Why The iPhone 3GS Doesn’t Need To Shoot HD Video

Since the release of the iPhone 3GS, it’s been dissected, literally to see its specs and the hardware inside. In the process, it’s been reported that the iPhone 3GS has the hardware to support shooting 720p HD videos but Apple decided against it.

We’re going to assume it’s because of the battery factor. It’ll suck up battery faster than we can finish recording an hour of video, the same reason Flash is still not implemented in the Safari browser or so Apple says.

But do we really need an HD video recorder in the iPhone 3GS? Battery life, which has been a major concern on the iPhone, would become a huge factor with HD video capability. Would you trade it in for the ability to record small clips of HD video throughout the day?

I’m not willing to. As much as I love my iPhone 3G, the battery on it still doesn’t last an entire day and I’m not a heavy user. I check my email regularly throughout the day, check out a few websites, send about 10-15 texts, listen to music for about an hour a day (on the train to work and back) and I’m looking at more than half of the battery life gone at around 7pm! Imagine what would happen if there were a HD video feature in the device.

And have we forgotten about storage? Many users were clamoring for more storage in future iPhones and Apple has met those demands, going from 4GB iPhone to a 32 GB iPhone 3GS. But it’s still not going to be enough memory for HD content when you factor in music, movies, applications and data.

For those who have never taken HD video, it’s a memory hog! I own a Creative HD Vado and a 55-minute basketball game took up almost 4 GB of memory not to mention more than half of the battery life.

The tech and gadget community will continue to ask why we don’t have the ability to shoot HD video on the iPhone 3GS but we all need to keep in mind, video was just introduced to the iPhone. Apple never leaps to introduce new features, they gradually implement it. On top of that, I’d rather opt for a fully functional multimedia phone that will last a day with the option to shoot some kind of video. High Definition video is nice and would be great to have in future iPhones once storage capacity is increased and battery life is no longer an issue but right now it’s not necessary.