Compared to other free email accounts (Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc.), I think free GMAIL from Google has always been a terrific value, but it keeps getting better!  Other free email clients have distracting "in-your-face" graphic ads; GMAIL only uses text ads.  Others charge for "premium" features such as POP or IMAP access; these are included with free GMAIL.  Plus you have 10GB of free online email space.

Even better, GMAIL is working to become the Outlook of the 21st Century's "always-connected BYOD" (bring your own device) set.  By using IMAP instead of POP, you'll have the same view of your email/contacts/calendar whether using Outlook / Windows Mail, or any smartphone/tablet/web browser.  And it can do this not only with your email, but also your contacts and calendar items - free!

Best of all, a free GMAIL account can also consolidate email from multiple accounts and allow you to either reply from the same account or set any of the accounts to be the default email account.   This means you never again need to send out email change of address notifications -- you can keep the old account by consolidating it into a single InBox with free GMAIL.
 

Some setup is required to fully leverage these capabilities, but the KEY is in GMAIL - SETTINGS - "Accounts and Import":

For certain email accounts such as @comcast.net, you'll want to go to its settings and forward all email to your GMAIL account.   However for most others, just use the three subsections of "Account and Import":  a) "Import Mail and Contacts", b) "Send Mail As", and c) "Check Mail from other accounts" (only works with InBox, not other Sent Mail or Saved email folders, but never fear, Professional Nerds can help you with this!).

Once your email and contacts are consolidated into GMAIL, just use your GMAIL account.  For example, from a web browser, if you use http://www.google.com as your home page, there'll also be a login in the upper right corner, as well as a built-in link for GMAIL and free Google Calendar.   For iPhone/iPad, there's a special email account type just for Google's free GMAIL; after adding it for Email & Contacts, all you have to do is add a second account for Calendar called "CalDAV", to link your online Google Calendar to your smartphone or tablet.

Of course, if you have additional questions or need some help setting this up to fit YOUR situation, just call Professional Nerds® at 1-877-496-3737.