HP Pavilion 15t-au100 review

HP Pavilion 15t-au100 — a 2016 machine whose 940MX still clears casual bars

A 2016 15-inch Pavilion at $309, above the $248 class median. Core i5-7200U with a GeForce 940MX (2GB) and 32GB of RAM. The registered weakness is reliability at 10 against a 54 median (−82%); graphics sits at 6.23 (−77%) and CPU at 20.6 (−65%). No top strength registers.

What the 940MX still does

The capability bars are kinder than the indices: GTA V, The Sims 4, and Valorant all clear minimum settings — the 940MX remains a functional card for casual and esports-tier titles, which is more than the integrated-only neighbors in this band can say. The 32GB of RAM is a generous allocation that outclasses the CPU it feeds.

The numbers that temper it

Reliability at 10 is the real constraint: a nine-year-old consumer build with minimal remaining margin. The CPU at 20.6 and graphics at 6.23 against class medians quantify the age honestly. The machine is a casual-gaming value only for a buyer who accepts the age risk explicitly. Within its own generation the 940MX sat one tier above integrated graphics — enough to matter for light titles, not enough to survive a decade of rising game requirements.

Price trajectory

From a $900 base, decay has run 8.03% per year to $309, with a projected $262 (−15%) ahead. The above-median price reflects the dGPU — most cheaper neighbors are integrated-only.

Against its neighbors

Cheaper: the HP Laptop 15 ($286) and Toshiba Tecra A40-D ($266). Sideways: the HP 17-bs153cl ($309) — same money, bigger panel, nominal Radeon — and Dell Inspiron 15 3567 ($319). Within this band the 15t-au100 is the one with the functional, if dated, dGPU.

Bottom line

A casual-gaming option at office-machine pricing: min-bar GTA/Sims/Valorant capability plus 32GB of RAM. The reliability floor is the honest price of that deal — buy it short-horizon.