I love email. It’s fast, simple, and everybody has it. That being said, I’ve never been able to find a desktop application to really suit my needs. Web-based clients like Gmail are great but can be lacking for power users (not to mention offline support is still a little finicky) and Thunderbird can go for years without a significant update.

Enter Postbox, a sleek and ultra-fast desktop email client for Windows and Mac. This week, we will be giving away 5 FREE copies of Postbox. But it doesn’t end there — we’ll also show you how to get 25% off the retail price, earn all of your money back and then some more!

Thunderbird users will notice some striking similarities ““ that’s because Postbox is built on Thunderbird’s original code. This is a great thing, because Postbox has taken all the good things from Thunderbird, added new features, and put it in a great looking package.

Easy Setup

Postbox takes the frustration out of configuring your email accounts. When I added my email account, I didn’t need to do anything extra — Postbox figured out the server settings and ports all on its own.

Interface

The main interface displays a list of your accounts, folders, and messages. Taking a cue from web browsers, Postbox includes a fantastic tabbing system so you can easily jump between messages and searches.

Instead of Thunderbird’s Tags, Postbox uses “Topics” to help you categorize your messages. These work just the same as Tags and I like using them to prioritize my messages. Tags can be automatically assigned to messages based on content or the sender.

Messages

My favorite feature of Postbox is the extra details provided when viewing individual messages. Under the sender’s name, you have access to quick links to find other messages, attachments, images, or links from that sender. Postbox displays a list of attachments and links from the message you are reading which is perfect for digging through messages to find something specific.

Search

Search is probably one of the most important features when dealing with a large inbox. Postbox sports a very fast internal search engine, but after indexing your messages (a one-time process which can take quite a bit of time if you have a large inbox), performing a search displays the specific parts of the message that contain your search string. This is especially useful when sorting through similar messages.

A handy slider at the bottom of the search results allows you to expand or condense the preview text for each message.

Postbox contains 4 handy buttons in the top right: Attachments, Images, Links, and Contacts. Clicking these buttons creates a new tab and instantly displays a list of all media matching that criteria.

Conversations

Like Gmail, Postbox threads your messages to keep conversations together and help make sense of your messages. When collapsed, the message thread tells you exactly who was involved in the conversation so you’ll never be digging aimlessly through message threads. If you select the main message thread, you can view all subsequent conversations in one window.

Sharing and Social Networks

If you use Facebook, you can log in with your account and Postbox will automatically import your friends’ email addresses and pictures. Postbox also lets you update your statuses for Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed from within the application.

Support for OmniFocus and Things

Streamlining the Getting Things Done lifestyle, Postbox includes support for 2 of the most popular task managers, OmniFocus and Things. With Postbox, you’ll now be on top of your work, not drowning in it.

It all sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s get started — want to win a copy?

How do I win a copy?

It’s simple. Just follow the steps.

STEP 3
	In the comments section below, sign in with your Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account and tell us why you’d like to win. Alternatively, you can also comment as a guest but do use your real email address so that we can contact you if you are selected.

This giveaway begins now and will end on Friday, 30th April at 2100hrs PST. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email the next day.

If you’re not picked as a winner, don’t sweat. Postbox has a very cool referral program which will allow you to purchase this awesome email client for $30 and then get all of your money back. Learn more about it here. If you have a coupon code, enter it in the comments; let others use it and earn some dough!

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

MakeUseOf would like to thank Sherman from Postbox for his generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email.