All these negative reviews. They couldn't have been for mail.com. I've had a free mail.com account for 13, count'em 13 years now.
It's plain. It's simple. It's functional and it works! Thus it gets 3 stars. The fourth star is because it gives you a choice of hundreds of cool domain names.
Is it a power email account full of bells and whistles and innovative features? No, most certainly not. But it does basic email quite nicely.