Outlook Mail: Ready to Replace Your Primary Gmail ID, Seriously [Review]

If you thought that the season of big announcements from Microsoft was over, get ready for a new surprise. Without much fanfare, the company has completely changed the interface of their Email Services. It is now called Outlook and comes integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Skype and SkyDrive.

You can start using the new Outlook.com right away using your old Hotmail or Live ID or create new @outlook.com ID. By upgrading, messages sent to old ID will be redirected to Outlook automatically.

Lets concentrate on the features offered by new Outlook Mail which makes it a strong contender of Gmail which is primary email ID of most of the people.

Completely Revamped Interface

Change is radical: Do not expect to find anything what existed before in Hotmail. When you start using the new Outlook, the first thing that draws attention is the Metro interface. It is already known to those who use Windows 8, but just browse a bit and you’ll realize the new features.

Apart from the minimalistic simple interface, it offers something more than Email:

• Reminder: you can synchronize your calendar across devices such as tablets and smartphones, and view the news in the sidebar whenever you access your email account;
• Social networking: your contacts from Facebook and Twitter can be accessed quickly from the inbox of the email. In the case of Facebook, you can chat chat with their friends;
• Other accounts: if you have other email accounts, it was time to centralize everything in one place. Importing contacts, you get updates from other addresses in a single service;
• Updates of social networks: everything that rolls more important on Facebook and Twitter can be checked in the Outlook inbox, without you having to leave the page;
• Manage contacts: allows you to create groups from email addresses, making their inbox completely personalized.
• Grouped Messages: If you use Gmail , certainly should already be accustomed to the option that shows various messages received from the same contact grouped under one item.

Most of the things are possible with Gmail too apart fro better Social integration but the way, Outlook is offering is simply wow!

Easy Unsubscribe From Junk

Outlook intelligence easily recognizes the bulk mail sender and newsletters. At the end of such email, it offers easy way to unsubscribe from them. If not possible, block them without a hassle of creating a Filter as in Gmail.

Also, you can schedule automatic cleanup of messages from regular sender. This will help you keep inbox tidy.

Integrated Youtube, Skype and Office viewer

This isn’t completely new thing considering Google Drive but if you receive Office documents like Word, PowerPoint or Excel sheet, it can be viewed without leaving window. Also, offers option to save it in Skydrive from there itself. Same applies to YouYube, video can be viewed inside the page.

Integration with other applications also turns Outlook into a real social center, allowing you to access dozens of services without leaving the inbox of the email. For short, Microsoft promises further integration with Skype, allowing chats with video directly on the page where you can check your messages.

Sophisticated Contacts Management

How about creating groups of friends from the existing contacts in their social networks? The new Outlook lets you do this very easily. In addition to the existing contacts in MSN Messenger, you can also import your contacts from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

It is basically the People app if you have windows Phone or used Windows 8.

Suggestion to Outlook.com

One thing I found a bit quirky in Outlook design is their left sidebar which moves along with scroll. This create a problem while reading a long email and you have to scroll back to top to access Folders. It should be made static like the navigation bar.

All in One Place

In a nutshell, Outlook deserves to be called as Modern email service. Microsoft wants to metro-fy the way you look at Computer; though it was criticized earlier as real estate interface. Everything so minimalistic and organized and that too limited number of ads (this one was for you Google).

By such improvements, Microsoft wants to make sure that whatever device you use, you will see their services with same interface, without any complication.

To switch from Gmail to Outlook, just setup forwards from your Gmail account and Outlook will take care of rest of the settings. A must try, atleast to experience the ease, comfort and the awesomeness!