Gmail for Android

Embodying Google's material design principles, the new Gmail comes with a cool new look as well as support for Yahoo, Outlook, and IMAP/POP3 email services, supplanting the default Android email app as the platform's new all-in-one email solution.

Pros

Material design at its best: Google's unified design concept, which seeks to improve aesthetics and usability across apps, can be clearly observed in the new Gmail's thumb-friendly button for effortlessly composing a new email; the ease with which you can switch between personal, social, and promotional emails, as well as between different email accounts; and the overall smoothness, speed, and responsiveness of the interface.

Support for other email services: Gmail now works with Outlook, Yahoo, Exchange (on some devices), and any other IMAP/POP3 email services, allowing you to manage all your email accounts in one app. The process for adding a new Outlook or Yahoo account is as easy as typing your email address and password and pressing Confirm.

Intuitive tablet layout: On a tablet, whether you're in portrait or landscape mode, Inbox categories such as Primary, Social, and Promotional appear as tiny icons, taking up little screen space and enabling you to switch between them effortlessly. In landscape mode, the screen splits into two columns, one for the inbox, and one for viewing emails -- an arrangement that allows you to read and reply to emails more quickly.

Cons

Ads: The new Gmail comes with banner ads, which can be easily mistook for an inbox email and accidentally tapped, opening a promotional email that takes up most of your screen.

Limited Exchange support: Despite the support for new email services, the app doesn't support Exchange email accounts on all devices.

No unified view: You have to keep switching between your different accounts to view your emails, because there's no unified view that aggregates all your emails in the same window.

Bottom Line

The new Gmail comes with all the functionality you need from an email app and a wonderful design that makes email management easy and even fun. Now that it has replaced the old Android email app and supports other email services, it's certainly going to become the favorite email app of most Android users -- and probably yours as well.