Why are tablets 600px when they know it doesn't work well for web

[potatoho]

I think that once you spend some time with a tablet and web browsing you discover that 600 pixels wide in portrait mode is not a good experience. So my question is, why the heck do they keep making them like that? Isn't it obvious to them that either the font is so small and choppy at 600px, or you have to scroll horizontally.

I suppose it may be possible to use better font technology, but they haven't yet, and it just seems terrible to me. It's forgivable on a phone to have to use landscape, and a phone is light enough to not matter one way or the other.

 

[jerrykur]

It strikes me that Google designed Honeycomb to be used in landscape mode. When held that way the Xoom is 1280 X 800.

 

[potatoho]

800 is probably enough to read a page in overview mode. 600 isn't though, at least with the current fonts.

I dunno, I just have a real aversion to landscape when reading the web.

 

[E_man]

I read in portrait all the time on my nook, which is 600px. Try using something like dolphin mini. Pinch to zoom in till the font looks good, double tap, and the text reflows to fit your zoom level.

 

[potatoho]

I read in portrait all the time on my nook, which is 600px. Try using something like dolphin mini. Pinch to zoom in till the font looks good, double tap, and the text reflows to fit your zoom level.

I know, but I mean readability with a straight overview and no zooming or horizontal pan. Say a page like finance.yahoo.com (desktop mode). I think 768px is about the minimum readable width but can't say for sure. I run my monitor in portrait which is 1024px and it is great.