[4] Other improvements to the hardware include a faster processor for snappier performance, a much higher resolution screen, a larger battery, and the removal of the home button.

The Kobo Glo shipped in 4 colours: Black Night, Pink Sunset, Blue Moon, and Silver Star.

The main screen shows tiles that automatically update based on actions the user has performed.

Tiles may appear for books, newspapers, magazines, store categories, or user has recently read, browsed, or played, respectively.

The main application, the digital reader, supports a variety of ebook formats: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM, RTF, HTML, TXT, Comic Book Archive file, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, and TIFF.

[3] Highlighting, adding notes, and looking up definitions in the built-in dictionaries is also possible by long-tapping a passage in any part of the book.

[8] Six applications are included with the Kobo Glo: a web browser, sudoku, chess, Unblock it, Word Scramble, and a sketch pad.

Engadget praised Kobo for "hitting front-lighting out of the park on their first try", without the "splotchiness" and "uneven lighting" present in the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight and the Kindle Paperwhite.

[9][10] Pocket-lint stated that there was "nothing intrinsically wrong with the Kobo Glo... [but] it's only slightly cheaper [than its competitors], so what's the point?