There are a lot of times when I need to SEE my email without composing email. I read a lot more email than I reply to, or I will need to see something but won't need to respond immediately, or I will log into email to get tracking info for packages, etc. I wouldn't use it for email all the time, of course. I'm not going to write a novel on the thing. That is rather impractical. But for accessing email when I'm away from the desk, it would be better than, say, an iphone, and less cumbersome than a laptop.