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The Amazon Fire Max 11 is the new mid-trend tablet that costs around 245 US dollars and
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if you want you can get it with the keyboard and pen. That also means that it competes against strong competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
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Lite and Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2. Can it beat both of them
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That's what you will learn in this Amazon Fire Max 11 review
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And let's start with the hardware and performance. The Fire Max 11 is equipped with the MediaTek MT8188J processor, which is supported by 4GB
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of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage and there is no version with LTE or 5G
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My Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison shows that the CPU performance of the Fire is quite
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a bit higher than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 Lite and Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2
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On the other hand, the compute performance, which is important for gaming, is superior
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on the other two. In the 3DMark Wildlife test, the Amazon is roughly on par with the Samsung S6 Lite, and
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the Lenovo P11G2 is marginally better. The Fire Max is a bit stronger than the Xiaomi Redmi Pad and clearly superior to the Samsung
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Galaxy Tab A8, and of course it's also much faster than the Amazon Fire HD 10+
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It handles everyday tasks pretty well, that includes Chrome and YouTube in particular
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Officeworks, the voice assistant and also simple games. Multitasking is also possible, you can open two apps side by side just fine
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That was not possible in the first Fire tablet generations. In my gaming test it performs like the benchmarks predicted, like with similar reprised tablets
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you can play PUBG Mobile with HD graphics only. However the game runs great with that setting
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I could even turn up the graphics quite a bit in Ace Racer and only noticed occasional stutters
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Genshin Impact is well playable with slow settings, but stutters a bit with higher ones
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The Amazon Fire Max 11 features the full metal body, which is the first for a Fire tablet
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The transition from the display to the casing is not as high quality as in premium tablets but it is normal in this price range It weighs 490 grams and is three times more robust than the iPad 10 in drop tests at
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least according to Amazon. I think it's great that a fingerprint reader is built into the power button that is very
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rare in tablets for less than $300. Samsung and Lenovo don't offer one
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However, it is a shame that the headphone jack is missing. It starts using a USB-C 2.0 port, which also supports a lot of accessories but no external monitors
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There are 8 megapixel cameras in the front and back. The quality of both cameras is pretty good for photos and videos, especially for an inexpensive tablet
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On a negative note, the front camera is adding way too much sharpening
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The Amazon Fire Max 11 has an 11 inch display, making it slightly larger than previous 10.1
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inch tablets from the manufacturer. It's a typical LCD and the resolution is 2000 by 1200 pixels, which is standard in this
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price range. I think the pixel density is sufficient, but if you look closely you can see some pixels
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It's a fully laminated display, the colors look good, and it's even a tiny bit brighter
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than the Samsung S6 Lite. As with many 60Hz displays, a slight jelly or rolling shutter effect is visible when scrolling
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at a certain pace. We already know this from some Samsung and Apple tablets
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However, the Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2 with 120Hz is the competitor that does not have this effect
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Netflix and the like can be watched in HD resolution because the necessary DRM standards
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are supported. In my unboxing video I said that the speakers are good, and they are, but I noticed in a
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direct comparison that the two competitors from Samsung and Lenovo offer a slightly louder sound
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You can ride on the Fire Max 11 with any pen that supports USI 2.0 technology
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These are for example many pens for Chrome OS tablets and also for the Google Pixel Tablet
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Amazon also advertises the USI 2.0 stylus from the brand Maxi, that is made for Amazon
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for the Fire Max 11. What is special here is that it has a button and sticks magnetically to the tablet
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The stylus works like other USI 2 pens work for Chrome OS tablets and the Pixel tablets and that means the pen works well You can use it to write down handwritten notes and draw something In direct comparison however I always notice that Samsung S Pen and Apple Pencil are
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a bit more precise. It's important to note that the S Pen is already included in the more expensive Samsung Galaxy
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Type S6 Lite, and the prices are almost the same when you include the pens
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The pen for the Lenovo Type P11 Gen 2 however is worse than the one from Amazon
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So the conclusion for the pen is as follows. It's a cool additional feature that also works well
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But Samsung has a better competitor, especially with software for the S Pen that is better
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Amazon offers an official keyboard cover for the Fire Max 11 that costs around $90
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And by the way, Samsung does not offer one for the S6 Lite
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It consists of a bag with a built-in folding stand that can also be used separately from
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the keyboard. It's handy if you also are looking for a stand, for example to watch Netflix or to
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use the tablet as an Echo smart display. The keyboard is also connected to the tablet magnetically
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When folded, the display and the bag are protected and I like that the keyboard cover has a textile
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cover which makes it feel a little more premium and does not slip in your hands
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However, it's clear that the keyboard is made of plastic and does not feel as high
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quality as a Microsoft Typecover for instance. Nevertheless, the keyboard works very well and I enjoyed writing with it and couldn't
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find any weak points. It's just a shame that it does not have a backlight
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Below the keyboard sits a touchpad which is quite small, as is usual for a tablet, and
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it works, but since it's so small and there's no desktop mode anyway, I preferred using
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the touchscreen. The Amazon Fire Max 11 runs Fire OS out of the box, which is Amazon's own version of
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Android based on Android 11. They promised to release security updates for 4 years and in my experience, Amazon is
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pretty good at this. As I said, it's Amazon's version of Android and that's why it lacks all Google apps
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and services. There's no Play Store, no Chrome, no Gmail and no YouTube
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Instead you have quick and direct access to Amazon Prime Video Audible Kindle Books the Amazon shop and the Amazon App Store You can also install apps like Netflix and many games via the latter However the selection is smaller than in the Google Play Store
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While it's still Android, which means you can install almost any APK you find on the internet
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And that includes Google services and the Google Play Store. If you install them yourself, which is very easy, you will have the Google Play Store including
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Chrome, YouTube and Gmail on your tablet. A special feature is the voice assistant Alexa of course
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You can color it up at any time via voice command. And if you activate the Echo Show mode, the tablet behaves just like an Echo Smart Display
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So it's a great choice if you already use other Echo devices. In my battery test the tablet managed a runtime of just about 6 hours
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For this test I always run an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness in an endless loop
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You can see that many iPads only last 6 hours, but they have a brighter display
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So Amazons runtime is not all that good. However I was positively surprised by the standby time
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It loses almost no power overnight or when it sits unused in your backpack for a day
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So is the Amazon Fire Max 11 a good tablet? Yes it is, but it depends on what exactly you are looking for of course
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We get a high quality design here, a bright display, good performance and a pretty good
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optional keyboard cover. It's also one of very few tablets in this price range with a fingerprint reader
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I wish the battery life was a bit longer, and even though the stylus is ok, the S Pen
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of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite is better. If you are specifically looking for a tablet with a stylus, the Samsung is better in my tests
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If you do not care about the pen and are willing to install the Google Play store yourself
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then the Amazon Fire Max 11 is a very good tablet, especially because it's a good deal
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cheaper than the Samsung. And the Amazon tablet is especially exciting during days like Prime Day and Black Friday
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of course, during which Amazon usually sets a price that is really hard to say no to
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Outside of these days however, it's also worth taking a look at the Lenovo Tab P11
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Gen 2. The stylus is worse and it's not equipped with a fingerprint reader, but it does have
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a 120hz display and Google's Android, which includes the Google Play Store by default
