New Fire Max 11

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

With a little work the device will be able to be jail broke so it can run Google play store.

Jailbreaking/rooting is an entirely different process than just sideloading APKs and is unnecessary for installing the Play Store.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by davedeacon

My Nexus 10 must have.... I just want a little bit of feedback for typing!

It has a real keyboard option. I use a nice BT keyboard on my 10" tablet.

[tomsem]

The Prime Day Deal is in effect (for Prime members only, apparently):

- Tablet only (64/128 GB) $149.99/199.99 (list $229.99/279.99)
- Keyboard bundle (64 GB only?) $239.98 (list $319.98)
- Productivity bundle with keyboard and stylus $249.99/299.99 (list $354.97/404.97)

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-A...dp/B0C1N3YCP3/

Of course the entire lineup is marked down (Fire 7 starts at $39.99).

Almost no point to getting Keyboard bundle as Productivity is only $10 more.

With trade-in of an HD 8 Plus, it's only about $175 for Productivity bundle (and the combined credit is about what a new HD 8 Plus costs on Prime Day).

I am skeptical that it would be a good device to create and edit Notebooks (if and when they add this functionality), but am curious enough to try one out.

I have Fire HD 10 Plus, and have even been reading a little on it lately (I like TTS once in awhile). It's fine, but Fire Max 11 should be more versatile, while nearly the same size and weight, and with somewhat better specs overall.

[Quoth]

Here in Ireland it works out more expensive than a decent laptop with no OS (A Lenovo). About €500 with pen & keyboard without adverts and 64G Flash. However it's moot because none of the usual Amazon marketplaces for Ireland depending on what you are buying (USA, DE, UK) will ship.

I've found Android rubbish (Keyboard only) and iPad (Keyboard & Pencil) poor for content creation compared to a cheap laptop and I also gave away 2 x MS Win10 tablets that had supplied keyboard docks as they were poor compared to XP or Linux even on an old Netbook. Win 10 seems only usable on a high spec laptop or tower PC.

So though initially I thought I might get a Fire 11 bundle I think not. A more expensive iPad might be better value to create content (but tying one it was limited) and an Android at half the price fine for consumption only use.

I'll stick to using my Lenovo skinny laptop or Lenovo android tablet if away from the desk.

I wonder are they rationing the Fire 11 as the current Fire 10 can be purchased from UK or DE to Ireland?

[afv011]

Fire tablets are not much more than a portal for Amazon to sell you stuff, that's why they are fairly cheap, but I personally find that there is too much being shoved down your throat even for the price you pay for the device, so a hard pass for me.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by afv011

Fire tablets are not much more than a portal for Amazon to sell you stuff, that's why they are fairly cheap, but I personally find that there is too much being shoved down your throat even for the price you pay for the device, so a hard pass for me.

I think various Fire HD8s and HD10s are a terrific value, especially when they go on sale. High performance, of course not. But for email, web browsing, video watching they're fine. It's trivial to add the Google Play Store, so you have access to your Android apps and mine all work in a satisfactory manner.

As for "too much being shoved down your throat", surely that's hyperbole? Now me, I'm too cheap to spend $15 to get the lockscreen promotion removed, but I don't even notice what it is, and once past that Amazon's not promoting anything to me unless I go looking for it.

But you do you, as they say.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by issybird

I think various Fire HD8s and HD10s are a terrific value, especially when they go on sale. High performance, of course not. But for email, web browsing, video watching they're fine. It's trivial to add the Google Play Store, so you have access to your Android apps and mine all work in a satisfactory manner.

As for "too much being shoved down your throat", surely that's hyperbole? Now me, I'm too cheap to spend $15 to get the lockscreen promotion removed, but I don't even notice what it is, and once past that Amazon's not promoting anything to me unless I go looking for it.

But you do you, as they say.

I've never paid to remove Lock Screen ads on any of the (too) many Fire tablets I've had. I'm pretty much hard wired to ignore what is there, and rarely get covers so I'm used to having to swipe to wake.

I have virtually no investment in Android apps so it's not worth it for me to install Google Play. I download Firefox from Mozilla.org, Apple Music from apkmirror, and that's about all I want on there.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by issybird

It's trivial to add the Google Play Store, so you have access to your Android apps and mine all work in a satisfactory manner.

I'm not sure I would call it trivial, not difficult yes, but you have to sideload APKs in a specific order to get there, which I would not expect Joe Average to find trivial. I have had no issue doing it on my Fire 10 (which I only got because I needed to test apps I worked on), but the hardware is too limiting and runs slowly; Amazon has always skimped on RAM on these devices and that has a significant impact on performance, probably more than the lacklustre CPUs they use.

[HLS]

you dont need to jail break to add google play. Just google the instructions

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Here in Ireland it works out more expensive than a decent laptop with no OS (A Lenovo). About €500 with pen & keyboard without adverts and 64G Flash. However it's moot because none of the usual Amazon marketplaces for Ireland depending on what you are buying (USA, DE, UK) will ship.

I've found Android rubbish (Keyboard only) and iPad (Keyboard & Pencil) poor for content creation compared to a cheap laptop and I also gave away 2 x MS Win10 tablets that had supplied keyboard docks as they were poor compared to XP or Linux even on an old Netbook. Win 10 seems only usable on a high spec laptop or tower PC.

So though initially I thought I might get a Fire 11 bundle I think not. A more expensive iPad might be better value to create content (but tying one it was limited) and an Android at half the price fine for consumption only use.

I'll stick to using my Lenovo skinny laptop or Lenovo android tablet if away from the desk.

I wonder are they rationing the Fire 11 as the current Fire 10 can be purchased from UK or DE to Ireland?

You have to go really bottom of the barrel to get a poor experience on Windows 11/10. eMMC/HDD storage is probably the only must avoid and the latter is essentially extinct on new machines. These days it's not very hard to find machines in the $300-$400 range with 8-16GB RAM and a PCIe SSD which will give decent results for light usage.

I recently picked up a refurbed Surface Pro X, was thinking about the Fire 11 but they don't sell it here either and no idea when they will. Less than a base model iPad but can do a lot more. Some limitations (but also some pros) because of the ARM CPU but for web browsing, typing, etc. it's pretty great.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by HLS

you dont need to jail break to add google play. Just google the instructions

Not sure if this was meant as a reply to my post, but I didn't suggest you need to jailbreak (or root as is more commonly called on Android), but that the steps are not necessarily trivial.

[tomsem]

The Fire Max 11 I ordered on Tuesday arrived today (I got the bundle with keyboard case & stylus -- 3 separate shipments, the keyboard case hasn't made it here yet).

Just some first impressions.

The form factor and build quality is nice. Bezels are about 2/3 of Fire HD 10, so its slightly larger screen fits a frame only about a 1/2 inch longer and only a bit heavier. Aluminum instead of plastic. The display seems a bit improved. Sound is better.

It quickly updated, and is on FireOS 8.3.1.9 (Fire HD 10 is 7.3.2.8). It has Dark theme as option (scheduling option as well), I guess apps can adapt to this system setting.

Of course this has Pen & Handwriting settings: Hover indicator option, Stroke width/color, preferred languages.

The handwriting recognition works pretty well, and while the stylus doesn't have the sexy feel of writing on Scribe, it is not half bad, and maybe feels a little better than (unmodified) Apple Pencil.

The problem is finding apps to use it with. I tried a couple of featured drawing apps and yuck. Did not seem to support pressure sensitivity, and one of them would not generate lines until you lifted the stylus for certain strokes. Very weird.

I tried a few things with Microsoft OneNote and stylus didn't work too well with it: wouldn't let me handwrite the Title, and I had to first start a text note before I could switch to the stylus and try handwriting to text. And the gestures to erase and edit didn't work correctly. I want to compare with OneNote with Apple Pencil on iPad, something I have not used a lot.

I sure hope they add Notebooks app (compatible with Scribe).

Comparing the Kindle app is interesting. The Max seems to have a slightly older version 14.81.100, vs 14.81.160 on Fire HD 10, even after checking for updates. The text sizes seem to be one notch larger on the Max, even though the DPI is nearly identical (and same number of pixels on the short dimension: 1200). So 3 on Max is about the same as 4 on HD 10. But it fits a few extra characters per line. And of course (in portrait) there is an extra inch so there are 3-4 more lines of text (minimum line spacing).

The cameras are much better also but doubt I'll have any reason to use them.

I'm beginning to think I might want to put Google Play on here at some point. But no urgency.

More tomorrow after I get the keyboard case.

[salamanderjuice]

ArtRage Vitae in the Amazon App Store is a good drawing/painting app and should support pen pressure so long the device/pen itself does.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I'm beginning to think I might want to put Google Play on here at some point. But no urgency.

I'm interested to read how you get on with enabling Google Play.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm interested to read how you get on with enabling Google Play.

I am guessing that setting up Max would be the same as Fire 7 (12th Gen) in this article, as it is also running Fire OS 8. It requires an additional step to enable Google Play Store.

https://www.howtogeek.com/232726/how...n-fire-tablet/

But I'll probably wait until there's some more confirmation.