What are my options for setting up a Smartphone alongside my Desktop for Email gathering? 

There are three main combinations to having email on a smartphone as well as a computer.

Combination 1

Smartphone running POP3 and a Computer running POP3.

• With the POP3 protocol, email is downloaded to a device then deleted from the server. When two devices are doing this a "race" condition is created,meaning that whatever device gets to the email first wins and the other device is left with nothing.
• This is not a good solution for having email on two devices, as it won't be on both devices at the same time.

Combination 2

Smartphone running IMAP and a Computer running POP3.

• With this solution the smartphone is setup to always display the emails that are on the server. On the computer we set the POP3 protocol to leave a copy of the message on the server for a certain amount of time. What happens is as the email comes in, the computer will download a copy of the message and leave a copy on the server. This copy will display on the phone and be accessible as long as it is on the server.
• This solution is good because it keeps the inbox size on the server small as it constantly deletes messages older than the specified amount of time.

Combination 3

Smartphone running IMAP and a Computer running IMAP.

• This is a very good solution for synchronizing more than two devices when it comes to email.
• All devices display the contents of the server, so if you delete an email on your smartphone it will get deleted off of the computer. You will have a unified inbox.