looks like you've looked quite a bit into this

do not go with walkera unless it is the #4

do not go with falcon unles it is the falcon 40 (especially the eagle 50, it's a re-badged walkera 22e)

I don't know much about that raptor g2, but it's different than the one that has the good repuation, so when someone says something good about the raptor, it's probably not that one

The main heli's that leaves you with are the lama v3 and v4, the only real differences are the looks which is basically the canopy. It also leaves you the walkera #4 the falcon 40 and the honeybee FP, I would prefer the last two over the first two. One other heli that you could also look into is the blade cx2. It's mostly like the lama series, but it has a 2.4ghz radio that is basically immune to interference. That's a plus, but it's about a 100 bucks more. The other nice thing about the cx2 is you can get parts for it at the local hobby shop, or LHS, and be up and flying that day, and not have to wait around on mail order parts.

Some more advanced heli's that would be just above your budget might include the HBK2 the axe cp and the blade cp+ or cp pro (none of these are really beginner heli's)

GL and feel free to PM me or ask any q's

welcome to the sport =)