What method does VZW use to arrive at the talk/standby ratings that they
do for phones? My VX8300, with slight-modest usage, gets about 96 hours
of standby time. That is way less than the rated standby time so I have
been somewhat curious as to how they arrive at their rather optimistic
numbers.

Does turning off EV-DO and setting 1X only make any real difference (I
only want to talk, not use data or other bells/whistles). I have set 5
sec. for display, medium volume levels, etc. so I'm curious how these
ratings are arrived at.