it from working, but all of the files are clearly visible.

Right now it does not seem very likely that users will be able to put their own SD cards into the Kobo Glo HD and have the e-reader function correctly. Instead, this is a boon for the hacker community that wants to write their own programs and software enhancements for expanded features.

It is very important to note that if you decide to take the back cover off your Kobo Glo HD, make sure there is no moisture or dust. As you can see from the picture above, there is an exposed circuit board and can likely result in device failure.

There has been mixed messages between Kobo and their various marketing channels. Some reference there is SD card support, while others fail to mention it at all. We have found there is an SD card, but the average user will not be able to take advantage of it and expand their memory.