When it comes to checking mails, I never preferred using any app. I mostly use Google's Gmail for most of my mail accounts and I am satisfied with the service. I don't receive a lot of mails on my primary account, just some newsletters from the sites I love and updates from Behance and some other sites. It is occasional when someone emails me asking for help or regarding this blog.
I prefer checking mails on the browser because Gmail is pretty good in features. It automatically tags the mails that it thinks is important to me and it visually looks nice.
I came across Unibox just an hour ago and from the screenshots they have on the site, it looked nice. I have used Airmail, Sparrow and some other mail apps earlier and wanted to give Unibox a try.
Setting up Unibox is simple, it just asks for your credentials when you start it. It supports major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook and more. You can configure your account manually or you can tell the app to detect the settings.
One plus point of using a mail client instead of opening mails in the browser is that you can check multiple accounts in the app quickly, most of the clients allow you to add multiple accounts, while you'll have to logout and login in your second account in the browser. You can add multiple accounts in Unibox app too.
Once it detects the settings if chosen automatically or after manual configuration, it will start syncing all your mails. Unlike Airmail, Unibox syncs all the mails pretty quickly. I've had problems with Airmail, it took more time to load all my mails at first. I left Unibox for sometime when I first added the account as it syncs all the mails and the Gravatar, plus images in the mails.
I really liked the way the app is designed, clutter free and simple. The app is divided into two columns, one of which lists all the mails which are sorted in order of the time when you received the mail, it is located at the left side of the app. The right column is where it displays the mail.
The listing of mails in the left column is nicely done. The emails are separated on the basis of when you've received them, like Today, Yesterday, Last Tuesday and so on.
The left column lists all the emails including Received and Sent emails, in a group they call Unibox. You can change the emails you want to see from the drop-down.
You can select the mail from the emails from the left column and the app will display the mail in the right column. One thing that I don't like about the app is it not only displays the current mail, but along with it, it also displays all the previous mails from the same sender. Like if you open an email that you received from Facebook, the app will display all the mails from Facebook in the right column with the latest one at the top. This isn't good, why would one want to check all those previous emails unless the email is a conversation and includes replies.
The right column includes a Refresh button on the top along with Compose Mail button. Composing Mail is easy. You can attach files with the mail easily. When you hit the Send button, the app displays the progress bar at the top which I haven't seen in any other app till now.
When you hover over at currently opened mail, it displays Reply and Forward button in the right. You can also reply quickly by clicking on "New Message" button at the top right of the mail. We can Trash, Archive or Mark the Mail as Spam from the three buttons on the left of the mail.
Once you open an email, you can click on one of the two buttons after the Compose button at the top to see the attachments in the email. One of them displays the attachments in list view while other one displays the attachments as grids. If the attachments are photos or images, the Grid view will show a preview of the photos.
If you have multiple accounts added in Unibox, you can change the account you are using to send the mail from a drop-down while composing or replying to a mail.
You can add your own Signature in the App Preferences, also you can change the appearance of the app and create groups. The options are minimal. I wanted to hide the mail count from the Unibox's Dock icon but there's no option for this.
Conclusion
Overall, I liked the app but some basic options that most mail clients provide aren't available in Unibox. The interface is clean, which is a plus point of the app. You don't get to see buttons all over the app as you get in Airmail.
The app is very usable. It allows me to focus on mails and quickly reply to them. With some more and above mentioned features, the app will be a nice option.