New to Android with a few questions about email sync

[Brettggg]

After using a BB for the last 5 years I made the switch to the S3 yesterday. I have 4 email accts. 1 gmail, 1 yahoo, and 2 hotmail. 1 of the hotmail accts is for work. I was curious as to how you manage yours. At first I just added them under email in settings, but was confused by all the different sync options. So I deleted them and downloaded the Yahoo and Outlook apps and that's how I am getting my emails now. Can anyone explain which way is better as far as syncing and how it will effect my battery?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I doubt there's a huge difference in battery consumption either way, but the exact impact really depends on your specific usage patterns. Read here for a discussion of the battery impacts of push email vs. scheduled syncs: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/278622-battery-life-tips-myths.html

As far as "which is better," it's really up to you. Some people prefer to use one app for everything, and get all their emails combined into one inbox. Some people prefer to use one app, but keep the emails separated by account. And some find it advantageous to use an app that's optimized for each email account (e.g., the yahoo app, the Outlook app, Gmail, etc.). All of these approaches work, so it's really what you feel works best for you.

My primary personal email comes in through Google, and I use the gmail app for that, which is push email. My primary work email is Microsoft Exchange, and I set that up using the main Mail app. I set it for push email when I'm out of the office, but (if I remember), set to sync only once an hour when I'm at my desk. Also only once an hour outside of work hours. That saves battery when I'm getting a lot of emails. My secondary personal account, used for commercial accounts mostly, is a Yahoo account. I don't really use it enough that I need to check it all the time, so I use the default mail app for it, set to 1 hour sync during the day ,and no sync late at night, when I'm sleeping.