To be honest if you buy a new laptop download the windows media creation tool you’ll need an 8gb or bigger flash drive and blow the install away that comes with it do a fresh install it’s so stupidly easy now.
Download any missing drivers from manufacturers website that way you guarantee no garbage.
As for laptops buy a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad even used they’re brilliant, cheapish and have rocksolid bullet proof build quality that you just won’t get from an Acer.
You can get a Lenovo T480 i5 8250u, 2TB ssd, 32GB ram, Windows 11 pro for about £380 refurbished.
I always used Lenovo at work and buy them for myself used might look industrial and not pretty but stuff like hinges last forever as long as you avoid the cheaper consumer stuff.
To be honest you’re probably better off doing a fresh windows install, having a tech or yourself clean the crotch gooch out of the laptop cooling system and possibly putting more RSM in it.
Don’t buy an Apple unless you’re already tied to the ecosystem the laptops despite popular opinion are terrible designs, often awful build quality inside and break very easily. Apple often use every excuse to weedle out of warranty claims like shouting water damage, refusing recall work until you turn up with a printout proving there’s a recall. They’re anti competitive and you can’t upgrade anything on modern Macbooks.