Opera have
released their own email web service. I have migrated from
Gmail to
Opera Mail for my public email address. The one I use when I am registering to new web sites and services. Where I get all my newsletters, use to discuss in email groups and get all the spam.
The reason i am switching is because The web interface in Gmail does not work that well in Opera. The other reason that is bothering me is that IMAP on M2, with Gmail won't show any images embedded in the mails, no matter what I do. I have to go to gmail.com to show those images.
I have different email addresses, so I have been using
M2(Opera's inbuilt email client) to read them all at once. It simply takes to much time to check every single account one by one. So I'm really not using all the features in web interfaces of any of my mail accounts. Opera Mail is great for doing just that. It let me use my mail client without any hassle and it have a simple but really fast user interface that let me check my emails when I am on the go.
NoteIf you want a mail service with all bells and whistles you wont find it here.
You have to remember that Opera Mail is still in beta and it will probably receive more feature and polish as the time goes by.
So how god it is actually?
RegistrationIt's easy. Just go to
mail.opera.com and sign up.
setting up M2Setting up M2 worked just as expected and without any issues at all. Just follow the instructions in The welcome mail(In Opera Mail, not in M2) and you are good to go.
Importing contactsWhen I tried to import contacts into Opera Mail it only showed me a file dialog to upload the contacts. This is not as one could expect in this day and age, with automatic import from the most popular email providers.
I had to go to Gmail and chose contacts, chose every contact by ticking the ticker above all contacts and click 'Other options'. I chosed to download them as 'Otlock CSV Format'.
In Opera Mail under the contacts tab I clicked on the 'Import/Export' button. Opera Mail gave me a message telling me that some of the information was missing. I figured out it was the street addresses that where missing. I deleted all my contacts and went back to Gmail. I chosed to download them in The Apple vCard format and that worked great.
Just out of curiosity I tried with The standard Google CSV format and that didn't work either. So the only format that is working correctly from Gmail to Opera Mail is vCard.
ContactsNow with the contacts up and running the only problem I have noticed so far is that the contacts tab will only show 20 contacts at each page. I have to chose page 1, 2, 3 and so on, from a drop down menu to surf trough them. I can see the reason for this is to make it accessible in Opera Mini, but i want the option when I am on a desktop. This is clearly a usability issue to me.
The Contact interface is simple yet, it still have all the most common contact information option and you can add as many custom fields as you want.
Writing emailThe web interface for writing is simple. It's actually the simplest interface I have seen in any web interface. That said, it's not a bad thing.
It loads really fast and you simply start to write the email address or contact name you want to send to and a drop down menu will display relevant contacts. You chose a subject and start writing.
There is to my knowledge no way to use HTML or any text formating in the web interface but it worked great when i tried to send mails from M2 trough my Opera mail account.
Usually I don't use text formating in emails but sometimes I want to send a link and make it clickable.
The fields for Cc and BCC is hidden but they are accessible with a single mouse click.
Reading MailsThe inbox works flawlessly and is loading pretty quick. I did not figure any way to sort mail in folders or filters but that is not a problem since I will to do that in M2.
There is also a feature to pin important messages and have them marked, but i didn't notice any use for it except from a tiny logo in the Inbox. There could have been a folder for that(Think Starring) but at least we have the archives folder for now.
The mails will also be shown as "Conversation" like in Gmail. This is so unbelievable useful.
Spam protectionAccording to Opera they are protecting your inbox but I have not tested this feature since I didn't receive any spam during my test period. If I start to receive those nasty mails in my inbox I will note you in this post and I will not recommend Opera Mail to anybody.
After all they are using your My Opera username@operamail.com as the Email address and it will be pretty easy to find your email addressby scraping My Opera Users. The spammers will most likely find your email sooner or later, no matter how well they hide it, so a strong spam filter is very important.
I wish there was a feature to report spam from M2, instead of only marking it as spam. However I am still hoping that I won't get any use of a feature like that, after all. Only time will show if this is a valid feature request.
ConclusionOpera Mail is working great for my needs and loads really quick. To be beta software it was actually very stable and i didn't notice any particularly big show stoppers.
The main advantage for me is that it is well integrated with M2 and let me manage filters and everything I need from within M2. With Gmail I found myself going to gmail more and more just to modify filters and settings. Now I am starting with a fresh email account, without all the settings from Gmail, so I can finally begin to use M2 the way it is meant to be used.
[Irony]I have finally found an email provider I can trust more than a company in a foreign country, in a far away continent. A country with low developed social policies and the justice system looks
broken medieval to me.[/irony]
I have already changed my email address at the web services I am using most and are receiving most mails in Opera Mail from now on. Opera Mail will work as my public email address. The one I use when I am signing up to new web sites and services. Where I get all my newsletters, use to discuss in email groups and get all the spam. When I think about it, thats the kind of information every email provider wants from you, so they can serve you ads based on that. They don't care about the mails you are sending your aunt or your coworkers. They want to know what services you are subscribed to and what websites you are registered at.
ScreenshotsThanks to
Tamil for letting me use his screenshots in this review. I didn't want to take a screenshot of my inbox or contact list and have to edit away all sensitive information from the images.
If you want to see some more screenshots you can do it
here.
My Opera
