Amazon launches the Fire Max 11, its biggest and most powerful tablet ever

Traditionally, Amazon’s line of Fire tablets have been pretty weak. The specs are almost always years behind the top-of-the-line Android tablets, and the lack of access to the Google Play Store is a big sacrifice.

However, today, the company is launching the Amazon Fire Max 11. While the Play Store is still missing, the specs are better than they’ve ever been. This might be a decent, cheap-ish tablet for the shopper who just wants something to watch shows, browse the web, and maybe play the occasional game.

Obviously, with “11” in the name, the tablet sports an 11-inch display. It comes with the highest resolution of any Amazon tablet at 2,000 x 1,200. Under the hood, it also has the most powerful SoC of any Fire device, being an unnamed 2.2GHz octa-core processor (probably a MediaTek model). Rounding out the specs, it has 4GB of RAM and starts with 64GB of internal storage, a 50% increase over the Fire HD 10 from last year, which starts with 32GB of storage.

On the outside, the tablet sports a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor — the first such sensor on a Fire tablet. There are 8MP cameras (one on the front, one on the back) capable of 1080p recording. Those cameras are a nice upgrade over the 2MP front and 5MP rear sensors on Amazon’s previously most-powerful tablets.

And, being that this is an Amazon product, the Fire Max 11 supports all the Alexa and smart home features you’d expect.

The Fire Max 11 starts at $229, which gets you the 64GB model. Pre-orders are open now, with shipments beginning “next month” (that’s all Amazon would tell us).

There are also some bundles on offer. The Fire Max 11 supports a keyboard folio called a Keyboard Case. It costs $89 on its own. There’s also the Made for Amazon Stylus Pen for $34. If you get the tablet and these two accessories together, you’ll pay $329, which saves you nearly $25 over buying the three items separately.