Gmail is very, very good. Be aware, however, that it is a Google product, so having a gmail account affects your browsing life in ways that other email accounts don’t. So, when you’re logged into gmail, you’re also logged in when you use Google for searching, and when you use YouTube to watch videos. Depending on how you feel about your privacy, this can be annoying, or it can be no issue at all. Also, they tend to tweak the interface occasionally with no warning, and there is no support from Google for issues – this is largely made up for by the fact that the whole world uses gmail, so you can usually google your issue and find out whether there is a solution or not. But sometimes you can’t. There are also contextual ads, although even for someone who abhors ads, I don’t find these intrusive.
The pros include the fact that it’s free, has lots of storage, an excellent built-in chat and video chat, and the best spam filtering I’ve ever seen. I use it, and will for the foreseeable future.