Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsWORST COMPUTING DEVICE I HAVE EVER OWNED. DO NOT BUY.
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024
BACKGROUND: I have worked in Information Systems for decades (as a help desk analyst, business analyst, technical analyst, developer, project manager, etc.). I have owned varieties of desktops, laptops, peripherals, smart phones, iPhones, etc. This Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet is absolutely the worst computing device I have ever owned. It's too late to return it, so I'm considering selling it for $50 just to get it out of the house.
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THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS ARE DOCUMENTED BY OTHER FIRE MAX USERS (...just Google it):
A. Applications simply shut down, for no reason, without notice, after five to ten minutes of use (e.g., MS Word, YouTube, etc.).
B. Doesn't remember settings from one startup to the next.
C. In many soft or hard device re-starts, the Fire Max 11 tells me the Sandisk SD Card I added for extra storage is not recognized and has to be re-inserted. A reboot causes this "tablet" to forget the problem. The issue is not that I have to re-insert the Sandisk SD card. The issue is that the Fire Max inconsistently does or does not recognize the Sandisk SD card. Sandisk SD cards are high-quality storage devices. I do not have this problem with Sandisk SD cards that I use in my Fujifilm cameras, audio devices, or other laptops.
D. File Management utility has very poor functionality. Intuitive right-click functionality is not available to move files around, copy/paste files. Cannot rename files.
E. Downloaded/installed Amazon's "Notepad" utility, which is a joke.
F. "Silk" Browser lacks important and useful functionality that can be found on ALL browser utilities for over twenty years (e.g., bookmark management, font size, available settings or setting retention, color choices, etc.)
G. Silk Browser offers ZERO options to adjust font size or Zoom the objects in the screen...features that ARE available in other browsers. The ONLY option provided by Silk is the "Pinch-Zoom" which truncates all content on the right or left of the window in use. Compare this with any browser on a laptop computer, where the +/- Zoom enables objects to be zoomed...but the content still remains INSIDE the physical screen of the laptop.
H. No good browsers are available to install on this Fire Max 11 tablet (e.g., Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.) You are stuck with Silk as your only browser option.
I. Installed MS Word software functionality is incomplete, when compared with modern word processing tools. But you cannot use the "Wordperfect" option that the Fire Max 11 repeatedly offers, because of errors on attempting the install.
J. Just saving a Word document of simple text is a struggle. The ability to CTRL/A highlight the text in the file, to then set all the text to the same font type and size....is NOT A FUNCTION THAT IS AVAILABLE.
K. Almost ZERO third-party software utilities exist to download and install on this "tablet". Compare this with other brands of tablets where good third-party software is available.
L. Weird error messages pop-up in almost every session, about some already installed utility being too new or too old for the version of Android on the device. What is causing all these weird, random, out of context error messages?
M. In conclusion, I wasted $200 on this Amazon Fire Max 11 piece of junk. I will sell it for $50, just so I can stop looking at it. Do not make my mistake. Go check out Google or Microsoft or Apple tablets. I love Amazon, but Amazon needs to leave tablet manufacturing to companies that have a history of tablet manufacturing.
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