"Synergy" - Using Email, Calendar and Contacts

I've been mostly pleased with my access to my work and personal email accounts. After setting up my email (my previous blog - LINKTEXTHERE), I was able to dive right into my email. Both my Gmail and Exchange mail started coming right in. From the email interface, it presents each of your email accounts (I have only 2 here). From each email account, you can select 'Favorite' mail folders which will have shortcuts at the top of the screen (I'm just using my inbox's). Additionally, you can click(touch) the arrow next to each account and you'll be presented all of the folders available within that account. It took no additional work on my end, it was able to easily pull in all of my folders from each account. Fully utilizing the Pre's "Synergy", you can have an 'all email' view, displaying email from each account in one view. I've chosen not to see this as I prefer to keep my email seperate.

The email client also renders HTML email very well to my surprise. I've seen a number of phones claiming to be able to view HTML email, especially for Exchange 2007, but I haven't actually been able to view html email in exchange yet. I began to assume my work blocked that ability for some reason. However, full HTML versions of email come through clearly and immediately, and look great, as you can see in the graphics above. Additionally, you can zoom in and out as needed with the "pinching" gestures on the screen. Additionally, replying and forwarding email appears to work flawlessly (yes, this has been an issue on other phones), and includes the original HTML message.

The only complaint that I have about the email is that from the main email screen, where you can scroll through and choose emails to open. Unfortunately, this is really the only thing you can do in this screen. I haven't found an intuitive way to search or sort my email, so if I want to find something specific, I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to try to catch what I'm looking for. I would also love to see a feature where I can 'press and hold' an item (equivalent to right-clicking) to bring up the option to do something with the highlighted message like delete, mark as unread, or something of the sort. Right now, you can only do this by opening the message.

Viewing my contacts, which were pulled in from both my Gmail and Exchange accounts was even easier than viewing my email. It pulled all of my contacts into one listing. When you open a contact, it presents them with the detail that you're used to in Outlook contacts (multiple email and phone fields and personal data fields for birthdays and the like). You can see which contacts have multiple email addresses as the icon looks like it has multiple pictures. For people who have a picture associated with their contact, regardless of account, it displays their profile picture. You can choose which of your accounts you have associated with the phone to pull contacts from, which the default account should be and how to sort the contacts. I would love to see that feature in email. It's simply an easy and intuitive interface.

Finally, the synergy view of the calendar. I LOVE the calendar. Like with your email and contacts, you can choose your default calendar (here in RED). Additionally, it pulls in not only your personal Gmail calendar, but also additional ones that you have associated with your Gmail account. Here, I also have my wife's and brother's calendar viewable. They all show up as different colors, making easy to see the difference between the events. By clicking an event, you get more event details as well as the account it's associated with. I also really like how the calendar compresses the time where you don't have anything scheduled so you can see something coming up later in the day. The alerts take over the bottom of your phone screen when they pop up so they are noticeable but not annoying, and you can easily dismiss, snooze or open them from there. Very well done and easy to use. I need an easy and effective calendar application to keep me on top of things, I'm VERY pleased with this application!