Finding a good email client - comparable to HP Touchpad Web OS one

guygamps

Member
Oct 15, 2012
5
1
Hi

After 15 months with a HP Touchpad, and also second hand experience of Mrs Gs iPAD, and having owned several Android phones, I took the plunge and bought a Samsung Galazy Tab 2 10.1 to replace the HP. No need to write a rewiew on here, you will I am sure know it.

I am quite surprised that apart from BBC News, every APP I have downloaded so far has been the same as the phone app, just running on a big screen. The most critical one for me is email.

I have 4 different POP3 mail accounts, 2 Yahoo accounts, and a Gmail account. On my Touchpad there is a brilliant email client where these can be managed well, the screen splits and you can see account lists, folder lists and of course emails across the screen. On my phone I have K9, it is brilliant on a phone size screen I never use it in Landscape mode because it compacts down your emails and does not show the senders name, but phones predominantly are used in Portrait mode so its fine, more than fine it is very good indeed.

but on my Tablet it isn't. Firstly there is no Tablet version it is the same as on the phone (a common complaint I am afraid), this means that there is no use of the larger screen to show split panes, e.g. account list, folder lists, inbox and email previews. secondly, whilst a phone is predominantly used in Portrait mode, he Samsung is predominantly to be used in Landscape mode, hence the position of the speakers and wide screen format, and K9 is pretty terrible in Landscape mode for reasons above.

I have searched in vain for a email client optimised for 9 or 10 inch tablets and found nothing like the stock Touchpad one. Can anyone point me in the right direction? it must support POP3, it must remember your settings all the time and not reprompt for them (unlike the stock Android client), it must support multiple mail boxes of different POP3 and IMAP types, and make good use of the wide screen format of the tablet.

In short.... sadly I want HP Touchpadss email client on my Android

:(

any ideas?
 

frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
Hi. Take a look at MailDroid in the Play Store if you haven't already. I use it on my 10.1 Acer A500 10.1 and I like it much better than the stock app. It isn't based on the stock app. It isn't perfect, but the devs seem to update it pretty often and it's getting better and better. I'm not sure if it will meet all your requirements, but it works great on tablets in landscape mode and portrait and has split screens, colored text and lots of options. I use the free ad version, but the Pro version is a whopping $17.99!
 

frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
As the ^poster above stated, Maildroid is good, but so is Kaiten Mail

Check em out.

Uhhh...read it carefully and don't see where the OP mentions MailDroid. Kaiten is based on K-9 and built by K-9's lead developer, but it is made for tablets, but it looks like MailDroid has more features to me.


Update: Apologies tragidy. Was in a hurry and thought you meant the OP. Sorry.
 
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leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
Uhhh...read it carefully and don't see where the OP mentions MailDroid. Kaiten is based on K-9 and built by K-9's lead developer, but it is made for tablets, but it looks like MailDroid has more features to me.

Allow me to chime in. Tragidy didn't say OP.

However, I also vote for Kaiten as I have used MailDroid and K-9 as well. The problem with Kaiten, as I see it is that some of the options and settings are well hidden. It took me quite some time to find the setting for exporting the settings but I think it is pretty feature rich and as you point out it appears to me to be the only client I have tried out of 7 or 8 that was designed for a tablet.
 

frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
Allow me to chime in. Tragidy didn't say OP.

However, I also vote for Kaiten as I have used MailDroid and K-9 as well. The problem with Kaiten, as I see it is that some of the options and settings are well hidden. It took me quite some time to find the setting for exporting the settings but I think it is pretty feature rich and as you point out it appears to me to be the only client I have tried out of 7 or 8 that was designed for a tablet.

Oh, so sorry Tragidy. My mistake. I'm usually careful about reading these posts before I comment. I was in a hurry when I wrote that. Thanks for setting me straight, leeshor. I might have to give Kaiten a try myself if you recommend it. Thanks again.
 

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
Oh, so sorry Tragidy. My mistake. I'm usually careful about reading these posts before I comment. I was in a hurry when I wrote that. Thanks for setting me straight, leeshor. I might have to give Kaiten a try myself if you recommend it. Thanks again.

No harm - no foul. We all have are moments. ;);)
Just wanted to make certain we weren't about to start something ;)
 

guygamps

Member
Oct 15, 2012
5
1
Thanks, happy to pay for a good email client but need to try a free version first to see if it supports my mailbox settings, e.g. yesterday I downloaded one (don't recall which) was setting up my incoming and outgoingserver settings only to find the outgoing server settings did not support SPA Authentication, so it wouldn't work, no issue, I just de installed it.

So on checking Kaiten has no free version (though it is very cheap), and Maildroid as a free version which I will try today and let you know how I get on.

perfectly happy with K9 on my 4.3inch screen phone in portrait mode, but it is pants on a tablet in landscape mode, so I will post my thoughts here after trying Maildroid.

Thanks


Guy
 

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
K-9 is somewhat like Kaiten. They are kissing cousins but still different. Also when on a tablet Kaiten seems to know it's on a tablet rather than a phone and looks/acts differently. I currently use it on both my tablet and one of my phones. The tablet version kicks butt. imo.
 

guygamps

Member
Oct 15, 2012
5
1
Well I tried the free version of Maildroid

It works fine, it does everything I need, and I like the controls over font styles when writing emails, but the overall look and feel of it is very basic, it kind of needs a UI makeover if you ask me, yes it does everything I need, but compared to the email client of the Web OS, it is very clunky. I could live with it though.|

I would like to try Kaiten out, but there is no free version, I guess I will just have to pay the few £s for it even if I then decide to ditch it in favour of Maildroid.

As a newbie to Android tablets, (though not a newbie to Android phones, Apple and HP tablets), I am pretty disappointed that there is no sooper dooper, email client designed for tablets, that supports all the common mail formats. The Samsung has one provided which looks like it should do the job, and on screen shows it supports POP3, but I just couldn't get it to work with any of my 5 work email accounts, Maildroid did fine, so the functionality of Maildroid is not the issue, just the look and feel of it.

Any other suggestions apart from Kaiten?
 

frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
Any other suggestions apart from Kaiten?

Looks like K-9, Kaiten and MailDroid are the best choices out there at this point in time, for tablets, that is. There are a few more, but I never tried them and don't know how they would look in landscape mode. You might take a look at Enhanced Email, mail.com, and Secure9 Mail. Like you, I've been disappointed how basic the email apps are too.
 

guygamps

Member
Oct 15, 2012
5
1
So, I paid for Kaiten (there is no free version), OK it is cheap, less than a pint of beer but I resent not being able to try it first, so I paid for it but couldn't get it working

I know K9 inside out, have used it on my phone for a long time, and on a small screen, in portrait mode I would class myself an expert user and a fan
All the account set up pages in Kaiten are precisely the same, and I know what I am doing, I have set these accounts up in Outlook, Android (K9), Android (MailDroid), and WebOS

But the set up tells me my username and password are wrong (they are not), and no emails are being downloaded.

Maildroid continues to work OK

Question for Maildroid users,
I can see "select all" function, but I can't see "Mark as Read", or "Mark as un read" the only function available seems to be "Delete" - not good! Since most of y mails get read on my desktop, I would read new ones on my portable device, and then Select All / Mark as Read, I would do that most days.

Been playing around with my new Samsung Tablet now for 1 week, and can't help but feel that Web OS was leaps ahead, and for some things still is, if ONLY Hewlett Packard hadn't ditched it last year. The interface is so much slicker, it looks great, no one has copied the idea of swiping over a text to mark it for delete. pr swiping APPs off the screen to completely close them (no need for Task Manager) The keyboard is better than either iPAD or Samsung, and if only mine wasn't dying and if only HP had continued to develop it, and if only they had marketed it properly! :mad:
 
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frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
To mark as read:

check the email you want to mark as read

click the settings and set flag

uncheck the flagged mail, then click the icon that looks like an atom (won't show if any mail has a checkmark in the box)

Check Read and ok

They will disappear, but they are not deleted and you can bring them back the same way by unchecking Read.

Or, if you want to see the Read and Unread mail at the same time, just check and flag the ones you've read and the flag will tell you that it was read.

Remember, you get different menus if you have any checked or none checked, and unchecked, you can sort the flagged ones so they are all together.
 

rootbrain

Member
Sep 18, 2012
5
2
guygamps said:
Thanks, happy to pay for a good email client but need to try a free version first to see if it supports my mailbox settings, e.g. yesterday I downloaded one (don't recall which) was setting up my incoming and outgoingserver settings only to find the outgoing server settings did not support SPA Authentication, so it wouldn't work, no issue, I just de installed it.

So on checking Kaiten has no free version (though it is very cheap), and Maildroid as a free version which I will try today and let you know how I get on.

perfectly happy with K9 on my 4.3inch screen phone in portrait mode, but it is pants on a tablet in landscape mode, so I will post my thoughts here after trying Maildroid.

Thanks

Guy

Check out Aquamail. I have 3 accounts setup, yahoo, hotmail and gmail. Works perfectly and its free.
 
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