Verdict
The Amazon Fire Max 11 is a able choice with a solid display that beat most of the budget contention in benchmarks , but limited app availability means it ’ll never be the productivity - focalise tablet that Amazon envisions .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Amazon Fire Max 11 symbolize a change in tact from the world-wide retail giant . While other tablets in Amazon ’s Fire cooking stove are flashy and have glasses to match , the Fire Max 11 boasts an overall more premium experience .
Amazon envisions this as the Fire tablet for study , but I ’m not convinced by Amazon ’s vision .
After all , the £ 249/$229 Amazon Fire Max 11 black market the same Fire OS as the rest of theFire tablet ingathering – software program based on Android 11 , but utterly devoid of any Google apps or Google services , go Amazon combining weight instead . The App Store is pretty stocked with with rain cats and dogs apps , but it does n’t haveeverythingthat you ’d find on a regular Android tablet .
That makes Amazon ’s pitch for the Fire Max 11 as a productiveness equipment a operose one to swallow , even with a pretty subject keyboard and stylus accessories useable at additional cost .
However , that does n’t stand for it ’s not a ripe pad of paper . Even a year and a half after its initial firing , its iPad - similar design with an atomic number 13 flesh , 11 - in 2 K display , 14 - hour battery sprightliness and better functioning than most of thebudget Android tablet competitionmeans it remains a tempting selection , especially if you may find a tasty raft on the top - end Fire tablet .
Design and build
In a bid to separate itself from the cheesy tablets in Amazon ’s Fire collection , the Amazon Fire Max 11 calculate definitely more premium . In fact , rather than looking like a Fire pad , it looks more like one of Apple ’s late iPads – specifically , the10th - gen iPad .
Its aluminium body is square off with flat edge , just like Apple ’s option , but it does n’t stop there . The bezels are also like to the iPad 10 , the television camera is embedded in the retentive side of the tablet for better landscape painting usage , and even the rearward camera protrudes from the shell in the same way that Apple ’s does .
There are also a fistful of pro - tied accessories ( I ’ll get to those in a hour ) and a fingermark digital scanner built into the power button .
That ’s not needfully bad deal Amazon ’s lozenge is much cheaper than the £ 499/$449 iPad 10 , but it ’s not exactly an original look . It ’s a shame that it ’s only available in the relatively ‘ professional ’ grey stopping point , too – I think a splash of people of color could ’ve helped it stand up out from a sea of other budget grey tablets available on Amazon ’s shopfront .
It does differ from Apple’siPadin a handful of ways , though . While storage caps out at 64- or 128 GB , you have a microSD carte one-armed bandit to extend depot when required . There ’s also the leftover positioning of buttons , with the volume and business leader buttons seem alongside the USB - C port and microSD time slot on the poor correct - hand side of the tablet ( when viewed horizontally , that is ) .
It ’s a placement that take quite a while to get used to , and rather annoyingly , it became awkward to contain when charging . I was either essay to avoid knocking the USB - C cable’s length or by chance hitting the power or loudness keys .
There ’s also a slightly less elegant POGO system of rules for connect appurtenance , with the exposed ports on the bottom border of the tablet and gaps for accessories to click into property . It ’s not exactly the slick approach , but you in all likelihood wo n’t detect it often .
Elsewhere , Amazon claims that the Fire Max 11 and its strengthened glass are three times more durable than the iPad 10 in its own drop tests . That ’s not something I can easy test , but it should bring pacification of mind to those with clumsy kids nearby .
There ’s no official IP rating , however , so it ’s probably best to keep it away from kitchen countertop and lavatory .
Display
One of the principal reasons to opt for the Amazon Fire Max 11 , even in tardy 2024 , is the video display . The 11 - column inch IPS LCD exhibit may not boast the deep Black and vivid colors ofOLED panel , but that ’s not something you ’ll recover at the price point . What is crucial is that with a 2 K ( 2000 x 1200 ) resolution , the screen is stick - sharp and packed with contingent .
It also offers excellent contrast with a wide see angle , making it possible for me and my partner to cower together on the sofa and enjoy a film without fiddle with the slant .
It also outstrip the iPad 10 ’s display in one key area : lamination . The Fire Max 11 ’s showing is fully laminated , and while that might not sound like much , it think there ’s no melodic line spread between the front glass and the LCD panel beneath .
That means that , unlike the iPad , there is n’t a gimcrack hollow sound when you tap on the showing . It feels robust , well - built and as note earlier , it ’s covered in an unnamed protective glass that should protect it from a drop or two .
If there ’s any expanse where the Fire Max 11 could amend , it ’d be brightness . Amazon ’s claimed 420nits brightness is acceptable for indoor use , but it leaves much to be hope if you wander out to the garden on a peculiarly sunny day . It ’s still usable , but you ’ll in all likelihood be hunting for shaded areas .
The relatively down luminousness have in mind there ’s noHDRsupport on fling either , though as with OLED technical school , that ’s something you ’ll be hard - contract to find at the £ 250/$250 cost power point .
Accessories
As hinted at , the Amazon Fire Max 11 is n’t just another Fire lozenge ; it ’s designed for work . Well , according to Amazon anyway – but I ’ll get into the specifics a little later . to aid this lofty objective , the Fire Max 11 is compatible with body of work - concentre accessories including a full keyboard showcase , complete with a trackpad , and a style too .
The keyboard is pretty solid in quotidian use with small traveling needed to activate each key , so much so that I wrote a declamatory fortune of this review on the pad itself .
There ’s a ready to hand row of shortcut keys at the top like you ’d find with a ‘ proper ’ laptop computer , and habitual Windows keyboard crosscut also mould , with the likes of Alt - pill switching window , CTRL + C copying text and more . The only downside is that it ’s not backlit , which can be a chip of a downer when hammering away some school text in a benighted room .
The trackpad is also all right for everyday economic consumption . It has gesture support , allowing you to scroll with two fingers , pinch to zoom with two finger , and flip apps with a three - fingerbreadth swipe . The only genuine oddity is the necessary to bug with two finger to choose text , which I could n’t get used to during examination .
The optional stylus works as you ’d expect , with pressure sensitiveness and excellent medal rejection when taking notes on the Max ’s 11 - inch presentation , and it bust into place on the side of the tablet when not in use , just like an iPad . It ’s also USI 2.0 supported , which means you may expend it with other tablets like theGoogle Pixel Tablet , which does n’t have an official stylus accessory .
It ’s a handy optional extra for doodle and hand ; it ’s just a chip of a pain that it practice a received AAAA battery that ’ll need replacing every now and again .
Performance
The Amazon Fire Max 11 uphold the drift of Amazon using unnamed processors in its pad kitchen range , claim only that it ’s an octa - core processor , and that ’s paired with a miserable 4 GB of RAM and either 64 or 128 GB of expandable computer memory depending on the variant you opt for .
Despite the rather underwhelming spec sheet , workaday performance on the Fire Max 11 is surprisingly solid for a budget tablet .
Do n’t get me wrong , this wo n’t be contend with the iPad 10’sA14 Bionic chipsetany time soon , but it manage most routine tasks – switching between apps , scroll through the web on the Silk web internet browser , reading on the Kindle app and playing a nimble game of Township – with easiness . Even basic 3D game like Roblox run without much complaint , and it can handle even the most ad - laden websites .
This is borne out in benchmark examination with the Amazon Fire Max 11 scoop other budget - rivet tablets like theLenovo Tab M10 Plus 3rd Gen , but it ’s far behind give budget options like theiPad 9 .
Despite the want of fancy audio options likeDolbyAtmos , the Fire Max 11 yield enough intensity to fill a room well and is clear and crisp even at those top - end volumes . Bass functioning leaves much to be trust , as with most tablets , but it ’s serviceable for watching a movie on the tablet without reaching forBluetooth headphones .
And yes , they have to be Bluetooth headphones , as the Fire Max 11 does n’t gambol a 3.5 mm headphone diddley like other cheap tablets .
I ’d unremarkably dedicate an entire subdivision to camera performance , but the Fire Max 11 ’s oblation is lacklustre , even for a pad of paper .
The combination of 8MP lenses – one on the front , one on the tail – is an improvement on the Fire HD 10 ’s 5MP and 2MP offering , but it ’s still not close to what you ’d get from the camera on the phone in your pocket . It ’s detail enough for video calling and the unpaired selfie , but you wo n’t be dump your smartphone camera for this setup anytime soon .
Software
As with every Fire tablet , software system will be the protruding point for many . It ’s not a by all odds shitty experience , but it ’s very much an Amazon - first one with its own Appstore , internet browser and UI free of Google ’s influence .
That means you wo n’t find Google services on the tablet despite it go on a modified version of Android 11 . That means no YouTube , Gmail , Drive , Docs or Sheets , and although the store has muckle of apps , including Netflix , Disney+ and most societal networking apps include Twitter , TikTok and Facebook , there are mess of gaps in its collection – peculiarly when it number to game .
Amazon ’s game assembling includes a few decent options , like Roblox , but it ’s in the main fill with free - to - play games like Gardenscapes , which are packed with microtransactions . You wo n’t discover Call of Duty Mobile or Genshin Impact here .
If you ’re determined , you could sideload apps – it ’s how I benchmarked the pill , after all – but be warn that apps that rely on Google service ( like Uber ) wo n’t run on the tablet regardless of how you get them on there .
This also collide with Amazon ’s oeuvre - oriented sales talk for the tablet . Most Android tablet shin with the work - focused pitch because the Android O lack some of the ‘ killer whale ’ pro apps useable for Apple ’s iOS ecosystem like digital draw app Procreate , and while the site is slowly ameliorate , there ’s still a means to go .
That issue is even more prevalent on the Fire Max 11 with such a restricted offering on Amazon ’s Appstore . While apps like Microsoft 365 are available on the tablet – complete with a three - month free trial – you wo n’t witness apps for Google Docs and Sheets .
There ’s also the lack of swarm storage apps uncommitted , with choice like Dropbox and Google Drive unavailable on the tablet . This could make spartan issues if your piece of work orbit around a specific app or chopine unavailable on the atomic number 8 .
To Amazon ’s acknowledgment , the company has updated the Files app to give up you to make spreadsheets and Word document without needing a subscription , but the implementation leaves much to be desire .
Upon booting up the app , I was warned that WPS Office for Amazon was “ built for an older interlingual rendition of Android and may not operate properly ” – hardly a great start . However , it perplex worse from there : the word process app die to display aright on the 11 - column inch display , cutting off the top menu and essentially draw it unserviceable .
It seems that Amazon still has work to do if it need the Fire Max 11 to be seen as a work - centre car , even with its handy keyboard and stylus accessories .
Battery life
With a uncase - back version of Android , a pretty ability - efficient ( and not too mogul - thirsty ) chipset and a 7500mAh stamp battery , the Amazon Fire Max 11 has the potentiality to last for quite a while . Amazon claims it ’ll last around 14 hours on a cathexis – up two hours on the Fire HD 10 – and I ’ve happen that to be roughly on the money .
I used the pill sporadically during a recent five - mean solar day head trip to Amsterdam , let in understand a book on the Kindle app at the airport and on the hour - longsighted flying ( in both directions ) , watching two movies on Netflix on one stormy evening and playing a warm plot of Townscapes to pass the time waiting for a cab . Reader , I got home with 30 % battery leave in the tank .
That speaks not only to the general battery life of the tablet but how well it does on standby , with the tab reliably ready to go whenever I reach for it – even if it has n’t been charged late .
That ’s a peculiarly strong point because , on the flip side , the Amazon Fire Max 11 issuperslow to charge once it does finally die .
The tablet comes with a comparatively weak 9W charge brick in the box that , in examination , took a humongous four hours to regain a full burster . The pad does support up to 15W load , so you could theoretically trim down down on bearing times ( around 40 second less in examination ) , but you ’ll have to indue in a separate burden brick to do so .
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Final Thoughts
The Amazon Fire Max 11 is n’t quite the productiveness - focus tablet that Amazon want it to be , even with pretty comme il faut keyboard and stylus accessories , but that ’s not down to ironware .
The 2 K 11 - inch display remains one of the chief reasons to choose for the lozenge over the competition in late 2024 , with pin - sharp item and capital viewing angles . It ’s not even down to a lack of processing powerfulness , with the unnamed octa - core processor easy quiver othercheap Android tabletsin CPU and GPU trial .
No , it ’s down to the software oblation . While the Android 11 - based Fire UI is well-fixed enough to use with most UK streaming apps available at the hydrant of a button , it lacks fundamental productivity apps that ’d make it ideal for study .
You ca n’t even get Google Docs , Google Sheets , campaign or anything else that relies on Google armed service is a scrap of a red flag for anyone calculate to get serious work done on a tablet . For that , you should break up up theOnePlus Pad 2or Apple’siPad 10 – the latter is much more expensive but tout a much more expansive app offering than anyAndroid - based pad of paper .
If , however , you ’re looking for a cheap pad for streaming , scroll through social medium and a bit of light gaming and you’re able to accept Amazon ’s modified Appstore offering , the hardware is deliciously self-colored for the price .
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FAQs
Yes , but it ’s only 9W – you ’ll have to buy your own 15W charger to take reward of the fastest charging possible .
you may pretty easily , but any app that bank on Google help wo n’t process on the tablet .
