I'm jawoebie and I'm looking to buy an entrylevel EMTB for commuting and doing some field/trail riding. Not sure which bike I'm going to buy yet, so I'm going to monitor this forum for a while.
You should keep an eye on the 2hands market.
There are some good low km barely used emtb out there that have far better components then an entry level bike.
Bought mine like that to, coming from a fellow Belgian