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MailDroid vs. K-9 vs. Others?

I

IPvFletch

Android Enthusiast
I use HTC Mail for Exchange and I'm VERY happy with it. I love it. The unread view is how I live and this is the only smartphone app which has it, period!!

HOWEVER, it doesn't support IMAP/POP3!

So I'm stuck using something like MailDroid or K-9.

I'm trying to understand the differences.

K-9 seems to do "polling" which from what I can tell is a periodic check for new mail.

MailDroid however has no such functionality and I'm not quite sure how it polls or how often (or how to control it).

I think I saw a MailDroid controller app but you have to pay for it! *grumble*

So can anyone who has used both shed some light on this?

I've got both set up right now, and both seem to work. I will get my own first-hand conclusions in a day or two, but for now I'm wondering what insight I can get from folks who've been using these apps for far longer than I have.

Thanks in advance!!
 
Just search "the entire android site" (not just the EVO's) for "K-9 Mail", for more reviews of K-9. When I was using it for the Droid (several K-9 threads there), back in Nov/Dec, it was infinitely less problematic than the native POP3 client. I can't speak for it now however...no longer have the Droid.
 
As the MailDroid dev, let me shed some light on your questions:

1. MailDroid is free, I have no paid version
2. IMAP is push and has no control
3. POP3 is pull and can be controlled with a polling interval (go into your pop3 inbox, click preferences, and you will see an option)

If you have any more questions, just shoot me an email.
 
OK, so I don't even need the polling then, good to know.

So I guess it boils down to UI. No offense, but MailDroid seems REALLY stripped down (compared to say HTC Mail), but I kind of prefer that because the more bells and whistles, the more battery gets used up. :)

Will do some more testing and reading, but hope to finalize my decision by tomorrow (as if I have some RFP out for this or something LOL!!) :)

ps. It is great to see the DEVELOPER on the forums like this!! Thanks! (I also saw you replying on androidcentral.com posts too!)
 
So I just downloaded MailDroid, is it deleting these emails from the server or just my device? I didn't see an option.
 
Yea, the UI is stripped down as I saw no reason to add the nice features yet. The one request I keep getting is to have an option to delete only from phone. However, at this time I don't have it yet and when you delete on the phone, it will sync and delete on the server.
 
joelangley said:
Yea, the UI is stripped down as I saw no reason to add the nice features yet. The one request I keep getting is to have an option to delete only from phone. However, at this time I don't have it yet and when you delete on the phone, it will sync and delete on the server.
Click to expand...
Cool, well that works for me. I think you should make an option at deletion time whether to delete from the phone, server, or both - like Blackberry's email client. That'd be perfect!

Also, I'm sure you're already going to add these but a Select All button would be great, and a Trash Folder instead of it "flagging for deletion".

But your app is great, going to be my default E-mail client! :D
 
Yes, that is the plan. Thanks, I hope it works for you and email me if you have any questions or issues. I don't always come to the boards, but I try when I have time to see what people are saying :) The application is being built based off suggestions from users, so I need to see what they say :)

One note, yes to the select all option (or something like that as I may do a select from date XXX to date XXX like BBerry). There is a trash folder if you are using IMAP, just look at the preferences menu under the inbox. You can set a trash folder there. For POP3, I can't do this as the protocol does not support it.
 
joelangley said:
One note, yes to the select all option (or something like that as I may do a select from date XXX to date XXX like BBerry). There is a trash folder if you are using IMAP, just look at the preferences menu under the inbox. You can set a trash folder there. For POP3, I can't do this as the protocol does not support it.
Click to expand...
Dang, I don't think my GoDaddy email supports IMAP. I tried to set it up the other day on a different client and couldn't get it working. :-/

Weird that K-9 has a trash folder, I prefer MailDroid though.
 
I've been using K-9 since my first day on Android and haven't looked back. Constantly updated, free, no ads, excellent notification and works flawlessly.
 
I've used both and have to say I like K-9 so much better than the default or maildroid.

I've recently tried MailDroid but its rather bulky often taking a few extra buttons presses to accomplish something. for example to delete two consecutive mails while inside one email, you will have to hit delete, back to the menu, enter the next email, then delete again. In K-9, like many web based emails, you hit delete and you are at the next email. That was the biggest reason to uninstall it. I also wanted to delete a number of emails in the inbox menu but unfortunately, i had to tick 34 individual boxes before I could delete them. In K-9, one can select all boxes to accomplish this batch operation.

The reason I did try maildroid was because K-9 wasn't able to function with yahoo mail over wifi. Its a very specific feature, but nonetheless one I needed all the time. But I hear K9 now is able to do it, though I haven't tested it with the latest update. So now I'm back to K9 for a more pleasant user experience.

There are no ads in K9, like maildroid. Not a big deal really, I hardly noticed it there.

Also, what frustrated me was receiving notifications that I got mail, despite having specificed 500 minutes between interval checks. instead, I would get them every half or so regardless. I didn't feel like I was in control of my own client.

Overall, K9 was the better user experience for these reasons, and hopefully it will be able to check yahoo mail over wifi like maildroid did.
 
Update: Good news and Bad news..

The GOOD news is I was able to get POP3 and/or IMAP working from HTC Mail! It turns out it is HIDDEN. Yup, you can't add an account of those types from Settings, but you CAN from the Mail app itself, under Accounts. Just hit New and then Manual Setup and you'll see the options!! :D :D

The BAD news is I have now UNINSTALLED both K-9 and MailDroid. :D Sorry!! I didn't like the separate app just for my personal email (I'm also using Exchange which is built into HTC Mail also), I REALLY missed the "Unread Emails" view in HTC Mail, and I figured why bother having another totally separate app running in the background.

FWIW, K-9 had a LOT more customizations than MailDroid, but they both were nice and worked great!
 
Dession said:
So I just downloaded MailDroid, is it deleting these emails from the server or just my device? I didn't see an option.
Click to expand...

In settings for account preferences, click on "Folder For Deleted Mail", specify "trash" and your deleted emails will go into your trash folder on the server. (as best I know)
 
wase4711 said:
What I like the most about K9 is the unified inbox....
Click to expand...

Thats a great feature! Sometimes I do not have the time to go into each in box, this puts it all in 1 area to flip through!

After deleting email in each account click folder list in each account then empty trash. I do this every couple days.

K-9 is am amazing program and uses almost no battery. 20 emails in 3 hours among other apps and used 4% battery in the Hero.
 
I am using froyo on my Evo, and have imap mail accounts.
It seemed that maildroid ran faster when I first installed it.
It now takes quite a while to open mail even with no images or attachments.
Any ideas about how to get it back to normal?

I think my favorite feature is that the send button is always accessible when I am writing an email.
Thx for any help.
 
lesliegodwin said:
I am using froyo on my Evo, and have imap mail accounts.
It seemed that maildroid ran faster when I first installed it.
It now takes quite a while to open mail even with no images or attachments.
Any ideas about how to get it back to normal?

I think my favorite feature is that the send button is always accessible when I am writing an email.
Thx for any help.
Click to expand...

If you need an old version I can send it to you, or you can wait until next week where it should be improved with the new version.
 
I just installed this and really like it, it's like the stock app but better, checking mail seems a bit slower than other apps but that doesn't concern me. It's clean and doesn't have all the bloat that IMO K9 has, now if only you would make a SMS client too.
 
For me, I settled on MailDroid. Although I liked the overall layout of K-9 and the native 2.1 mail client better, MailDroid is the only client that connects properly using TLS over non-standard ports.
 
maildroiddev said:
If you need an old version I can send it to you, or you can wait until next week where it should be improved with the new version.
Click to expand...

Will the "NEW" version open image attachments? Currently I am unable to open any attached images in MailDroid (specifically ones sent from iPhone OS 4 users).

I had to uninstall MD until this issue is resolved. Can you please address this in your next release. If you like, I'd be more than happy to forward you an email (via an iPhone) with an attached image for testing/troubleshooting purposes.

Let me know via PM. Thanks.

Edit: Using Droid 2
 
seeing as the developer is here im not start a new thread..im also using maildroid my only gripe with it is that i cant click links in emails..im not sure if its something on my end but if its not will it be fixed in future versions?
 
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