It does prevent that but it also prevents my device from ever being dead because whenever I'm at my desk I just put it on the charger. With the wired chargers in the past it was a paint to plug and unplug so my phone was always low but with the wireless stuff my device is naturally juicy all the time.

I have a Qi charger for my Nexus 5 and I run into this issue sometimes, because eg. I come home and my phone is almost dead but I still want to use it. The solution is pretty easy though, I just unplug the micro USB from my charging pad and plug it directly into my phone if I want to do that. At least when I'm at home I just leave it on the charger most of the time so I don't have to worry about charge.

The charger I have props the phone up at an angle. You can interact with it in a limited sense, but of course if you pick it up you'll take it out of range of the charger. So good for things like swiping to see how many messages you have and so forth, but not for making calls, playing games, etc. But if you do, you just set it back down on the charger when you're done -- no need to fool with a cord, or stay within cord-length.

Seriously, I hate everyone who bought an Android phone instead of a Palm Pre in 2009-2010, because if they did, we would still have the incredible things they came up with. Not only did they have C++/Javascript/HTML as their programming stack and not only did they provide directions on their site on how to root their devices and boot custom kernels over USB, they had wireless charging built in and had a great wireless charging stand that I used on my HP Touchpad for years until it finally gave out. You can have the tablet standing at any angle you want, working on it (boot into Ubuntu with a wireless keyboard, why not? It's a Palm) while it's wirelessly charging.

But no, Google was cool and Palm was old hat, so now they're gone and we are using Java to make apps and charging by laying our phones flat and plugging our tablets into the wall.

Although battery swapping has obvious disadvantages such as requiring a power cycle and fumbling with the battery and a battery cover (as well as your external charger), it certainly beats wired/wireless charging in this aspect in that it provides immediate usage, not tethered to a wire or a charging plate.

I have a couple flat charging plates and on my desk, I use the angled plate [1]. That said, I don't actually use my phone all that much while it's on a charging plate.

But as others have pointed out, when you have wireless charging plates at your home and office, you'll routinely just drop your phone on a plate just as peers will drop theirs on a their desk. You'll find your phone is more often at full charge. I've only fully-drained the battery a handful of times (much use while away from any charging, wires included) and observed it in battery-saver mode another handful.

I would say a wireless-charging device with ample charging plates (say, 3 or 4) gives you a blissful ignorance of battery life. It's analogous to the bliss I had when I drove an electric car—contrary to conventional wisdom I found that electric cars create range bliss rather than range anxiety. Every time you leave your home for the day, the car is at full capacity. You never have to plan a visit to a refilling station. With a wirelessly-charged phone, I scarcely look at my phone's battery indicator; it's just not an issue.

And just to be as clear as possible, you can still connect a traditional micro USB cord to charge these phones if that's all you have handy.

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/accessory/dt-910/

I use the AirDock[0] as a wireless charger. It has a magnet in it that holds the phone at any orientation you desire.

[0]: http://theairdock.com/

Depends on the method, but you can be sure that you're losing at least 10% to inductive/RF losses, and more typically 20%.

Reasonable for a phone, batshit insane for EV charging, which is why Magne Charge never took off. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magne_Charge) 20% of 6 kW for every car, times millions of cars...

When I had a L920, I noticed the charging plate and phone would get really hot, even after the phone is charged to 100%. Through the wire, the heat is minimal like every other phone. So, base on heat dissipation, I would say yes.