How to keep text and icons at normal size but use tablet mode? Just rooted my tablet the other day. Running Android 4.1.1. This is stock Android except for a different launcher.

My tablet's resolution is 1280x800. It was running with a density of 213 for several years. Recently I wanted to try tablet mode, so I shrank it to 170.

I'm perfectly happy with this setup, but would like to know if it is possible to make the icons on the launcher (and other text) the original size, while forcing the UI to tablet mode.
Get rooted, install Xposed framework and then this module called App Settings. Lets you tweak density, font size and a bunch of other properties on a per-app basis.

Disclaimer: rooting and using Xposed comes with their own risks and it's your own responsibility to do backups.