Amazon Fire Max 11 Review: Can It Beat Samsung & Lenovo?

The Amazon Fire Max 11 is a new mid-range tablet that costs around 245 US Dollars and if you want, you can get it with a keyboard and pen. That also means that it competes against strong competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022 and Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2. Can it beat both of them? That’s what you’ll learn in this Amazon Fire Max 11 review.

Hardware & Performance

Let’s start with the hardware and performance. The Amazon Fire Max 11 is equipped with a MediaTek MT8188J processor, which is supported by 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB or 128 GB of internal storage. A version with LTE is not available.

My Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison shows that the CPU performance of the Fire is quite a bit higher than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite and Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2. On the other hand, the compute performance, which is important for gaming, is superior to the other two.

In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, the Amazon is roughly on par with the Samsung S6 Lite and the Lenovo P11 G2 is marginally better. The Fire Max is a bit stronger than the Xiaomi Redmi Pad and clearly superior to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8.

It handles everyday tasks pretty well – this includes Chrome and YouTube in particular, office work, the voice assistant, and simple games. Multitasking is also possible; you can open two apps side by side just fine. That was not possible in the first Fire tablet generations.

In my gaming test, it performs like the benchmarks predicted. Like with similarly priced tablets, you can only play PUBG Mobile with HD graphics only. However, the game runs great with that setting. I could even turn up the graphics quite a bit in Ace Racer and only noticed occasional stutters. Genshin Impact is well playable with low settings, but stutters with higher ones.

Design & Build Quality

The Amazon Fire Max 11 features a full metal body which is a first for a Fire tablet. The transition from the display to the casing is not as high-quality as in premium tablets, but that is normal for this price range. It weighs 490g and is 3 times more robust than the iPad 10 in drop tests – at least according to Amazon.

I think it’s great that a fingerprint reader is built into the power button. That is very rare in tablets for less than 300 Dollars. Samsung and Lenovo don’t offer one. However, it is a shame that a headphone jack is missing. It’s charged via a USB C 2.0 port which also supports a lot of accessories but no external monitors.

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. On a negative note, the front camera is adding way too much sharpening.

Display & Speakers

The Amazon Fire Max 11 has an 11-inch display, making it slightly larger than previous 10.1-inch tablets from the manufacturer. It’s a typical LCD and the resolution is 2000 x 1200 pixels, which is standard for this price range. I think the pixel density is sufficient, but if you look closely, you can see pixels.

It’s a fully laminated display, the colors look good, and it’s even a tiny bit brighter than the Samsung S6 Lite. As with many 60Hz displays, a slight jelly or rolling shutter effect is visible when scrolling at a certain pace. We already know this from some Samsung and Apple tablets. However, the Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2 with 120 Hz is a competitor that does not have this effect.

Netflix and the like can be watched in HD resolution because the necessary DRM standards are supported. In my unboxing video, I said that the speakers are good. And they are, but I noticed in a direct comparison that the two competitors from Samsung and Lenovo offer a slightly louder sound.

Amazon USI 2.0 Pen

You can write on the Fire Max 11 with any pen that supports USI 2.0 technology. These are, for example, many pens for Chrome OS tablets and the Google Pixel Tablet. Amazon also advertises a USI 2.0 stylus from the brand Maxeye that is “Made for Amazon” for the Fire Max 11. What is special here is that it has a button and sticks magnetically to the tablet.

The stylus works like other USI 2.0 pens work for Chrome OS tablets and the Pixel Tablet. 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 S Pen and Apple’s Pencil are a bit more precise.

It is important to know that the S Pen is already included in the more expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite and the prices are almost the same when you include the pens. The pen for the Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2, however, is worse than the one from Amazon.

So, the conclusion for the pen is as follows: It’s a cool additional feature that also works well. But Samsung has a better competitor, especially with better software for the S Pen.

Keyboard Cover

Amazon offers an official keyboard cover for the Fire Max 11 that costs around 90 Dollars. It consists of a back with a built-in folding stand that can also be used separately from the keyboard. It’s handy if you are also looking for a stand – for example, to watch Netflix or to use the tablet as an Echo Smart Display.

The keyboard is also connected to the tablet magnetically. When folded, the display and the back are protected, and I like that the keyboard cover has a textile cover, which makes it feel a bit more premium and does not slip in the hands.

However, it’s clear that the keyboard is made of plastic and does not feel as high-quality as a Microsoft Type Cover, for example. Nevertheless, the keyboard works very well, I enjoyed writing with it and couldn’t find any weak points. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t have a backlight.

Below the keyboard sits a touchpad, which is quite small, as is usual for a tablet. It works, but since it’s so small and there’s no desktop mode anyway, I preferred to use the touchscreen. It’s interesting that you see two dots on the screen when you use the touchpad, representing your fingers.

Android Without Google Play Store

The Amazon Fire Max 11 runs Fire OS out of the box, which is Amazon’s own version of Android based on Android 11. They promise to release security updates for 4 years and, in my experience, Amazon is pretty good at this.

As I said, it’s Amazon’s version of Android and that’s why it lacks all Google apps and services. There’s no Play Store, no Chrome, no Gmail, and no YouTube. 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.

Read: The Best Android Tablets You Can Buy Today

It’s still Android, which means you can install almost any APK you find on the Internet. 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 Chrome, YouTube, and Gmail on your tablet.

A special feature is the voice assistant Alexa, of course. You can call 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. So, it’s a great choice if you already use other Echo devices.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the tablet managed a runtime of just about 6 hours. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness in an endless loop. You can see that many iPads only last 6 hours, but they have brighter displays – so Amazon’s runtime is not all that good.

However, I was positively surprised by the standby time. It loses almost no power overnight or when it sits unused in your backpack for a day.

Amazon Fire Max 11 Review: Final Words

So, is the Amazon Fire Max 11 a good tablet? Yes, it is, but it depends on what exactly you’re looking for, of course. We get a high-quality design here, a bright display, good performance, and a pretty good optional keyboard cover. It’s also one of very few tablets in this price range with a fingerprint reader.

I wish the battery life was a bit longer, and even though the stylus is okay, the S Pen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is better. If you are specifically looking for a tablet with a stylus, the Samsung is better in my tests.

If you do not care about the pen and are willing to install the Google Play Store yourself, then the Amazon Fire Max 11 is a very good tablet – especially because it’s a good deal cheaper than the Samsung. And the Amazon tablet is especially exciting during days like Prime Day and Black Friday, of course, during which Amazon usually sets a price that is hard to say no to.

Outside of these days, however, it is also worth taking a look at the Lenovo Tab P11 Gen 2. The stylus is worse and it’s not equipped with a fingerprint reader, but it does have a 120 Hz display and Google’s Android, which includes the Play Store by default.