If the encoding is UTF-8, the normal characters will work fine, and there is no reason not to use them. Browsers that don’t support UTF-8 will have lots of other issues while displaying a modern webpage, so don’t worry about that.
So it is easier and more readable to use the characters and I would prefer to do so.
It also saves a couple of bytes which is good, although there is much more to gain by using compression and minification.