Amazon just announced a new tablet, and it’s probably not what you were expecting. Amazon’s latest foray into the world of Android tablets is the Fire Max 11, and it aims to be far more premium and powerful than any of the company’s previous offerings.
The announcement also comes at an interesting time. Google just opened up pre-orders for the Pixel Tablet, the OnePlus Pad recently debuted to pretty good reviews, and rumors of new Samsung tablets are growing fast. But even with so much going on in the tablet space, the Fire Max 11 looks like it can make a compelling case for itself.
The Fire Max 11 has a few surprising features
There are a few things about the Fire Max 11 that we haven’t seen before on other Fire tablets, the first of which is its aluminum design. All other Fire tablets have opted for cheaper plastic construction, but Amazon went with aluminum for the Fire Max 11. During my virtual briefing, Amazon indeed stressed the durability and lightness of the design, and looking at the tablet in official product images, it looks significantly nicer than something like the Fire 7.
Another standout feature of the Fire Max 11 is its display. The 11-inch LCD screen is the largest Amazon has ever put on a Fire Tablet, eclipsing the 10.1-inch Fire HD 10. Amazon has also upped the resolution to 2000 x 1200 and the refresh rate is 60Hz.
Inside the Fire Max 11 is an octa-core 2.2GHz MediaTek MT8188J processor, which Amazon says is 50% faster than the previous fastest chip used in the Fire Tablet. As for battery life, Amazon claims 14 hours of “mixed use,” which is a longer rating than any other Fire tablet. To charge the Fire Max 11, you get an included USB-C cable and a 9W power adapter in the box, which will fully charge it in about 4.2 hours. If you have a faster charger you want to use, the Fire Max 11 also supports charging speeds of up to 15W for a full charge in 3.5 hours.
And to top it all off, the Fire Max 11 also has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, another first for an Amazon Fire tablet.
Amazon is getting ready with all kinds of accessories
But the tablet itself is only half the story. The Fire Max 11 also comes with two optional accessories: a keyboard case and a stylus.
The keyboard case is similar to Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio for the 10th generation iPad. The back attaches magnetically to the back of the tablet and has an adjustable kickstand to hold it at multiple angles.
The keyboard section locks into the Fire Max 11 using a series of pogo pins and has 15 shortcut keys as well as a trackpad with gesture support. During my briefing, Amazon also stated that the keys have “great travel,” something we’ll be sure to test in our full review.
What about the stylus? It’s an active stylus with over 4,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and can be used to draw, write or simply navigate apps/menus. Amazon also says the stylus supports handwriting recognition, meaning it can turn your handwriting into plain text. There’s a battery in the stylus, and Amazon claims it should last up to six months before you need a new one.
How much does this cost? Less than you might think
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Fire Max 11 is the price. It starts at $230 for a tablet with just 64GB of storage, with an optional upgrade to 128GB (though you can also use the microSD card slot for up to 1TB of expansion).
The keyboard case is available for $90 and the stylus for $365. Alternatively, you can bundle the tablet, keyboard case, and pen and get the whole package for just $330, a savings of about $25.
That’s it indeed a good price, especially compared to some other Android tablets like the $479 OnePlus Pad and the $499 Google Pixel Tablet. We obviously don’t know how performance, battery life, and display quality will hold up in the real world, but at least on paper, the Amazon Fire Max 11 looks like a tempting proposition.
You can pre-order the Fire Max 11 now and it will start shipping next month.
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