Is K-9 email the best it gets on android?

[silverado]

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S phone today to try to replace my iPhone after hearing so many good things about Android.

After setting up the built in mail program with my IMAP and Exchange accounts, I was very disappointed with its feature set (e.g., its inability to move messages between folders and its folder support in general). Searching online brought me to this forum so I installed K-9, which I found it to have better folder support but discovered that doesn't do push for Exchange accounts. It also only tells you the number of unread messages among the downloaded ones, not the real number of unread messages in the whole folder (as another poster has previously mentioned in this thread). Also, neither program seem to allow you to search for messages on the server.

Is it really the case that this is the state of the art in Android email clients? I hope I don't get jumped on for saying this in this forum, but the iPhone Mail program really seems to be miles ahead. This is quite unfortunate because I like the Galaxy S in many ways but I may be forced to return it due to the lack of a serious email client.

If there is a better answer out there, please let me know!

TIA

 

[link00seven]

Yes, I believe this is how it works. You can always use identities...see below:



The identity lets you set the reply address as well as the name. I'm pretty sure it sends from the account you are in, or the default account if you Compose from the Accounts page (how could it know how to send from another account?), but it looks like it came from the account in the identity. This might be good enough for you, but maybe not.

jd

Alright I'll look into it. I'm just really particular about this since I definitely like keeping my school and personal email separate. Thanks for your help.

 

[flu13]

Is it really the case that this is the state of the art in Android email clients? I hope I don't get jumped on for saying this in this forum, but the iPhone Mail program really seems to be miles ahead. This is quite unfortunate because I like the Galaxy S in many ways but I may be forced to return it due to the lack of a serious email client.

Well, for one thing, the iPhone has been around longer and has way more support behind it. But the beauty of Android apps is that you can always contact the developer or reach out to other developers on a forum like this and express the need for new features. Many devs love finding a new feature they can add to make their users happy. I don't think you'll find such responsiveness from iPhone developers. Here's hoping that you stay in love with Android like the rest of us.

 

[Dabrador]

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S phone today to try to replace my iPhone after hearing so many good things about Android.

After setting up the built in mail program with my IMAP and Exchange accounts, I was very disappointed with its feature set (e.g., its inability to move messages between folders and its folder support in general). Searching online brought me to this forum so I installed K-9, which I found it to have better folder support but discovered that doesn't do push for Exchange accounts.

If there is a better answer out there, please let me know!

TIA

If you want the BEST exchange client, download Touchdown by Nitrodesk in the Market. You get a 30 day trial period. In my opinion, it's a better exchange experience than what I had on Blackberry. It handles html e-mail, calendar, tasks, contacts and much better folder management.

 

[Super Noob]

Is it really the case that this is the state of the art in Android email clients? I hope I don't get jumped on for saying this in this forum, but the iPhone Mail program really seems to be miles ahead. This is quite unfortunate because I like the Galaxy S in many ways but I may be forced to return it due to the lack of a serious email client.

If there is a better answer out there, please let me know!

TIA

I'm not familiar with that phone (I have an Evo), but Slashgear also had problems with Exchange also.

Lag isn

 

[komede]

I've not found anything that is even half-way as good as K-9 - it does just about everything I want in an email client.

Lucky you!
I guess you don't use IMAP? I can't find a way to move an e-mail from one to the other folder. Is there a way?

 

[snowmobile]

Lucky you!
I guess you don't use IMAP? I can't find a way to move an e-mail from one to the other folder. Is there a way?

Yes you can do this on K-9. Go into the email you want to move, press menu / more / move, then choose the folder you want to move it to. Simple

 

[turfer]

I'm giving K-9 a try and so far I have added\and configured a hotmail account and a gmail account. Everything seems ok with these at the moment and I'm quite liking the app.

However I haven't been able to add my Yahoo account. Is there a trick in the setting somewhere that I'm missing to be able to allow K-9 to connect with Yahoo? The HTC stock mail app works fine with yahoo.

 

[WoodiE55]

Do any of these mail apps (K9, Touchdown, etc.) allow you to selectively delete messages from your POP3 server. I've been using the default email app and it doesn't. I used to have a Blackberry and when I deleted each email (or a bunch at one time) I could select to delete only from my BB or from the server also. This was nice because I could delete the junk from the server and when I went home to my computer and got my email, the junk would not be there.

I'm a blackberry user myself and while I'd like to try using an android phone myself I just can't be without my email. From what I've gathered so far Android is fine if all you want is Gmail or don't need quick email - which doesn't work in my case. I don't use gmail and I need quick email access to my own website email.

I've yet to find a solution for Android that is the same as Blackberry when it comes to email. Like you've mentioned above I too love the fact I can get email nearly instantly on my BB, then select to delete it from just the phone or both the phone and server. If Android could improve their email past gmail then it might be something for me to consider, til then I'll stick with my trusty BB Tour.

I would like to try out K9 however on my girlfriends Eris and see if it will do what I need. Though everyone keeps telling me in order to have Android delivery my email as fast as BB does it will kill the battery life very quickly.

 

[DHAndroid]

K9 is a nice app but it seems to drain my battery even faster than it normally does without it. MailDroid is a pretty good app too. The developer is is pretty active and implements a lot of suggestions from users.

It should not drain the battery that much unless you are using polling/pop. I turn poll frequency off, folder to check 1st class with poll 1st class, same for push..turns out these are 2 important settings within each account.

Setting all my Gmail accounts to Push/Imap & 9 hours on battery today, few phone calls and 40+ emails from multiple accounts with some texts and at 75% battery..wifi on for 4 of the 9 hours using ATK to take care of unwanted programs running.

I think the best bet if someone really needs to receive from a pop account..Yahoo or Hotmail it might be better to have that client forward its mail to a Gmail account and let the phone use Imap/Push to receive it. I did this when I was dumping Hotmail to be sure everyone had my correct new email and this trick works to turn Hotmail into a push style account. I have 3 seperate email addressed and 1 address I call my fwd.any emails accounts I do not want to add into my phone directly are forwarded to my fwd account which syncs to the phone. K-9 allows each account to have its own identity if you want to change the send from address.


So far this is the best email app I could find. The Gmail app was a battery drain, HTC mail only did pop. A few others did not work for me. K-9 is where I am at and happy. Usually 5-20 seconds for an email to be received to the phone, as fast as my BB ever was.

 

[Upright]

I've been using K-9 since I've had my EVO (a little over a month) and started getting double notifications and the way iMap works with gmail is totally confusing if you ask me. K9 seems to be a little too feature intensive for me so I've now switched over to MailDroid,...even though it has it's share of faults I think it's going to work better. Hopefully Google gets around to overhauling the current gmail app...that would be my first choice email.

 

[maildroiddev]

Thanks guys for your feedback. I will try and speed up my updates based off the comments that I have read here.

 

[Niir]

just started using maildroid, awesome app definatly better than k-9 imo!

 

[dyerdiehl]

I agree that maildroid is far better than k9. Does everything that I need in an email client. My only problem is opening photo attachments with maildroid. The program will not load the attachments for me to open. I end up having to forward them to my gmail account and opening them there. Any thoughts on how to open photo attachments in maildroid?

 

[scottb]

It should not drain the battery that much unless you are using polling/pop. I turn poll frequency off, folder to check 1st class with poll 1st class, same for push..turns out these are 2 important settings within each account...

I'm pretty sure I had K-9 it set up that way. The Gmail app works fine for me--my issue with it is the font is tiny and I can't adjust it. It did not drain the battery as fast as K-9 for me. I now use the built-in email client and have it collect every hour. That seems to work pretty well and I can adjust the font size.

 

[jimdroid]

I have K-9 polling every 10 minutes and I notice no adverse battery effect. When I'm otherwise not using the phone, my hero only drains between 3 and 4% per hour, which is just fine with me I also have K-9 manage my gMail, btw.

I still can't believe the difference in idle battery usage between the 1.5 and 2.1 ROMs!

.02

jd

 

[Frolic]

Just converted from Iphone 4 over to the Samsung Captivate. Had too many problems with poor battery life, dropped calls and general problems with the Iphone 4.

One feature I do miss is swipe to delete messages like the Iphone email client.

Is this an option in any of these email clients for andoid that you guys know?

 

[floepie]

Are there any apps that will do Exchange/push email? Gmail can be configured to use Exchange for pushed email. Exchange should reduce battery consumption due no polling. Further, no unexpected folder/label creations.

I would use the built in Gmail client, but it looks so bland, and the scroll-down-to-reply requirement is awful. If the devs could simply implement what the iphone does, it should be a winner.

 

[Upright]

Just converted from Iphone 4 over to the Samsung Captivate. Had too many problems with poor battery life, dropped calls and general problems with the Iphone 4.

One feature I do miss is swipe to delete messages like the Iphone email client.

Is this an option in any of these email clients for andoid that you guys know?

K9 has swipe to delete but MailDroid does not.

 

[jimdroid]

K9 has swipe to delete but MailDroid does not.

I can find a two step swipe to delete in K-9, but not like the iPhone, which is one swipe (on K-9, swipe in the message list to select, then the toolbar at the bottom pops up so you can easily delete).

I'd love to know how to do a one-step swipe to delete.

BTW, K-9 does allow a swipe to go from one email to the next (or previous).

jd

 

[krelkor]

Are there any apps that will do Exchange/push email? Gmail can be configured to use Exchange for pushed email. Exchange should reduce battery consumption due no polling. Further, no unexpected folder/label creations.

I would use the built in Gmail client, but it looks so bland, and the scroll-down-to-reply requirement is awful. If the devs could simply implement what the iphone does, it should be a winner.

There is nothing better for Exchange support than Touchdown, seriously.

 

[swb]

Are there any apps that will do Exchange/push email?

Check out touchdown. IMHO no mail app is truly satisfying but it's better than the installed one.

 

[ck4794]

The thing I don't like about MailDroid is that everytime you open the app you have to choose the mail account then it opens the inbox,...it should automatically open to the primary account inbox.

I emailed the developrr who said hes working on an update to automatically open an acct, plus a full page widget

 

[Upright]

I emailed the developrr who said hes working on an update to automatically open an acct, plus a full page widget

Awesome!!

 

[Upright]

I can find a two step swipe to delete in K-9, but not like the iPhone, which is one swipe (on K-9, swipe in the message list to select, then the toolbar at the bottom pops up so you can easily delete).

I'd love to know how to do a one-step swipe to delete.

BTW, K-9 does allow a swipe to go from one email to the next (or previous).

jd

I don't remember my iPhone having one swipe delete....I remember swiping an email and then a red "delete" button would pop up that I would have to tap to delete. Am I not remembering it correctly?