Intro 
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Hello fellow Kobo fanatics, I'll be joining you shortly as I have a Glo HD on the way. I've had my eye on this particular device for a while because I believe it's the ideal long term reader in regards to specs and maintainability (at least for the time being). The interior layout is excellent in regards to future maintenance due to inevitable failures of the two critical components: the battery and internal storage. As you may have deduced I have a preference for selecting devices based on long term maintainability, I have a "buy it for life" philosophy where applicable.
eReader backstory: I currently have a Kindle Keyboard that I've owned with the official lighted cover since release year. It's a tank of a device in addition to having an easy to replace battery (pop cover, two screws) but the rest of the device leaves a bit to be desired in regards to modern amenities (storage, size, backlight, ppi) hence the upgrade.
Maintainability Review
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The 3.7V battery is a simple two wire setup with a connector that can be spliced or removed for a direct connection. I mention the connector splice/direct connection because in the future there's a good chance batteries of the same size and connector will be difficult or impossible to find when the current replacement are out of production. This is a nice feature to have versus the pin based connectors I've seen on other devices.
Obviously the microSD slot is as friendly as it gets, just a standard pop slot mounted internally. I will be updating this post with clear images of the internals and consolidating information/files required for both battery and SD card replacement here.
The rest of the device is a bit less friendly in regards to repair but it's hard to find a device that is, which is my reasoning behind always having a cover (ideally the official fitted cover) for every handheld device I own. You may also be screaming at me while reading this:
It's not even waterproof! That's also true although I rank this low on the list of disasters likely to befall my device however I do intend to take a preventive measure for this while inside. I will be applying conformal coating to the areas of the board near any cracks or crevices that expose it to the environment beyond which should mitigate moisture/light splash damage.
Where I'll be starting:
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- Preowned Glo HD 4GB
- New Official Sleep Cover
- Cameron Sino 1500mAh / 5.55Wh - Model: PR-285083
- Sandisk Ultra 32GB Class 10 UHS-1 microSD Card
This was always intended to be a budget friendly project so I set out to find a well cared for Glo HD for around $50 USD and succeeded. After confirming that purchase I placed orders for the other items after a bit of research. High on the priority list was the official sleep cover which a seller on US Ebay currently selling a handful of $15 at the time of posting. I then began looking for a replacement battery eventually narrowing the search down the the Cameron Sino model I've listed above (I've used Cameron Sino replacements in the past without issues or drop in original run time). The 32GB SD card was something I already had from a previous project but you can find comparable cards for around $10.
Note that the battery is apparently also compatible with a Nook Glowlight Plus (2015) which may help those searching in the future. I recommend searching by the model number for this reason as the seller I purchased from ($15 at time of purchase) only had it listed under the Nook.
To Be Continued
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Back soon with a write up - I'll be using known methods for SD upgrade and attempting to simplify them in addition to consolidating required tools into a package if possible.
