Personally I would recommend you find a shooting range which rents pistols and has a wide selection of options. Then try out a variety of guns and see what suits you. I find handgun selection to be a very individual thing. People have very different tastes in grips and overall feel.
One thing I would note to be careful about is making sure you have a nice trigger on the gun. A good trigger is really crucial to accuracy. Even if you do go for a less expensive option, make sure it can get a trigger job which will get it up to snuff. (some triggers really can’t be improved much)
My personal preference are Sig Sauers, but I suspect those are a bit past your price range.
Excellent advice.
My daughter has a Kahr PM9. This is a popular LE backup. She loaned it to me for a while so I could shoot it as much as I liked and strip & clean it.
I ended up getting a CW9, a less expensive version without night sights.
Things I like about the Kahr:
-lightweight
-concealable
-very easy to strip and clean
-accurate
-NO safety, long trigger pull