X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

Incredimail for iPad review: Excellent e-mail browsing on a touch screen

Incredimail for iPad lets you browse e-mail in style with a visual inbox, a selection of stationary, and the ability to add multiple IMAP accounts.

Jason_Parker.jpg
Jason_Parker.jpg
Jason Parker Senior Editor / Reviews - Software
Jason Parker has been at CNET for nearly 15 years. He is the senior editor in charge of iOS software and has become an expert reviewer of the software that runs on each new Apple device. He now spends most of his time covering Apple iOS releases and third-party apps.
Jason Parker
3 min read

Incredimail is an elegant way to manage your e-mail on the iPad. You start by signing in to your e-mail accounts and Incredimail gives you a brief tutorial to show you the major features of the app. The app has full IMAP support so you can add your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or any other IMAP accounts. A menu button in the upper left lets you quickly switch accounts, and you can also filter by categories within an inbox to look at starred messages, drafts, sent messages, and other mail you have assigned filters.

VisualInbox.png
8.2

Incredimail for iPad

The Good

<b>Incredimail</b> has an excellent layout for browsing e-mail using a visual inbox. You can add multiple accounts, see previews in your inbox, and swipe to read e-mail on your iPad.

The Bad

The Facebook photo inbox is a neat idea, but it lacks commenting features and requires that you allow Incredimail to post to your Facebook wall.

The Bottom Line

If you're looking for an elegant way to browse e-mail on your iPad, Incredimail offers a unique solution, and makes reading e-mail more fun and efficient than other e-mail clients.

Browse your e-mail visually (pictures)

See all photos

The beauty of Incredimail is all about the inbox, and I quickly understood why the app was made for iPad and has no version for smaller screens. E-mails are displayed with included images in two columns. There are never more than about eight e-mails displayed on the page, but you can simply swipe to the left to "turn the page" and see the next group of e-mails. In the main inbox screen each e-mail gives you the subject, an image (if there is one), and a preview. You can swipe up and down within an e-mail pane in the inbox to read more of the preview or perform quick actions to reply, forward, mark as read, favorite, or delete. Touching an e-mail brings you to a full-screen view. The inbox is gives you more information than other e-mail clients, and the layout and colorful images really breath life into an otherwise mundane task.

Writing e-mails in Incredimail is simple and elegant as well. Six included types of stationary let you give your messages a unique look -- as long as you don't overdo it. The stationary will definitely be useful, with some that give your message a more festive look for party invites, for example, but it also seems like anyone who used them frequently might have their mail mistaken for spam.

You also get a camera button at the top right to quickly add images. A drop-down menu lets you browse through the folders in your photo library, and you can select multiple images before attaching them to the e-mail.

Incredimail for iPad
Incredimail displays e-mail in your inbox so you can get more info than the average e-mail client. Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET

If you connect Incredimail to your Facebook account, there is also an interesting feature called your Facebook Photo Inbox, but while cool, it's not perfect. Here, Incredimail gives you the latest photos from your Facebook feed and you'll be able to "like" images, but you cannot comment. That's not too disappointing, but in order to like an image, Incredimail insists that you allow it to post to Facebook on your behalf. It might be a matter of personal opinion, but I don't like it when apps post to Facebook without me knowing. However, I did find that I could still browse the latest images without enabling posting by Incredimail, but I don't like how it nags me and doesn't tell me what it will post if I allow it. Hopefully that's something that will be fixed in a future update.

Even with the Facebook feature fumble, Incredimail is definitely a great way to browse all your IMAP e-mail accounts. The visual inbox and clever swipe gestures make browsing e-mail much more fun, and the added stationary will come in handy for special occasions.

VisualInbox.png
8.2

Incredimail for iPad

Score Breakdown

Setup 9Features 8Interface 9Performance 8