macosmail.app
I have an account at Hotmail/Outlook.com and I have lots of mails there since 2006 (dozens of GB). I am using IMAP and I don't want Mail.app to download them all, also because I have really slow connection (and I dont care about my emails from 2006.)
Is there a way to make Mail.app download only mails more recent than, for example, 10 or 30 days ago?
iPhone uses the 'modern' Exchange ActiveSync (which is a mobile-only protocol) to sync with Hotmail, which explains why read emails are synced to Hotmail.com.
The only other protocol Hotmail/Outlook.com supports is POP. Unfortunately they do not support IMAP, so POP is as good as you're going to get.
tl;dr - Enter an incorrect password when setting up the account for the first time
Open Mail → Accounts….
Click the + to add an account.
Select Add Other Mail Account… and click Continue.
When the password is required, enter an incorrect password.
It will request that the account be configured manually.
Follow the instructions to add your mail configuration.
Best Answer
This doesn't seem possible in Mail.app.
As a workaround your e-mail provider may allow you to limit the amount of e-mails available over IMAP.