I purchased one of the first Windows Phone 7 models available, on the first day that Windows Phone devices were first available in November of 2010. I tried to live with not being able to turn my phone off while charging overnight, and did so past my 14 day return period. Ultimately, the lack of such a *basic* feature led me to switch to Android upon me becoming eligible to upgrade my phone on contract one or two years later.
Powering off *should* mean powering *off*......it's just that simple! We can talk about *workarounds* forever, such as:
-Airplane mode (but what about calendar alarms, especially those midnight contacts' birthday alarms, in addition to other locally stored alarms?).
-Silent mode (but there is no *quick* way to put a Windows Phone device in silent mode.....you have to dive into the settings each night and turn off "vibrate" and then turn off "ring." Next, in the morning, don't forget to repeat those steps in reverse, especially if you rely on vibrate mode to feel notifications etc. while the phone is in your pocket).
Bottom line: No good workarounds exists. How about just being able to turn off the phone while charging, like every other cellphone platform in existence (smartphone or dumb-phone). Either that, or explain to us why it is a *desirable* feature to *not* have the choice to keep your phone powered off while charging.
Oversight? Just a simple feature request? Doubtful......the latest Windows Phone devices *still* can not be powered off while charging to this day. I guess this isn't a big enough "bug" (and it is a bug, not a "feature") that enough people care about for Microsoft to have fixed in 3.5 years of the Windows Phone platforms' existence. That is obvious, but there is at least *one* person out there who would love to be using a Windows Phone device, but can't for this reason.