The latest Amazon Fire tablet ticks all the boxes for an affordable mid-range tablet. But before you buy, you need to read the rest. Amazon has launched a new tablet in the Fire Max 11, which promises faster performance and longer Amazon tablet batterylife on an 11-inch display, all with a new design. The tablet starts at $229, or you can bundle the keyboard case and stylus to create what Amazon calls a productivity bundle for $329.
All in all, the Fire Max 11 is easily the best Fire tablet Amazon has ever madeThere’s a lot to like about the Fire Max 11, both in theory and in practice. I’ve been using it for the last week, trying to get work done with it, as well as doing some web browsing, shopping, and watching videos .
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It’s not perfect. But at $229, that’s not necessarily the case. Below you’ll see what’s new in Fire Max 11, as well as features I’m eager to see improved in the next version.
What’s new with this modelAmazon’s Fire tablets never really had a massive overhaul in terms of design. A few years ago, Amazon added rounded corners and moved the front-facing camera, but other than that, the tablet looks much the same as before.
With the Fire Max 11, that’s no longer the case. Amazon went back to the drawing board and completely redesigned the tablet based on customer input and feedback.
1. Different design methodsClose-up of the corner of the Fire Max 11.Jason Cipriani/ZDNETGone is the plastic casing, replaced by an aluminum casing. The edges of the tablet are flat, much like the latest iPad models. The case sports an 11-inch display — the largest on a Fire tablet — with a 2,000 x 1,200 resolution.
On one side of the tablet’s case, there’s a fingerprint reader that acts as a power button. It’s located next to the volume up and down buttons, and there’s a USB-C 2.0 port for charging. Finally, there’s a microSD card slot for up to 1TB of additional storage.
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The other side of the tablet has a series of magnets that hold the optional $35 stylus in place. It doesn’t actually charge, as the official Fire Max 11 stylus is powered by a single battery. The magnetic connection is strong enough to keep the pen in place when you carry it around your home or office, but in a backpack it’s more likely to fall off.
I really like this new design. As I said when the Fire Max 11 was first announced, it reminds me of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which is a design I really like. The metal chassis with flat edges and even the design of the keyboard case look like they came directly from Lenovo, with a few minor tweaks and changes.
Without the case attached, the Fire Max 11 is lightweight and easy to hold, whether you’re watching a show, browsing the web, or even reading a book in the Kindle app.
2. Keyboard, trackpad and stylus support
When you look at the Amazon page for the Fire Max 11, you’ll find that the 64GB model starts at $229 and the 128GB model starts at $279., when you start looking at the Style options, you’ll notice that there’s a productivity bundle that includes a keyboard with a built-in trackpad and stylus. The 64GB and 128GB models are bundled for $329 and $379 respectively.
The last time Amazon launched a Fire tablet with a productivity bundle option was the Fire HD 10, and it was really, really bad. The keyboard and case combo is bulky and uses Bluetooth to connect to the tablet. This time around, the Fire Max 11’s productivity bundle feels like Amazon has spent some time perfecting the keyboard, trackpad, and stylus experience.
The keyboard shell is made of two pieces and is covered with cloth material. There’s a piece that magnetically attaches to the back of the tablet case, adding a layer of protection but also hiding a foldable kickstand. The stand is sturdy and adjustable, offering a variety of positions and viewing angles.
With the Fire Max 11, you no longer have to charge the keyboard separately and rely on a Bluetooth connection for pairing, which is almost always fraught with lag and delays. That alone is a major win in terms of the new tablet’s availability.
Another win is the addition of a trackpad. Navigating the Fire Max 11’s interface using the trackpad greatly enhances the experience. The trackpad is on the small side, but this is an 11-inch tablet; some things can be cramped.
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I personally think Amazon kept the trackpad smaller to provide more space for the keyboard. The room pays off, as writing and using the Fire Max 11’s keyboard is a joy. There’s plenty of space between the keys, and the keys themselves are of adequate size , so I could start typing on the keyboard almost immediately with minimal errors.
Performance-wise, the Fire Max 11 gets the job done, but can be slow at times. It’s fast and responsive most of the time, opening tabs or apps a little slower than I’m used to on an iPad.
However, in some cases, when I started switching between multiple apps or tabs in Amazon’s Silk browser, the Fire Max 11 could slow down noticeably. Eventually it will recover smoothly and performance will return to normal – which is to say, perfectly acceptable.
Amazon estimates the Fire Max 11’s battery life to be around 14 hours of use. I looped a 4K video using the Fire tablet version of VLC with the display at 50% brightness (and the keyboard detached), and the Fire Max 11 lasted 11 hours and 23 minutes, so you can rest assured.
In the week or so I spent using the Fire Max 11, primarily as an entertainment and web-browsing device, battery life was excellent in both real-world and standby use.
Amazon’s Fire tablets run Fire OS, a highly customized version of Android that lacks support for any Google apps or services like Maps, Gmail, Sheets, Docs, and the Play Store. As a result, Amazon tablets don’t have access to hundreds of Thousands of Android apps in the Play Store.
Instead, Fire tablet owners must use Amazon’s own App Store. While there are many well-known apps from companies like Facebook, Zoom, Hulu, and TikTok, there are still a ton of productivity apps that simply don’t exist. For example, Slack, one of the most popular team communication apps, is not available.
Amazon’s App Store is mostly made up of games, streaming services, and dubious-looking apps that serve as shortcuts to web versions of Google’s various services.
While I was reviewing the Fire Max 11, Amazon pushed an update to my tablet that supports sideloading apps. This means you can download apps from outside the Amazon Appstore, such as Slack, and install them on your tablet.
But while sideloading is an option, it’s not a good one. It is highly insecure and forces users to find APK files from websites that may or may not be legitimate. Not to mention, this is a technical task that those who are not tech savvy would not even want to try. Nor should they do so simply because of the security risk.
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If Amazon is serious about its pursuit of more powerful, more useful tablets, it’s time for Fire OS to comply with Google’s mandate for tablets to include all of Google’s apps and services. Either do that, or throw a lot of money into developers like Slack and let them bring their apps to the Appstore.
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