Cheap tents were (still are?) traditionally made with fiberglass poles. They were heavy. And often utilized shoddy construction methods that did not live up to hard use. It may be, however, that you are only looking for a single-use experience here. If so, shaving ounces may not be hyper-critical floating on a kayak as it would be hiking off-trail at 10,000'. So consider a cheap tent.
On the other hand, say you want a good tent that will last, and can envision yourself backpacking (car camping doesn't require light weight). Prior to a car accident (spinal injury) I did a fair amount of wilderness backpacking in the eastern Sierras.
Once, at the trailhead at about 6,000' it was sunny and warm. If not hot. To save weight my buddy and I left the tent in the car. That night we slept at about 13,000 feet. Snow everywhere. Wind howling. In my bag with a liner I was fine. My buddy, however, started to turn blue. It was actually pretty scary. Now I'm a taller guy than him and he just put on every bit of clothing he had, and all I had over his, got in his bag, and was okay. But it could easily have turned out pretty bad. It inspired me to pony up for a quality tent that saved some weight over my old one. The idea was I would no longer be tempted to leave it behind.
Good, lightweight tents, have aluminum poles. The best, as far as I know, save even more weight by skipping the connector between poles and flaring alternate ends instead so the pole slips in without the added weight of a separate connector.
Tent models seem to change pretty often so I can't say buy this or that particular tent. I currently own a North Face Mountain 24, North Face Stratos, and North Face Rock. The Rock is probably the closest to what you're looking for. But do note that there are two places you can place your gear. One is in the tent, as you mentioned. The other is in the vestibule created by the rainfly over the tent. This is often a great idea. Especially if your gear is covered with muck and you don't want to bring that into the tent. BUT, it forces you to use the rainfly. Which is fine if it is cold, windy, or raining. But if it is hot and muggy it's unlikely you're going to want to use it. So two person tents are lighter -- but your gear is going outside. Three people tents have more room, but weigh more. And your gear might be so dirty you don't want it inside.
Which brings us to mesh. Years ago tents often had mesh windows but behind them (on the inside of the tent) would be a zippered covering of tent fabric. You could have a window open. Or closed. With or without a rainfly. Which is versatile. But heavy. Today you're more likely to see mesh windows that are only open. In fact, you may see most of the tent above ground made out of mesh. This would be really comfortable in dry summer conditions. And then the rainfly could go on when it is cold, windy, or raining. But then you might be limited on how much you can control ventilation. I think some rainflys cover the whole tent. Some don't. So some may provide a lot of wind protection. Some not as much as you might want. I suspect the more ultra-light you go, the less protection.
I even had an old, cheap tent, that had a zippered area on the floor to use a stove inside without melting the floor. Cool. But zippers add weight and can leak. Which just got me thinking: don't burn your new tent down or kill yourself with carbon monoxide poisoning. It happens. Just a quick search brought me to this page which, while I didn't read the whole thing carefully, generally sounded right in the parts I skimmed:
https://backpackinglight.com/cooking-in-a-tent-caffin/
And while a lot of protection may sound great, it can also be a bad thing. Without enough ventilation you could have a swampy drip on the inside of your tent. Just from your breath and sweat. Or it may even freeze on the ceiling. Trying to get a feel for this on different tents may come from experience. And may require buying a tent at a place where they are set up to crawl into and examine. Which may not be possible. Then again, too much ventilation and an icy wind is freezing you to death on a bad night. It strikes me that designing and choosing tents should be an easy process. In reality it is not.
When reading reviews pay attention to comments about ventilation and condensation.
Whether or not to spring for a footprint is not easy either. Some people put a footprint down to protect the floor of the tent from being torn or worn. But the footprint adds weight to your package. Some people skip the footprint thinking they'll save money and just use a tarp or some other water resistant fabric sheet they find on Amazon. But is that going to fit your tent? Are you going to trim it to size and carefully sew the edges so they don't fray? Really? So people have the fabric extend out. They put some stuff on it and think "how great, it's off the dirt". And then it rains. And that part of the tarp that extends beyond the edges of the tent catches all the water running off your rainfly. And channels it right under your tent. And then the inside of your tent is filled with an inch of water. Was that money well saved? Some experienced people buy an oversized water resistant sheet and put that on the INSIDE of the tent. Like a water-tight bathtub to protect you and your gear. If you think it is worth the weight, you can protect the outside of your tent by also having a properly sized footprint. Buy it while the manufacturer is still making that style of tent or you may be SOL later.
You say you're travelling with a buddy. Great. Agree to split the tent up and share the weight of it between the two of you. Then tell yourselves you're each carrying an ultra-light tent that weighs half what a normal tent weighs. Win-win.
Pro-tip: practice setting the tent up BEFORE you go on a trip with it. Some of these things can seem like Rube Goldberg contraptions. Especially when it's dark, on a moonless night, in the middle of nowhere, you're exhausted from paddling all day, and you realize you should have bought that forehead light you skipped because you thought it made you look dorky, and you really need both hands free to put this #$%@! tent together!
For buying stuff like this, I've found it is generally prudent to spend a little more to buy quality. Years ago North Face, Sierra Designs, and Marmot, were good brands. I'm sure there are many others I'm forgetting or unaware of as companies come and go and get better or worse. I just saw a tent made by MSR. I have a variety of stuff made by them that has lasted years and years. Even being unfamiliar with their tents, I would suspect they are GTG. My advice for buying would be check out Sierra Trading Post:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/all...t=HighestPrice (This should link to their tents sorted from highest price down.)
Sign up there to get emails. Yes, it sucks being bombarded with emails. But some will be your golden ticket to discounts. Some will say 30% off and you'll get online, barely able to contain yourself, and find the discount doesn't apply to the item you want to buy. The next week you get another coupon code and it says 40% -- but this time works on your item, but for only 25%...or so it has seemed when I've wanted stuff. They sell seconds there so watch for that. But also closeouts of 1st quality items. Try that route. If you can find your size (don't wait or it could sell out) or what you're looking for you can really save a bundle. Be patient if you can. I have a lot of great mountaineering gear that I bought at great discounts. But I'm generally fine with buying last years model. YMMV.
Read the reviews carefully. And google-foo for other reviews. I don't know why (how hard could it be?), but be cautious of weight claims. Some may not include the fly, stakes, or carry bag and the actual thing, all in, may weigh more than you think (again, read reviews to find someone who has weighed it). While others may include the box, and other packaging (I've not seen a good tent in a box in many years, but it may happen), and it may actually weigh less (unlikely, but worth verifying).
Hope this helps. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot. So please ask if there's anything else I can help with.
Edit: I already realized I left out discussion of 2/3/4 season tents. You're probably fine in a three season tent unless you're going to be out in really extreme snow weather. A good three season tent *should* be able to handle high winds and heavy rain. I would feel comfortable in light snowfall as well. I do have both. But the four season tents are going to weigh a lot more. And, in my experience, few people are ever camping in those conditions. The younger and more single you are, the more likely you'll be camping in rough conditions. Even then, I would not recommend a four season tent if you can only afford one tent. It should be seen as a specialty use tent, IMO. If you're just looking at summer camping, even a three season tent could be too heavy and overkill. It isn't just the material that is heavier on a three or four season tent (it may not be heavier at all), but the poles are thicker to resist flattening from wind or snow -- and/or there's more of them. Thus, since people often want to minimize weight, they own multiple tents where the heavier tents will only be used when needed.
Further edit: looking at the different set up options with flys and vestibules, I would be checking this tent out:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/msr...ring=s~tent%2F
Light, versatile, great price (especially with coupon code (hopefully -- but don't wait so long they sell out), what could be a downside? Well, look carefully (
this is another something I left out). It looks like it requires some staked lines. In other words, it doesn't look like it is a freestanding tent. Which may or may not be a problem. I've camped on a giant slab of granite in the Sierras -- stakes would not have worked there. Then again, I probably could have moved (I don't exactly remember why that decision was made, it was some years back).
Good luck!
