Ever since they added the templates, my Gmail account takes centuries to load, specially my contacts. And I agree with vietnamimpressive, all the templates but classical are ugly.
Few themes really looks cool to me. I like Desk,Tea House,Cherry Blossom themes. But currently using Classic Theme for some specific reason. DON.
I liked it, using Sunset theme. Although, when I open gmail in IE for the 1st time, it gets stuck, reloading helps to get into it...
The Ninja theme is pretty cool- IMO. When I tried the Bus Stop one, it asked for my location. I think it personalizes the weather based on the conditions in your city. ???
I tried that Ninja one, and the text boxes are also gray/grey, it's good. And that one also asked me for my location.