A disk drive provides increased read and write element widths and tolerances, and also provides reduced track widths. The head with the read and write elements has a large skew angle relative to the tracks on the disk. The skew angle reduces the effective width of the read and write elements. Based on this reduction in effective width, the physical width of the read and write elements may be increased. Furthermore, the width of the tracks may be reduced instead of, or in addition to, the increased read and write element width.