Outlook.com Review

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

After years of using Gmail, I am deciding to switch to outlook .com as my primary email. Gmail is a good email provider, but its sluggish at times, it receives massive amounts of spam, its messy looking. Outlook seems safer, it has a cleaner interface, its very fast and responsive, it doesn't read emails to deliver ads. Outlook.com's interface is also very modern in contrast to gmail which seems like its stuck in 2005. There are perks of using outlook also like its interwoven into Windows 8.

 

Outlook

Pros:

Clean Interface

Faster

Responsive

Little Spam

Easy to use

Many good features

 

Cons

None so far.

 

Conclusion

I highly recommend outlook.com, if your sick of gmail and are looking for something fresher, safer and more reliable, switch to outlook. You can use either @live.com, @Hotmail.com or @outlook.com for your email address.

[Jub]

The new inbox tabs of Gmail are absolutely fantastic, but what really kills Outlook.com for me is the lack of IMAP support. When they implement that, I'll start considering it.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

What I love about outlook.com is that I can make email aliases and as many as I want of them for spam or other stuff.

[Ambroos]

What I love about outlook.com is that I can make email aliases and as many as I want of them for spam or other stuff.

With Gmail it's even simpler. Add as much dots in your email as you want, or put numbers after +. [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] are just as valid as [email protected].

 

The fact that you get little spam is most likely because your email just doesn't appear on any lists yet. It'll increase over time.

 

You'll have to explain how it's safer and more reliable though. Safer is something I really doubt, for example since Microsoft uses TLS 1.0 instead of 1.1 or better on their websites, which is no longer really safe.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

With Gmail it's even simpler. Add as much dots in your email as you want, or put numbers after +. [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] are just as valid as [email protected].

 

The fact that you get little spam is most likely because your email just doesn't appear on any lists yet. It'll increase over time.

 

You'll have to explain how it's safer and more reliable though. Safer is something I really doubt, for example since Microsoft uses TLS 1.0 instead of 1.1 or better on their websites, which is no longer really safe.

Yeah I like the dots method but it's not really a different mail address it still contains my original email address which I like to hide from certain people :P

[fusi0n]

I really do not like Microsoft as it today.. However, Outlook.com is amazing and I use it has my main email now. Google keeps shooting themselves in the foot.. .

 

Keep up the good work MS!

[Ambroos]

Yeah I like the dots method but it's not really a different mail address it still contains my original email address which I like to hide from certain people :p

True, it depends on if you want to filter out spam or filter out people.

 

I still keep on using Gmail since it's pretty much the only free email service that has a proper native client on pretty much all platforms there are. Even my old Sony Ericsson featurephone (a super-cheap K320i) had push mail support with Gmail, natively. With Outlook you keep bumping into restrictions.

 

I also like Google's focus on security, personal security that is. I don't really mind automated scanning of my mails for advertising and stuff like that, but I really like how it's pretty much impossible for anyone to break into my Google Account. Microsoft has only been catching up in this area very recently.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

True, it depends on if you want to filter out spam or filter out people.

 

I still keep on using Gmail since it's pretty much the only free email service that has a proper native client on pretty much all platforms there are. Even my old Sony Ericsson featurephone (a super-cheap K320i) had push mail support with Gmail, natively. With Outlook you keep bumping into restrictions.

 

I also like Google's focus on security, personal security that is. I don't really mind automated scanning of my mails for advertising and stuff like that, but I really like how it's pretty much impossible for anyone to break into my Google Account. Microsoft has only been catching up in this area very recently.

I thought old sony ericssons also supported exchange? Atleast I thought I remembered that on my old w710 :p

For all modern devices that support exchange you can just use m.hotmail.com as exchange server even for mail adresses like @outlook.com

[REM2000]

although i do like outlook.com and have been a user of hotmail.com for a very long time, i have found that outlook.com is a lot slower than Gmail, the minimal UI obviously comes into affect, however when all you want to do is access your emails then speed of access is important.

 

On the same machine and the same internet connection it takes outlook.com a good 5 seconds after gmail.com has come up 

[Ambroos]

I thought old sony ericssons also supported exchange? Atleast I thought I remembered that on my old w710 :p

For all modern devices that support exchange you can just use m.hotmail.com as exchange server even for mail adresses like @outlook.com

Yeah, but not for email I think. When I used it with Google I used Exchange for contact and calendar sync and IMAP for push mail. It's surprising how advanced those cheap phones were, you had apps (Opera Mini, a FB app, ...), sync, GPS (on my G705 later), ...

 

I'm not a big fan of Exchange (and how it works with Hotmail/Outlook). 

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

Yeah, but not for email I think. When I used it with Google I used Exchange for contact and calendar sync and IMAP for push mail. It's surprising how advanced those cheap phones were, you had apps (Opera Mini, a FB app, ...), sync, GPS (on my G705 later), ...

 

I'm not a big fan of Exchange (and how it works with Hotmail/Outlook). 

Yeah Exchange isn't perfect but atleast better then pop3 which doesn't sync read and unread mails >.>

And I also had the G705 :D later I had even a 5mp sony ericsson and then a 8mp which was amazing and super luxurious for the time :P

[Ambroos]

Well POP3 is ancient. IMAP is pretty good but not all implementations are the same. Gmail's is a bit awkward at times because of their label system which doesn't directly transfer to folders (but it has other significant advantages).

 

(I went from the G705 to the Elm, also 5MP :P And then Arc, 8MP!)

[RyanSkilton]

I love Outlook. I would not even consider switching to another email provider.

[Ian S.]

With Gmail it's even simpler. Add as much dots in your email as you want, or put numbers after +. [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] are just as valid as [email protected].

 

The fact that you get little spam is most likely because your email just doesn't appear on any lists yet. It'll increase over time.

 

You'll have to explain how it's safer and more reliable though. Safer is something I really doubt, for example since Microsoft uses TLS 1.0 instead of 1.1 or better on their websites, which is no longer really safe.

With outlook.com, the + method works as well.

[STNN]

Hate gmail especially now that they have added this annoying "someone logged into you account, was it you" warning every time i use a vpn or try to connect from my email client. So damn annoying, yes it is me get a goddamn idea.

 

<3 outlook, i am really mad i decided to go with gmail as my main provider but now i hate it so much and i have no choice but to continue using it because of all the sites and everytihng associated with my gmail email.

[tsupersonic]

Hate gmail especially now that they have added this annoying "someone logged into you account, was it you" warning every time i use a vpn or try to connect from my email client. So damn annoying, yes it is me get a goddamn idea.

 

<3 outlook, i am really mad i decided to go with gmail as my main provider but now i hate it so much and i have no choice but to continue using it because of all the sites and everytihng associated with my gmail email.

It's not going to magically know it's you. I do love both Microsoft and Gmail for supporting two factor authentication. It is nice knowing there is an additional layer of security on top of passwords. 

[Stokkolm]

It's not going to magically know it's you. I do love both Microsoft and Gmail for supporting two factor authentication. It is nice knowing there is an additional layer of security on top of passwords.

Agreed, just yesterday MS alerted me that someone was trying to access my account. Thank goodness for two factor authentication.

[Shiranui]

https://www.guerrillamail.com/

[dead.cell]

The new inbox tabs of Gmail are absolutely fantastic, but what really kills Outlook.com for me is the lack of IMAP support. When they implement that, I'll start considering it.

You know, it's surprising. When they talked about inbox tabs, I thought "pfffft, I'll never use that..."

 

Then they break you in with some preset ones.

 

And then you realize... this is awesome.

 

I've made it clear that I'm not a fan of Google, but Gmail is something I feel they do very well with and is why I unfortunately can't make the dive away from their service. It's simple without robbing you of options. I also prefer the layout of Gmail over Outlook.com. I still use my Outlook account, but only for small work use.

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

I use Outlook.com for my clients email addresses. The free domain hosting is wonderful and it works great. :)

[buddyhelp]

I use hotmail with outlook webapp for personal use, its totally adequate. I see no reason of switching.

[Jim_Wartson]

Same here. I use outlook at work and its better than my age old home G mail. I haven't faced any problems till date with IMAP support so its fine. Cannot consider altering my gmail account since it has spread far and wide though. Cheers!

[NeoWind]

The new God DAMN preview is pretty amazing.

[PGHammer]

The new inbox tabs of Gmail are absolutely fantastic, but what really kills Outlook.com for me is the lack of IMAP support. When they implement that, I'll start considering it.

In short, you don't use Outlook (or Mail included with Windows 8 or later) as a mail client.  (Both support EAS - which is Outlook.com's non-Web protocol.) Because I use Outlook 2016 (which supports IMAP and EAS) it's a great big non-issue.

 

By the by, what DO you use as a mail client?

[PGHammer]

Same here. I use outlook at work and its better than my age old home G mail. I haven't faced any problems till date with IMAP support so its fine. Cannot consider altering my gmail account since it has spread far and wide though. Cheers!

You can use Outlook with GMail - in fact, it's my preferred GMail client (and always has been, oddly) back to when Outlook didn't support IMAP.

 

If anything, Outlook 2010's "launch and leave" IMAP support further cemented Outlook's rep as my go-to e-mail client.

 

If only Yahoo Mail (in the US) supported IMAP4 (or POP3, for that matter) without fees....