17: Chapter 17 Buying a Computer

After leaving the mall, Chen Fan fiddled with his new phone as he walked, but he quickly lost interest.

Mobile phones in this era were far inferior compared to the smartphones of more than a decade later.

No touchscreens, no app stores, no WeChat, no short videos, and even a decent browser was painfully slow.

The only things he could do were make calls, send texts, and browse WAP pages—and he still had to get a SIM card first.

Furthermore, without a card installed, the phone had no network, so Chen Fan had to go to a service center to get one.

For the card, Chen Fan definitely chose China Mobile, as it was the carrier with the best signal.

However, where was there a China Mobile service center nearby?

There were no Amap or Baidu Maps at this time.

Chen Fan thought for a moment, turned around, and went back into the mall.

Walking to the first-floor service desk, he saw a girl in uniform with her head down, playing on her phone.

"Hello, may I ask, is there a China Mobile service center nearby?"

The girl looked up and thought for a moment: "Go forward to the intersection and turn right. Walk for about five or six minutes, and there's a China Mobile service center. It's quite big."

"Thanks."

Chen Fan turned and walked out.

Following the direction the girl had pointed, Chen Fan quickly found the China Mobile service center.

The storefront was not small, and the glass doors were plastered with various plan advertisements: M-Zone, Easy Own, GoTone... It was colorful and dazzling to the eyes.

Chen Fan pushed the door open and entered.

There weren't many people in the service center, with three or five people lined up in front of a few windows.

The air conditioning was on full blast, making it warm and cozy, a stark contrast to the cold wind outside.

A lobby manager in uniform walked up and asked with a smile: "Hello, what business are you here for?"

"I want to get a SIM card."

"A new subscription, right? Take a number and wait in line over here."

Chen Fan pressed the button on the queue machine, which spit out a slip of paper: there were 3 people ahead of him.

He found an empty seat, took out his newly purchased E63, and started fiddling with it again.

Although he had thought it wasn't very fun just a moment ago, he couldn't help but open the menu and browse while waiting.

He checked the calendar function, tested the alarm clock, and went into the settings to adjust the brightness.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the announcement called his number.

Chen Fan walked to the window and sat down.

Inside was a girl in her twenties, wearing a blue uniform with her hair tied up neatly.

"Hello, what business are you here for?"

"I want to get a new card, a new subscription."

"Okay, did you bring your ID card?"

Chen Fan took his ID card out of his pocket and handed it in.

The girl took it, swiped it on the machine, and then stared at the screen, typing away rapidly.

After a few seconds, she looked up: "A student?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to choose a plan? We have M-Zone, which is specifically for students; it has many texts and cheap internet. This one is 10 yuan for 200 texts, 20 yuan for 500, and 30 yuan for 800. For internet, we have 5 yuan for 30MB, 10 yuan for 80MB, 20 yuan for 150MB, and there's also a 30 yuan for 300MB option—"

Chen Fan interrupted her: "Do you have anything more expensive?"

The girl was stunned for a moment and looked up at him.

"More expensive?" She repeated, a bit unsure, "You mean... the plan?"

"Yes."

The girl looked down and flipped through some materials, then reported a figure: "The most expensive M-Zone plan is 68 yuan, which includes 1000 texts, 500MB of data, and 30 minutes of talk time. Anything higher than that would be a GoTone plan; the lowest one is 89, but it's not very suitable for students—"

"I'll take that one."

The girl was stunned again and confirmed: "The 68 one?"

"Yeah."

The girl glanced at him, her eyes showing a bit of surprise—perhaps she hadn't seen a student ask for the most expensive plan right off the bat.

However, she didn't ask any more questions and lowered her head to start operating the computer.

"You need to pre-deposit 100 yuan for airtime, plus 10 yuan for the card fee, totaling 110."

Chen Fan took 110 yuan out of his pocket and handed it in.

The girl took it, counted it, then took a SIM card out of a drawer, opened the packaging, and pushed it over along with a form.

"Sign here."

Chen Fan finished signing and pushed the form back.

The girl handed the SIM card and ID card out together: "The card will work once you put it in. Activation might take a few minutes, just restart it."

Chen Fan took the card, put his ID away, and got up to walk to the rest area on the side.

He turned off his phone, opened the back cover, inserted the small SIM card, put the battery back in, and turned it on again.

The screen lit up, and after a few seconds, the signal appeared in the top left corner.

He checked the time, 1:30 PM, and looked at the time hanging in the lobby; they matched.

He didn't expect that phones in this era could already connect to the network to automatically calibrate the time.

After leaving the China Mobile service center, Chen Fan didn't return to his rented apartment but instead went to the only Lenovo computer specialty store in the county.

He planned to buy a laptop.

With a computer, he wouldn't need to keep running to the internet cafe.

He had considered many computer brands, but ultimately chose Lenovo.

Although Lenovo really did some questionable things—later on, high price for low specs, the "American conscience" label, and treating domestic and foreign markets differently; there were enough grievances to write a book.

But it had to be said that in this era, you couldn't avoid Lenovo when buying a computer.

Lenovo computers were truly competitive in this era, and their price-performance ratio was among the best at the same price point.

As for the model he wanted to buy, he had already decided: the Lenovo Y450.

Entering the Lenovo specialty store, Chen Fan directly stated his purpose to the clerk.

"I want a Lenovo Y450."

Seeing Chen Fan's student appearance, the clerk was initially a bit skeptical of his purchasing power, but after seeing the Nokia N63 in Chen Fan's hand, his expression immediately changed.

"The Y450, right? Yes, yes, we have it, T4200 configuration, 4999. Do you want black or white?"

"Black is fine."

The clerk nodded, placed the box on the counter, and turned to get a display unit from the shelf: "Take a look at the appearance first, and if there are no issues, I'll help you unbox it."

Chen Fan took the display unit and lifted the lid to take a look.

The black casing with orange trim looked even better in person than in the photos.

The keyboard felt decent, and the screen was big enough.

"Can I turn it on to try it?"

"Sure, just a moment." The clerk plugged in the power and pressed the power button.

The screen lit up, and the Windows XP startup screen flashed by.

Chen Fan clicked a few things, and it responded quite quickly without any lagging.

"I'll take this one. How much is it?"

"4999."

"Can it be cheaper?"

"4999 is already the lowest price. This model sells hot, and the profit margin is already thin."

The young clerk paused and added, "If you really want it, I can throw in a mouse for you."

Chen Fan pondered for a moment and looked at the young clerk.

"Do you have an 8GB USB flash drive?"

"Yes, Kingston, 80 yuan each."

"Throw in a USB drive too, and if that's okay, I'll buy it."

The clerk thought for a moment, then pretended to be conflicted, "Alright, I'll throw in a USB drive."

"Good. Do you have keyboards in your store?"

"Brother, even the cheapest keyboard is over 50 yuan. I really can't give that away for free!"

The young clerk was truly anxious this time.

"I didn't say for free, I'll buy it together."

Hearing that Chen Fan wanted to buy it, the young clerk immediately regained his smile and immediately started recommending keyboards to Chen Fan.

Half an hour later, Chen Fan walked out of the Lenovo computer store carrying a few bags.

He spent a total of 5328 yuan. Computer + mouse + laptop bag + 8GB USB drive for 4999.

A Logitech K350 keyboard for 329 yuan.

Actually, Chen Fan wanted to buy a mechanical keyboard; after all, for typing, a blue-switch mechanical keyboard was the most comfortable.

Unfortunately, you couldn't buy one in this county in this era.

Even the guy at the Lenovo store didn't even know the concept of a mechanical keyboard, unlike more than a decade later, when even a primary school student would know what a mechanical keyboard is.

He would just have to wait for a chance to go to the city later and take a look then.