For general riding and messing about I love my Vitus Sentier VRX+. Built up with a 140mm Pike / gx 11 speed / Dt Swiss e1900 wheels / Guide brakes etc. Decent kit without being bling essentially. The frame has clearance for 2.8” rubber, but I’m running 2.3 on there fine – loads of mud room.
On twisty pedally trails it’s great, on the pump track it’s loads of fun to throw into corners, on steep tech stuff it’s nice and manoeuvrable and on a half day uplifting at Flyup 417 it was great fun.
It’s also very cheap!
If you want something like that but with a bit more reach for faster / rockier stuff then I also had an Orange Clockwork 137 (now maybe called a Clockwork Evo) on the list, plus a Sonder Transmitter. You could also add the Bird Zero TR.
A bit slacker again is the Orange crush / Orange p7 / Airdrop Bitmap / Bird Zero Am Boost / Nukeproof Scout. I didn’t want my hardtail to be for the same sort of terrain as my FS though (Bird Aeris 145LT), I wanted it to be more playful, hence being a bit shorter and less slack, but still modern and stable when required.
Think the key to the playfulness of the Vitus are the short 425mm chainstays and average reach (think 445mm on the medium / 17” frame). Also managed to squeeze a 150mm dropper in there which is fantastic for playing on.