Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case is the first keyboard case with the Amazon brand on it. The unique design and special keyboard features make the accessory very impressive, although it is not cheap at $89.99.
This Fire tablet guide explains everything you need to know about the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case to help you decide whether it is for you or not. The guide also shows you how to use and customize Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case and its unique features.
The Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case is for Fire Max 11 only. Although the keyboard piece is removable, you cannot use the keyboard on any other devices because it is NOT a Bluetooth keyboard.
Amazon Fire Max 11 is the first “premium” Fire tablet from Amazon after discontinuing the Fire HDX series long ago, although there are some missing features of the Fire Max 11.
So, Amazon packed some unique features and upgrades into Fire Max 11: both the tablet itself and the accessories. For example, the active pen was introduced. And the USI 2.0 pen can now also be used in the recently released Fire HD 10 2023 (13th Gen). The Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case is the first keyboard case made “by” Amazon.
The first “official” keyboard case for Fire tablet is the official keyboard case for Fire HD 10 2021 (11th Gen). But it was made “for” Amazon by Fintie. This means Amazon's involvement in the keyboard case's design is minimal. Actually, it is a generic Fintie design for various devices with 15 special keys for Fire tablets.
In contrast, the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case is made “by” Amazon. This means the Amazon Fire tablet team designed the keyboard case. This makes it possible to integrate some special features with the tablet seamlessly. Here are 4 of the unique features of the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case.
The keyboard connects to the tablet through the magnetic Pogo pins connector. The benefits include:
Of course, there is one disadvantage of using the Pogo pins connector. The keyboard can only be used for this specific model of tablet. Unlike Bluetooth keyboard, you can pair it with any other device.
Surprisingly, Amazon managed to integrate a decent trackpad into the keyboard. We usually see the trackpad on the keyboard for devices with a 13″ or larger screen.
Once you get used to the trackpad, it could be more useful and faster than an additional mouse for most tasks on a tablet.
Some frequently used gestures are supported. For example, you can use the pinch-to-zoom gesture, two-finger scrolling gesture, and task-switching gesture on Fire Max 11 easily.
Similar to the official wireless keyboard for Amazon Fire HD 10 2021 (11th Gen), there are 15 shortcut keys on the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case. Two of them (Files and Emails) are customizable.
The 2-piece design makes it very easy to remove the keyboard from the back cover when you do need the keyboard.
The back piece is attached to the tablet through magnetic without using any bulky plastic shells. You can flip the bottom part of the back cover to make it an integrated stand. The viewing angle is adjusted by how much “flipping” you applied. Like other this type of back covers, the stand works well on your desk, not on your lap, when you slouch on the sofa.
The stand works only in the landscape orientation.
As mentioned earlier, the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case adopted a 2-piece design. So, you can detach these two pieces:
As shown in the illustration below, the front piece (which covers the screen) is the keyboard.
The following items can be found:
The two alignment tabs should be inserted into two holes at the bottom of the Fire Max 11 tablet, as shown in the illustration below. Once the two tabs are positioned properly, the Pogo connectors will connect to the metal part (connectors) automatically.
The back cover consists of:
The camera cutout can be used to help you position the back cover properly.
The hinge divides this piece into two sections. The top part (with the camera cutout) is always attached to the tablet by magnetic. The kickstand part can be flipped along the hinge freely within a certain range to create different viewing angles. When the kickstand is close to the tablet, the hinge will force it to attach to the tablet.
Because the hinge is fixed, you cannot use the kickstand feature in the portrait orientation.
Thanks to the magnetic force, It is extremely easy to attach the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case to the tablet by the following 3 steps.
You just need to align the camera cutout with the rear camera on the tablet, the back cover should be attached to the tablet immediately.
To attach the keyboard to the tablet, you just need to pay attention to the location of the tab and hole. The magnetic force will do the rest.
It is not necessary to preciously point the tab to the hole. The directional magnetic force will help you position it properly.
Now, you can adjust the viewing angle for the tablet.
As shown in the illustration below, you can put one hand on the top part, then use the other hand to flip the kickstand.
Remember if the kickstand is too close to the tablet, the hinge will move it back to the tablet automatically. So, you need to flip it to the position so that it will not move back to the tablet.
Once the kickstand is enabled, you can use one hand to adjust the viewing angle, as shown below.
You need to pay attention to the limit of the hinge. The kickstand can move up to perpendicular to the back of the tablet. This means the maximum viewing angle is about 135 degrees.
The keyboard layout is shown in the picture below.
There are a total of 15 special shortcut keys. 14 of them are located in the top row. The Email shortcut key is located in the last row between the Control key and the Alt key.
The special keys are identical to those on the official Bluetooth keyboard for Fire HD 10 2021 (11th Gen). Please check this guide on the meaning and usage of the 15 special keys on the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case.
The trackpad is located at the bottom.
By default, the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case works out of the box. You can use it immediately once you connect it to the tablet.
However, sometimes, you may want to customize or tweak the keyboard. You can do this in the Fire Max 11 Settings.
As shown in the screenshot below, you can find a dedicated entry of Fire Tablet Accessories for you to configure and customize the “official” accessories, including the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case and Amazon stylus pen for Fire Max 11.
Tap Fire Tablet Accessories on the Settings page to access the accessories settings page, as shown below.
Only the official accessories, including Made for Amazon or Made by Amazon, are listed here. Third-party accessories do not have a dedicated entry for them on the Settings page. Some third-party accessories have their own apps for you to manage and customize them. Some may appear as a connected Bluetooth device, and you can manage them there.
For Fire Max 11, currently, there are only two official accessories:
For the Fire Max 11 keyboard case, the back cover has no software-related features. So, you can see the Physical Keyboard entry.
Please note if you detach the keyboard from the tablet, the Physical Keyboard entry will not show up.
Tap Physical Keyboard to configure and customize the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case.
As shown in the screenshot below, you can customize the following 10 features of the keyboard:
We now go through them one by one.
On the top row of the keyboard, as shown earlier, there is a Files button (Files Shortcut Key). By default, if you press this key, the Files app (from Amazon) opens.
However, you can customize this key to any apps installed on the tablet. It is not limited by file manager apps.
Normally, you customize this key to one of the frequently used apps. It can considerably save you time.
By default, the Email Shortcut Key lets you open the built-in Email app.
However, you can customize it to other email apps installed on the tablet.
For example, as shown in the screenshot below, you can change it to GMail after you sideload the app to Fire Max 11.
Please note this key can only be assigned to an Email app, not other types of app.
Multi-language input is usually painful on Fire tablets. The problem is even worse with an external physical keyboard.
Anyway, if your main language is not English, you can change the keyboard layout to your language by tapping Set up keyboard layouts, as shown in the screenshot below.
By default, when the Fire Max 11 Keyboard Case or a third-party physical keyboard is connected to the Fire Max 11, the on-screen virtual keyboard will not show up.
You can overwrite this by making the on-screen keyboard always available when input is required.
This is especially useful for users who need to input text with mixed languages. In this case, you can use the on-screen keyboard to make language switching slightly easier. If you have an active stylus for Fire Max 11, you can use handwriting to text (which recognizes more than one language neurotically) to complement the physical keyboard.
In addition to the 15 special keys (shortcut keys), the Fire Max 11 Keyboard case also supports other shortcuts.
The keyboard shortcuts are organized in three categories:
Under the system category, as shown in the screenshot below, there are 5 shortcuts for:
Under shortcut keys, as shown in the screenshot below, there are 15 special keys for Home, Push to talk to Alexa, Back, Search, Open Files, Decrease display brightness, Increase display brightness, Skip backward in media apps, Play/pause in media app, Volume down, Volume up, Go to Lock screen, Open Silk browser, Launch Email app.
Among these 15 shortcut keys (special keys), as mentioned earlier, only two of them (Email and Files) can be customized. The Silk browser key cannot be customized to Chrome or other browsers.
Under the Word Processing group, as shown in the screenshot below, the Fire Max 11 Keyboard case supports the following 16 shortcuts:
In addition to navigation round with the trackpad, Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case supports the following 6 trackpad gestures:
If you want, you can disable the trackpad here.
You can also disable or enable the trackpad with the Fn + Tab shortcut on the keyboard.
You can use the slider, as shown below, to adjust the speed of the pointer to meet your needs.
Tap to click allows you to register a click by tapping on the trackpad. The click gesture needs a bit more force to register. So, enabling the Tap to click can reduce the fatigue of your fingers.
Tap while typing allows you to use the trackpad when typing.
Although the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case offers many unique features and may improve your productivity and experience, there are a few shortcomings of the case, including:
Please let us know in the comment box below if you have any questions about or need help with the Amazon Fire Max 11 keyboard case.
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This post was last modified on November 3, 2023 10:47 am
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View Comments
The virtual keyboard has a microphone icon for speech to text input. There is not one on the physical keyboard. Is there a work around to bind a key for speech to text input when using the physical keyboard?
As I know, there is no way to launch the voice typing without loading the virtual keyboard.
You can show the virtual keyboard temporally by tapping the keybaord icon in the navigation bar. Then access the voice typing. You need to manually turn off show virtual keyboard if you do not want to see it again.
Great article, thanks. Do you know of any way to type a special character on this keyboard? I write in German for a course and need to use Umlauts but I cant find a way
There are a few solutions depending on your situation. For example:
1. Add German keyboard layout for the keyboard in Settings -- Fire tablet accessories--Physical keyboard --Fire Max 11 Keyboard Case -- Set up keyboard layout, enable German. You can then switch between the default US English layout and the German keyboard layout on the fly .
2. Copy-paste if you only need it occasionally. You can save special charters (Unicode) in your notebook. Then, copy and paste when needed. You may also install the Unicode Pad app from the Google Play Store to help you (you need to sideload the Play Store on the tablet).
Do you know of a way to type a special character? I'm doing a German language course and need to be able to type an Umlaut
Hello,
First of all Thank you so much for this article and explaining everything in detail.
Unfortunately on my boyfriends new keyboard the keys 'e' and 'n' don't work at all. Is there maybe a possibility to solve this problem? It seems a bit weird that it doesn't work properly...
It sounds like keyboard layout mapping issue. You can try to:
1). Set the language to English (US)
2). In Settings -- Fire tablet accessories -- Physical keyboard -- Fire Max 11 Keyboard case v6.x.y, then choose keyboard layout as English (US) Fire Keyboard layout.
I use F2 function key in my work system to add notes in an account. Does this keyboard allow me to use the F2 key?
This keyboard does not have a row of F keys. The Fn key is for enabling/disabling the touchpad, entering the split-screen mode, page down/up.
Some other Bluetooth keyboards may have a row of Fn keys. But the function of the F keys depends on your app. Android OS itself does not define functions for such keys.