Even more reason to get excited for iOS 5: 1080p HD video playback looks to be coming to iPad 2, iPhone 4, and quite likely Apple TV 2. Technically at least, any iOS hardware that is physically capable of playing the 1920×1080 movies could be getting 1080p playback support in the Fall.

If you’re wondering why 1080p playback matters on small screens like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, consider iOS 5’s AirPlay video mirroring feature. Although this is said to be an iPad 2 only option, this would create an HD capable wireless media center out of nearly all the iOS devices if the feature becomes widely adopted. You can see AirPlay video mirroring from an iPad 2 to an Apple TV2 on our list of videos of iOS 5 features.

The screenshot above shows 1080p playback on an iPad 2, and 9to5mac says “playback is very smooth and looks great“.

Yet another reason the public iOS 5 release date can’t come soon enough.