It was only yesterday that we noticed Lenovo had recently started selling with little to no fanfare its most advanced Android tablet to date after formally unveiling the model all the way back in January, and now Amazon is doing something similar with its own “biggest and most powerful” slate yet.
Of course, the aptly named Fire Max 11 has almost nothing in common with the gargantuan Lenovo Tab Extreme, sporting a significantly smaller screen and slower processor while also starting at a considerably lower price and thus competing against the top budget tablet options out there rather than Apple’s latest iPad Pros or Samsung’s own ultra-high-end Galaxy Tab S8 family.
The perfect quality/price ratio?
While there’s clearly no such thing as perfection in today’s tech industry and especially in the struggling Android tablet market, cash-strapped power users (who don’t care about stuff like official Google Play support) are unlikely to find a better value proposition than the Fire Max 11 right now in the 10-inch+ segment.
Up for pre-order already at just $229.99 and up, this bad boy is said to be “3 times as durable as the iPad 10”, which normally starts at $450 and has yet to go below $399 in its entry-level 64GB storage variant at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.
The Fire Max 11 also offers 64 gigs of local digital hoarding room in its cheapest configuration, doubling that count in exchange for an extra 50 bucks while supporting external expansion via a microSD card slot, which is obviously something that even the best iPads out there continue to lack.
Another very compelling deal is the so-called Fire 11 Max productivity bundle, which includes a new Made for Amazon stylus and a magnetically connecting keyboard case in addition to the tablet itself at an extremely reasonable combined price of $329.99 and up.
Regardless of your buying option, it looks like you’ll have to wait until June 14 for pre-orders to start being fulfilled, which is not that bad and just so happens to beat Samsung’s four-model Galaxy Tab S9 lineup to stores.
The key selling points
Apart from a larger screen compared to the latest Fire HD 10 (and Fire HD 10 Plus) generation, the first-of-its-kind Fire Max 11 also promises improved raw power thanks to an unnamed octa-core processor with two ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.2Ghz and six 2Ghz A55s, as well as better battery life and faster charging.
The Fire Max 11 impressively manages to tip the scales at only 490 grams despite packing a large cell purportedly capable of keeping the lights on for up to 14 hours between charges, while its 7.5mm profile is also quite thin.
Compared to the competition, this affordable 11-incher is lighter than Samsung’s 11-inch Galaxy Tab S8 and only slightly thicker than Apple’s 10.9-inch iPad (2022), which are pretty remarkable achievements for Amazon’s generally uninspired hardware engineering department.
The Fire Max 11 is also made from premium aluminum, unlike its smaller brothers, and although it technically supports 15W charging, its standard retail box only includes a 9W power adapter… which is obviously still better than nothing.
That jumbo-sized display is unsurprisingly nothing special, sporting a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels that actually results in a lower ppi density than that of the Fire HD 10, and it’s hard to be impressed by the 4GB RAM count either.
But given its price point, generous screen real estate, and surprising versatility, the Amazon Fire Max 11 certainly looks like a bang-for-buck champion on paper, especially when you also consider its upgraded 8MP front and rear-facing cameras and newly incorporated fingerprint sensor.
The Fire OS software is likely to remain a major drawback and perhaps even a total dealbreaker for many prospective buyers, but if you want to spend a lot less than you would on an iPad 10, iPad Air, Galaxy Tab S8, or Pixel Tablet, it’s either this or something like the Lenovo Tab P11 (Gen 2).
