Handling Emails Like A Boss – Postbox Review and Giveaway!

Mike Vardy wrote a great review on Postbox, and I wanted to dig deeper into it. It wasn’t much of a change to switch to it, especially since it’s integrated fully into the mac. And bear with me until the end of this article, I’ve got something special for you! Welcome to Postbox review, hope you’ll enjoy it!

First surprise came when I installed the app. It asked me do I want to import settings from any other clients that I have on my Mac. It simply imported all of the settings. And you’re there, ready to begin. First of all, I didn’t feel estranged, it felt really similar to native Mail, so I had that familiar look and feel. Familiarity is really important when you are adapting new technologies, and they’ve hit the sweet spot with it.

Now the dock icon, actually looks better than the native mail app, hence it didn’t repeal me from keeping it and getting used to it. I can’t stand looking at the icons that don’t blend in my current setup. For example I avoid turning on the Chrome browser, because it stands out from the rest of my icon set.

What’s new coming up with Postbox?

1. Tighter Gmail Integration – For all those Gmail junkies out there, who feel left out when they use 3rd party client, you will feel like at home in Postbox. I certainly found this addition non intrusive, and it improved my mail experience, as Google apps are my mail client.
2. More Social Connections – Facebook, Gravatars, LinkedIn Photos. This is what helps me stay on top of communication with people. I might forget your name, but I won’t forget your face.
3. Better integration with Apps and Services – Dropbox, Evernote, Growl and Calendar. Mac users rejoice!
4. Productivity boosters – Favorites bar made my day, as it cleaned up my email and made it as minimalistic as possible. Gmail style reply and archive is included, which makes my job of cleaning up email to Inbox Zero, easy and seamless.

Other essential features

For Mac users, there are other essential features integrated, like Keyboard shortcuts, full screen mode and on top of it all, there is a small task manager. Since email is so full of small tasks that I wouldn’t like to end up in my Omnifocus, this seems like a perfect spot for small useful reminders on who should I remind next.

The main reasons why Postbox became my #1 email client

Ultimately Postbox didn’t win me with a single feature. There are a couple of important features that I was looking for, and Postbox simply delivered them all at the same time:

1. I wanted beautiful email, and Postbox is drop dead minimalistic gorgeous. I thought that Apple took a lot of time in designing the app, but these guys just knew how to get more with less. So what’s the catch? With all these new added features, it’s really hard to keep minimalistic design, and still keep the features. Well, they proved me wrong.
2. All the extra features. I didn’t wanna go the gmail route, because I wanted something that will safely backup my data locally, and I simply didn’t trust Google extension to handle my offline access. I wanted something that will allow me to “spotlight search” my mails if I wanted to. That came with this premiere class client, and many things more.
3. Evernote integration – This feature is basically my “save to archive” button. I absolutely love it. And this is what I used frequently, basically on daily basis.
4. Keyboard shortcuts – I was always lacking a simple keyboard shortcut in native email, and here it’s simple CMD + K. Apart from that one, that I use most often, there are numerous other shortcuts that I haven’t even discovered yet.

As you see I am pretty biased when I find something that I like, but there is a very good reason for liking it. I love helping out developers who made great products. And this time they’ve beaten Apple in email client game, and that is an achievement worthy of mentioning!

The Giveaway

Great guys from Postbox heard about my review, and they wanted to reward loyal Alpha Efficiency readers with a couple of free Postbox licenses. First license already went away to the lucky subscriber of the newsletter. (Quick tip, sign up for the newsletter for more awesome giveaways!)

Now there are two more licenses left! And here’s how to get them: Until the end of the week I will keep a close eye on everyone who commented on this post, and who shared this article via social media.

I will pick the best comment on the question: “What is your main issues with email workflow?” The best answer is going to get the license in his inbox.

The second license is going to go one lucky sharer of this article. If you share it make sure that you use @AlphaEfficiency in the Tweet, or mention Alpha Efficiency page on Facebook in order to ensure eligibility. Wishing you lots of luck, the competition is ending on Sunday 14th October in Midnight.