I really like the idea of wireless charging but the Qi devices I used left much to be desired. On the Nexus 4, the alignment is critical for it to work at all. The Nexus 5 fixed that issue with magnets but only if you had the official charger, otherwise you were back to trying to precisely align things. Randomly the Nexus 4 would freak out and forget it's charging or rapidly enter and exit charging mode, even on the LG charger. Devices would randomly decide to become hotplates, still haven't figured out what voodoo causes that to happen so I could avoid it. I'm pretty sure every 3rd party or knock off Qi charger I played with was a fire or shock hazard, probably both.

I think until they solve the range, alignment, and random hotplate issues that Qi is not ready for prime time. If they suddenly solve all of those issues I'll be gluing Qi chargers underneath every surface I own.

Ah, you're right. I thought that it was metal from earlier leaks, but it looks like it's polycarbonate.

The press release on that is only two months old. This phone was probably in or near final testing by then, and definitely laid out. Components like this usually take at least six months to start to flow into end devices, because of the lead time required for manufacturing complex devices.