SHANGHAI, Sep. 1 -- UNIVERSITY freshmen are waving goodbye to traditional study and entertainment methods.

Instead they are bringing to their campus life a variety of modern electronic devices - all expensive, of course.

Local universities began freshmen registration this week and officials said they saw most students arrive for registration with at least one of the e-devices - laptops, cell phones, mp3 or mp4 players, digital cameras and portable multimedia entertainment devices.

"Almost everybody is equipped with a cell phone as well as an mp3 player," said Luo Qian, a freshman instructor at Fudan University, after more than 3,000 freshmen completed their registration and settled into campus life last Sunday.

These two items seem to have replaced the once popular electronic dictionary and Walkman and are now the most common items carried by university students, officials said.

Laptop users are also mushrooming on campuses, as a growing number of assignments have to be completed online, students said.

"I was told that it would save a lot of trouble to have a computer of my own," said Fang Yi, a student at Donghua University. "Since it's inconvenient to install a new computer in the dorm, my dad chose to buy me a laptop, which is not so expensive now."

Despite dropping prices, the complete set of electronic devices - including a laptop, cell phone, mp3, digital camera and a multimedia game machine such as Sony Play Station Portable - will cost more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,325).

Expensive items like these have created a boom in safe box renting businesses on campus.

This year, the Shanghai School Security Consulting Services Center has kicked off a pilot safe box renting service.

To date, officials of Shanghai Normal University said they had received more than 1,000 applications to rent safe boxes from students.