Charging rates
Quote: 'That does make for slower charging, as the amount of power allowed by the standard limits how quickly you can recharge a handset'
You would have hoped they'd have taken that into account, because charging rate is only really an issue if the phones plugged into another device, such as a PC. i.e. pulling the power via the USB controller.
If it's plugged directly into a power socket, then current drain via USB isn't really relevant as it's not actually going via a USB controller anywhere.
My current phone uses a plug in brick that has a standard USB socket on the bottom, so any standard USB lead will plug into it. Handy for charging my phone, MP3 player and my XBox 360 controller :-) The phone charges in about an hour from flat.