I have both. To my mind, Sparrow is about the UI, while PB2 is focused on the nitty gritty of genuinely useful features. I consider Sparrow to be an investment, as it is likely to become much more feature rich over time. But for today, PB2 rules. Examples explaining the "why" re PB2:
- Allows me to easily/quickly change the subject lines. I get dozens of "Notice of eFiling" style messages most weekdays from assorted courts. Since I like to do weekly reviews, being able to assign a more informative subject line is crucial >> yields a table-of-contents style one-glance review. Revisions take only seconds per message, and the pay off is huge. Note: The change filters back to gMail, but the date/time stamp at gMail changes to reflect the time of the revision. Not a problem in PB2, as you can select "Date Received" to keep things straight -- that is, keep an orderly and faithful-to-the-original chronological sorting order. Where the date of receipt is crucial, I insert it into the subject line. Typical revision: Client: brief description <receipt date if critical> [original subject line here]
- Getting to a full listing of attachments is kid's play, courtesy of the always-visible clippy icon within the main screen of PB2. You can do this by folder, or globally. Since my work stuff is confined to one folder, this particular feature is heaven sent for me.
- I use multiple gMail boxes. Dragging & dropping among them is fuss-free b/c when you target another gMail mailbox as the destination, a little context menu pops up so you can place the message in the precise folder desired.
- The search mechanism is quite speedy, with a fairly easy way to restrict the search to a particular mailbox store, folder, or to widen the search to tap everything. Yes, one search can rifle through all gmail accounts simultaneously.
- Like Sparrow, you can configure a wide-screen view (like the iPad). Really cuts back on scrolling.
- One-tap "ToDo" labeling.
So, for me, when I don't need to organize or really work with the mail-- that is, just read it-- I'm likely to use Sparrow. That tends to be my weekend client. But otherwise, PB2 is my main go-to client as it is absolutely priceless from a work perspective.
Two complaints re PB2:
(1)
No openmeta tags. Instead, there's a customizable labeling system. That allows me to handle the basics, like 1040 (tax deductions), inDTPO (copied into my DevonThink Pro Office database), Deadlines, etc., but none of that will ever show up in other email clients. Plu, you can only assign one label. As a practical matter though, it's a mere inconvenience, since (a) I ain't leaving PB2 in the foreseeable future; and (b) all the client-related stuff also lives in DevonThink, so I tag in that app.
(2) It
hates DevonThink. Every time I try to print/save to pdf ... in DTPO, PB2 crashes. So instead, I drag the messages to the desktop, then copy via drag & drop into DTPO. That gets the attachment also, so this workaround is better for me anyway.
Irritating to be sure, but not enough to leave PB2, which pretty much says it all.
