You should ask for the specs of the laptops.
There seems to be just one configuration for the Acer Aspire ES1 711g as listed in the link below. It has Linux OS (not compatible with Windows and will not run Windows programs) and a Intel Pentium N3540 which is a low power entry level quad core CPU. It's weaker than a Core i3 CPU.
https/www.acer.com/ac/en/SI/content/model/NX.MS3EX.009
There are several different configurations of the Hp probook 470g2. There are two basic versions; one that uses AMD APUs and one that uses Intel CPUs. There are 3 different AMD APU and 8 different Intel CPUs for that laptop. Click the link below for details. Note that the Intel CPUs are listed in the "Graphics" section for some strange reason.
https/support.hp.com/id-en/document/c04481713
Using the Pentium N3540 in the Acer laptop as a baseline, there are two processors in the HP laptop that would be generally be weaker than it. Those are the Intel Celeron 2957U and the AMD A6 Pro-7050B. You should verify that the Acer laptop comes with Windows because Linux is not a widely used operating system. Chances are pretty high that none of your friends regularly uses Linux OS, so if you have questions or issues they will likely not be able to help you out. That means you are on your own to figure things out or join a forum specifically for Linux users.