GMail's Java-based client seemed to have been stuck at v1 for decades - it's just had the big 2.0 upgrade. It's still Java and larger (at 500K), but it's faster and, it's claimed, more reliable, especially when working for short periods offline. There's also now support for multiple GMail accounts and sending email in the background. To download version 2.0, go to m.google.com/mail in your phone browser.