Ways of accessing gmail on mobile and desktop

Gmail is one of the most flexible email services in the cloud when it comes to options to access it. There are many ways to login to gmail from various systems. Here we enlist options provided by gmail when it comes to reading or sending emails.

• Standard Interface:
  The default interface at http://mail.google.com/mail is an AJAX interface which has access to all the features of gmail.
• HTML Interface:
  accessible at http://mail.google.com/mail/h/ is lighter version gmail interface which is useful on low-bandwidth connections and on browsers not supported by standard interface. It is vary fast to load and layout is suitable for desktop interface.
• Mobile interface:
  available at http://mail.google.com/mail/x/ is another light version of gmail interface. It is optimized for mobile access.
• Desktop IMAP/POP clients:
  You can also use mail clients like thunderbird or outlook to access email using POP/IMAP protocol supported by these clients and send mail using SMTP. Many mobiles also have applications for POP/IMAP.
  
• Web interfaces of IMAP clients:
  Third party websites like http://mail2web.com allow access to gmail using POP/IMAP settings. These sites may also have mobile interface to allow access from mobiles.
  

Each option described above caters to various devices and useful in some conditions. However, only the standard interface allows access to gmail's advanced features and integration. Also the contacts are only accessible from gmail's own web interfaces (first three). On the other hand POP/IMAP access supports multiple accounts at same time which is not available in gmail's web interfaces.