![]() ![]() It looks and feels nicer, sounds better and has a good fingerprint scanner in the power button – a first for an Amazon tablet.īut with those improvements comes greater cost and greater expectations. The Fire Max 11 is the best tablet Amazon has made. The Fire Max 11 costs £249.99 ($229.99) with 64GB of storage with ads on the lockscreen, which cost £10 ($15) to remove.įor comparison, the Fire HD 10 starts at £149.99, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 costs £199, the ninth-gen Apple iPad costs £369 and the 10th-gen iPad starts at £499. The company offers trade-in and recycling schemes and publishes information on its various sustainability efforts. The device contains 55% recycled aluminium and 34% recycled plastic. The company will provide a 15% discount on replacement units for returned devices, which are then repaired, refurbished, reused or recycled depending on their condition. However, consumers can’t get the device repaired by Amazon out of warranty. The battery is rated for at least 500 full charge cycles. The Fire Max 11 will receive software and security updates for at least four years after it is last available new from Amazon. The smooth aluminium body looks and feels far superior to other hard plastic Fire tablets. Operating system: Fire OS 8 based on Android 11Ĭonnectivity: Wifi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C But there are also mountains of poor quality clones or rubbish packed with ads and in-app purchases. There are a few high-quality, big-name titles available, such as Minecraft, Stardew Valley and Asphalt 9. The app store is also fairly weak for games. Chrome on Android and Safari on an iPad offer this, so there’s no excuse for Amazon. You also can’t have two Silk windows open side by side, which means if you are working in two web apps you can’t have them split-screen. A bigger problem is Silk isn’t supported by some, which refuse to run and demand you install Chrome, Firefox or Safari, such as Google Chat or Meet. ![]() Most web apps worked fine but more complex tools had bits that just didn’t work. You can use web apps instead but Amazon’s Silk browser is the only option on the tablet. There aren’t any banking apps, two-factor apps or password managers, which makes logging in to things a faff.įire Max 11’s keyboard and kickstand accessories look the part but can’t help with the software inadequacies. Chat apps are few on the ground, with no Slack or WhatsApp. Almost every app I use for work or personal productivity is not available, including Evernote and similar tools. There’s no Amazon note-taking or drawing app for the stylus and few options in the store. The included mail app is extremely basic and doesn’t support business Gmail accounts. Fire OS has solid support from Microsoft with Office, Teams, Outlook and a few others available but if you don’t work within Microsoft’s ecosystem things get tricky. While Amazon’s store has most of the video streaming services you would want apart from Paramount+, it simply isn’t the case for productivity apps. As is the case with all Fire tablets, it has no official access to the Google Play Store or the firm’s apps. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardianīut it is Amazon’s app store that really lets the Max 11 down. The home screen doesn’t support widgets or gesture navigation, relying on rather retro touchscreen buttons to get around.īasic split-screen apps are all Fire OS can manage, here with the Microsoft Office app on the left and Evernote in Silk on the right. You can do basic split-screen multitasking using the recent apps menu but is has no ability to have free-floating windows and there’s no app dock or taskbar, or any of the now-standard things on competitors aimed at productivity. The Max 11 runs the same Fire OS 8 based on Android 11 as other recent Fire tablets. It is responsive on-screen and magnetically attaches to the side of the tablet when not in use. The kickstand struggles to hold it steady while typing on your lap but is fine on a desk. You also can’t click and drag like you might on a desktop to select text, which is annoying. ![]() ![]() The £90 ($90) keyboard is solid but the trackpad is a bit too sticky, meaning your finger skips when trying to scroll or point. The accessories are generally fine for the money. Here is where things really start to fall apart. This is a problem for Amazon as it is pitching the Max 11 as a productivity machine offering keyboard and stylus accessories to turn it into a laptop surrogate. But it is not as well suited to using apps and the browser than the squarer ratio used by an iPad and others. The screen is wide and short, which fits films and TV shows perfectly. The Fire Max 11 has a decent fingerprint scanner in the power button, which is a first for an Amazon tablet. ![]()
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