I have been known to tell people that often times, Outlook is just not worth the time. I use to POP out my email to Thunderbird(the open-source equivalent to Outlook), but then I stopped doing so when I realized how much easier it was to just use the Gmail equivalent.
Here is a good article that puts the two against eachother. To each their own.
http://lifehacker.com/398778/outlook-vs-gmailthe-definitive-comparison