Choosing my first tenor

Greetings! My first post here. Came here with a question and I hope that you can help me to decide.
Long story short. I’m an amateur guitarist who switched recently to learn ukulele, and after some considerations I decided to buy a solid tenor because I really like the sound (and, well, I chose tenor because I have chubby fingers for a women). I realize this is a really repetitive question for seasoned players, but could you please steer me to a quality instrument? After a short research I’m choosing between these options: Lanikai LM-T (tried it, played it for a while, the size is perfect but it seems to me that the sound is way too muffled), Kala KA-ZCT-T (as Kala have more interesting wood combination + I liked the sound better), and Islander MST-4 (sound is nice, though I hate the pin bridge with the metal rings).
But any options, opinions and advices are welcome, since I’d like to get the instrument that offers me the “most potential”, that I could “grow into”. The perfect price would be just under 200-300$, still I guess it might be an overkill to start with a Hawaiian made uke.
Another question is, maybe it might be reasonable to get a concert after all? The problem is that we don’t have any big shops near us, so I’m afraid that I won’t be able to try most of the options. So maybe someone can tell me if there’s a big difference between the concert and tenor uke?

Hope I came to a right place. So thanks in advance.

– JJ

Hello there. jina_91,
Idk If I could be much help. but I’ve been playing ukulele for about 1-2 years now. My first/Favorite ukulele to play on is a Standard tuning(gCEA) Luna Tenor ukulele. and I’ve had it for quite some time and it makes a beautiful sound. I play it almost daily. Where I got it, It was only like $96. If you are looking for a nice ukulele, I’d say in my opinion, Lunas are one of my favorite brands. Hope you found this helpful. Let me know. Thank you for your time
~ Rai of Musical Sunshine

@Jina_91 My story is very much like yours, except that the closest shop with ukuleles that are not plastic or plywood is about 70 miles away, and in the only CIVID-19 hotspot in my state, so I have not been able to compare instruments.

I am about to return my first online buy (fell for a Cordoba 15T tenor, and even with laminated wood, strumming open strings sound nice enough… alas, the action is so high that any chords sound muted and tinny). I am undecided whether to insist on buying online, or risking the in store experience.

So I don’t have any answers for you, but I am going to follow closely the thread.