When I first got the Amazon Fire Max 11, I wanted to throw it out a window. I walked away for a minute and tried some other things. Now I love it.
Note: My Amazon Fire Max 11 had a hardware problem that contributed to a few of these problems. Still, it was good enough that I was dreading being without it while I waited for a replacement. The way Amazon handled my return was to give me a refund once I shipped it back. I filled out the return form and then purchased a new one so that I didn’t have to wait. Based on how much better the new one works the palm recognition was also effected by the hardware defect.
Here’s an overview of the con’s I noticed early on.
This is going to read like a laundry list of complaints. I wrote it when I was still angry. Despite these flaws, I really love the device.
I bought the Amazon Fire Max 11 in early March 2024. My primary use case was as a digital notebook and my secondary was as an ebook reader. It became clear within a few hours that the Fire Max 11 wasn’t going to work for me — or so I thought.
I was so excited for the device to arrive. I checked my orders and the shipping tab about a million times in anticipation.
When it arrived something felt “off”. The package was badly scuffed and the box seal was bubbled. I wondered if someone else had used the unit or if it had been repackaged. Looking closer, it looked like it had just been assembled quickly. So, I cracked it open.
Inside the packaging felt pretty similar. The brick had a brown paper cover on it and the Fire was just otherwise wrapped and packaged in a way that felt repackaged. Not obviously so, but a little. Then I got to the instruction page and the SD card removal tool was missing. It was clear it had been there, but it was no longer, it was also nowhere else in the package. Someone probably had opened this unit. I was disappointed that it felt “used” but I marshaled on. Interestingly, the new unit was packaged better but the SD card removal tool was also missing from the instructions. This time the tool was floating around elsewhere in the package.
It didn’t recognize my fingerprints even though I added three fingers. I even added one finger in multiple directions. But, for whatever reason, I press the button in ways that cause it to ask for my password constantly.
It didn’t support Google Keep out of the box and I had settled on Google Keep as my note tool of choice. I wasn’t completely married to it, but I was strongly favoring it at this point. I knew this coming in, but I had manually installed APK’s on my old Kindle Fire. I also found some resources online that talked about installing Google Play on the Amazon Fire Max 11. So, I was pretty confident I could make this work, and I did get it to work, but it took more than two hours to get there.
I installed Google Keep first, and it displayed an error stating that it couldn’t be run without Google Play Services. Bummer, I hoped to just run Keep, but the Play Store would help me keep everything else up to date, so I buckled down and installed all of it.
I’ve since removed Google Play and Google Keep. I find the web version works just fine. The only thing I really miss is the ability to bookmark a web page as an icon on my home screen.
Microsoft 360 and OneNote, the default note app, takes a bunch of clicks to get to the note taking page. You have to create a new note, then switch to the drawing tab, then select your pen, then select your background. As far as I can tell I can’t set these options as defaults. That’s seven clicks before I’m ready to write. This has become a non-issue for me since I found the Squid App.
Finally, it’s a little bit awkwardly sized, more like a theater screen—very tall. I didn’t think this would be a problem, but I often find myself holding it from the bottom. This causes it to pull down heavily from the top, especially when I’m writing. This is a double-edged sword because the device is metal and feels substantial, which makes it feel valuable, but I actually prefer the lighter plastic Kindle devices when I’m holding them for a long time. Over time I’ve gotten more and more used to the weight of this device and it bothers me less.
You might be asking yourself why I’m still bothering with the device at all. The simple answer is that I do love writing on the Amazon Fire Max 11.
I think I’d also like to try the Amazon Kindle Scribe but I’ve stopped short of doing that because I’m worried about how well the writing works. It’s also a little more expensive. But, as much as I use the Fire, I think the e-ink display would be better for my eyes. For now it’s on my wish list.
I’m also curious how the Amazon Fire HD 10 compares. This is a less expensive model that also supports the stylus. It might be lighter because of it’s slightly smaller size.
Written by Joel Dare on March 19, 2024 and last updated March 28, 2024.