Didn't want to reply due to to much contrasting comments over mine but , heck! can't resist

Since your plans are quite simple, why don't you have a look a Crius which Billy Bike Shop has a unit which he can't get rid off. The frame is similar to Tern Verge aka Dahon Vector and it is assembled by Lite Pro. No of speed is 9, I think,  and it is light and selling for about 2K plus.

The comparison you requested is way too different. One is a 24 inch folding bike while the other is a 22 inch bike. So, no comparison except one folds smaller 

Nobody will know what bike you need other than yourselves. So just buy one at the price that you don't mind giving away and ride the hell out of it. The next bike will come closer to your dream bike.
Get the 406, keep changing and upgrade till it becomes your dream bike, then get a 451 and repeat the process, after which you start doing it on a 16", after which Brompton, … then you get a 700c Road Bike, and later it's variants such as TT bike AeroBike，touring， MTB 26", 27.5", 29" wich it's variants xc, downhill,… Hybrid… foldable 700c, minivelo 306, 359, 406.
Then you can start playing Triathlon, Ironman, cyclocrossmetc etc

But of course you can quit halfway and be a cycle-for-more-food AKA Kayuh-makan-kayuh, like me

The ideal number of bikes to own is n+1.
n being the number of bike you currently own. Just like golf

welcome to the club!
don't let quality delay your purchase. You can always do something about it afterward.  and plenty time to do that too…
*PS, almost everyone will start complaining over their bike within a month… no matter what bike…

Sell to weikee la….. make him an offer he can't resist

After that we con him to spend min 3x the purchase price on all kinds of modifications

But most likely he won't need us to con him… he will do it just like everyone else here LOL

Weikee, u want to buy or not? New one 2.2k, mine hardly used low mileage can let go 1.4k

Great… next you can build a power
meter and GPS bike computer with Arduino and Raspberry Pi I personally prefer Beaglebone board.

Planning on getting either a hybrid or folding bike for short range commuting + exercise. I checked USJ Cycles and the cheapest they have in stock is around 1k.

I also went online and saw some sub RM500 ones. Wanna ask how much I should spend for my first bike and what brands I should look into?

true.. no more doppelganger distributor..
if u want to buy new, go to thailand still got distributor..

but to tell u the truth,
for me its not worth it buying new. mostly their bike (fx siries) and other siries came with 6/7speed drivetrain. so u need to spend more for upgrade.

as for me,
im buying from japan used bike shop. this is the 2nd unit of my doppelganger. my 1st model is premacy.26er city bike that i convert it into 700c folding bike

i bought from jaisiekal at taiping last time before they closed their business and moved to penang.

never visit their shop in penang.

i had my friend hunting for a used bike ini johor, mainly dahon classic at batam. and few are scouting at singapore for a price bargain brompton. still, brompton sells as cheap as 3.5k and above depends on condition..

FnHon is downgrade ler LOL

This is exactly what ppl do, even before buying the 1st, already planning on modding the 2nd bike, some even had a blueprint for 3rd and 4th. LOL
This is what I meant by "Precious cycling time wasted". LoL
(But  cycling is a waste money hobby，go ahead and spend)

This is the new 451 wheel size?

mind to share the price and where did u get this?

test run v1