I have always dreamed of having gmail access on my phone, for gmail is not only my email client, but also my online deposit box with a soft copy of all my important documents and files. Be it my latest resume or my university transcripts or a scan copy of my passport, I have it all on my gmail. Just give me internet access and I can source all my documents for you, anywhere, anytime! So that made a gmail client on my 5800  a "must have" and lets see how it fares on 5800.

Installation:

Gmail client can be downloaded right on to your mobile, by just pointing your mobile browser to m.google.com/mobile

The installation process is simple, intuitive and fast. Once the application is installed, one needs to configure the client to interact with your gmail account. All this is done in one step: just signing in with your gmail account on the client. It cannot any get simpler than that, can it?

Now lets move on and explore the feature set of gmail client on 5800. The default screen looks something like this:

It can be seen that almost 50% of the screen-space is hogged by the navigation buttons which are not really needed for using the client. Lets fix that straightaway. To get rid of the onscreen navigation buttons, go to menu (main menu on the phone and not gmail client menu)-> settings-> application manager-> installed apps.-> gmail-> options-> suite settings-> on-screen keyboard: off

With this setting your client will look something like this:

Now this is a welcome change, just a minor tweak and our client looks so much better now. Lets move and explore other options now:

Multiple inboxes:

Yeah, you can configure your gmail client to be in sync with more than one gmail accounts. Switching between accounts is easy and swift. I synced my gmail client with three gmail accounts and there was no difference in the performance in terms of speed.

This is a very cool feature of this client which comes in very handy for people who like to maintain different accounts for personal, professional and other interests. With one client you can keep tab of all your gmail accounts.

Font size

The default font size is optimum for reading and browsing mails on a 5800 screen but in case you want to make it easier on your eyes, it can be done by setting the font size to large in the settings. The settings screen looks something like this:

The two font size compare like this:

Personally, normal font size is fine with me but some may prefer to opt for large font size. The fact that there is an option for selecting between two font sizes is a big bonus.

Attachments:

One of the best features of gmail client is its ability to download and view attachments. Lets see how the most commonly attached files (ppt, xls and doc) look like in our client:

It can be seen that both excel spreadsheet and powerpoint presentation are displayed as in html mode and not in columns/rows and slides as one would expect for a spreadsheet and presentation. For docs, the client could handle both doc and docx versions with no difference in the layout for the two files:

I guess the client can handle xlsx and pptx files smoothly as well but with the same limitation as higlighted above.

Now lets sum up the pros and cons of the client:

Pros:

1. Swift, easy and intuitive user interface
2. Ability to sync with multiple gmail accounts
3. Customizable font size
4. Attachment support
5. Offline browsing

Cons:

1. One glaring faux is the low resolution gmail icon that comes with the default client
   

   Low resolution icon

(Just googling "5800+gmail" lead me to this link, which has a setup file with a better resolution icon but the this version has some issues of its own like presence of soft buttons for Menu and Refresh in both landscape and portrait modes)

2. No support for google docs. Xls and ppt files are displayed in html mode which is not easy to read and follow

3. Client not optimised for finger touch browsing compared to the gmail client on iphone and android.

4. No option for synchronising calendar and contacts with the phone calendar and contacts (as in android)

Verdict:

Gmail client for 5800 has some amazing features like multiple inboxes,  customizable font size, attachment support and offline browsing but it pales in comparison to the gmail client on iphone and android for the touch screen experience is much better on the clients on these two platforms. Further nothing can beat the way android synchronises your gmail account with your phone. Inspite of all these limitations, gmail client is still a very stable and easy to use client on 5800. Lets hope the google team tweaks the client for a more fluid experience on symbian 5th edition phones.

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