How Do You Gmail On Your Nokia N82

There are a few different ways to get your Gmail inbox on your N82. I've been dying to see a .sis version of a Gmail application, similar to what Google did for us with Google Maps. The difference between a native Symbian .sis application and a java application is astonishing. The speed, response, scrolling, load time, is all so much better as a native S60 application. But I have heard nothing of Google creating a Symbian Gmail application for us. So for now we only have a few options.

Option 1 is to use Gmail's java application. This application is great for non s60 smartphones, but can't take full advantage of a Symbian platform. From the time I launch the application to the time the application loads, it takes about 23 seconds to get itself fully loaded and retrieve my mail. That's just ridiculous. Once it's loaded however, you get almost all the options you have while using Gmail in a real browser. The application runs smooth and fast, although just doesn't seem as good as a native Symbian application. I have to give it to Google though, they created a great application for basic phones.

The next option is to setup your built in email application to be used with Gmail and IMAP, just like I talked about in this old post. Setting up Gmail isn't that hard using the email wizard that comes with your N82 phone. Once it's all set up, you can tell your email application to check for new mail anywhere from always on to every 6 hours. This can really come in handy. When you have new mail, the phone alerts you like it would a text message. You can then view your subject line and have the option to read it. If you decide to read your mail, your phone will then have to re-connect to Gmail. Doing this takes anywhere from 15-60 seconds depending on how updated your mailbox is. If you haven't check your mail for awhile, this process can take up to a minute or more to match your phone's email application with your Gmail account. I started to get really annoyed with this method.

The last option is one that I just started using. You can access your Gmail account via the Web Browser. Gmail's mobile email interface used to look ugly and was too simple. I noticed recently that they've updated the interface and give you more options to work with. On the newer S60 phones like the N95 and N82 you can assign one of your bookmarks as an active standby shortcut. I decided to give this a shot and made this my left softkey. If your using an older model Nokia you can make Gmail your homepage and this will load when you first click the Web Browser application. From the time I launch this shortcut the Gmail page loads in under 10 seconds. And that's on an Edge connection, not 3g. You are then presented with a simple interface, similar to the desktop version. Each email has a check box that you can mark. Afterwards you scroll to the bottom of the page and have the "more actions" box. You can move to inbox, mark as read, mark as unread, and add or remove stars. You can also report spam, archive, and delete. Pretty much everything you can do with the desktop version. Below that you get compose mail, inbox, sent mail, all mail, spam, contacts. You can click "more" and choose labels to show as well. You can also search all your contacts, something that is lacking when using the built in email application. This method I think so far is the best to use with Gmail, as long as you have a good, fast, internet connection. Like I said, running this option on an Edge connection is fast enough for me, and still keeps your Gmail perfectly in sync across your phone and computer.

Hopefully Google keeps updating there mobile Gmail interface like they have for the iPhone. I would really like them to tie in all there applications into one nice mobile page including Google Reader, Calendar, and Picasa. I think they will keep giving us updates and new features. Just make sure if you use any of these methods you have an unlimited data plan or be prepared to get a lot of charges. The first option I gave is probably the best for data consumption, but don't quote me on that.

Of course there are other 3rd party applications you can use to get your Gmail, one of my favorites is Emoze. I just don't like the amount of RAM that it takes up, especially if you leave these applications open.

Are there any other options that I'm missing? I'll be posting some screenshots of these methods tonight when I have some extra time.

For now, if you haven't already, check out this link to see Google's Mobile Gmail page.