You'll find that there is no best springer. Most people end up buying a range of springers. The trick is to buy one, then use that experience to determine which one to buy next. After a few purchases you'll figure it out.....
I recently bought a HW30, HW95 and HW100 from AOA, with light weight as the primary consideration. There are many beautiful springers, but most of the nice ones are heavy. If you plan to do mainly bench shooting, then weight is not important. But carrying a heavy rifle around the yard or during hunting gets mighty old. Eight pounds is about my max.
The HW30 is a joy to handle. It is light, has low cocking effort, great accuracy, handling ease, low noise, and is varmint-deadly at shorter ranges. It gives you about the same pellet performance as a Crosman 1377/22 pistol at 10 pumps. But you only need to cock it once, and it's just way better built. Some people feel it's the perfect springer.
The HW95 is a lightweight hunting version of their HW77/97/98 series. It uses the same 'engine' and provides the same pellet ballistics but weighs considerably less. The bare rifle is around 7.5 pounds The AoA HW95L field pro with included Weihrauch scope is about 8 pounds 3 ounces, I can handle that. Although the cocking effort is considerably stouter than the HW30, I rather like it. The sound reminds me of racking a shotgun slide. You get about twice the energy level of the HW30.
Weight in a springer is actually a good thing because it soaks up recoil. I could mount my Leupold Freedom scope (12 ounces) on the HW95L and drop it down to the upper-mid 7 pound range. A small red dot sight would drop it even more, but felt recoil would probably suffer.
After playing with the HW30 and HW95, I decided to try a PCP. I ordered a HW100 carbine with the walnut sporter stock specifically because the carbine/walnut/sporter combination is the lightest available, according to the official Weihrauch site. I was a little disappointed to discover that Weihrauch carbines imported to the US are the standard rifle, just with a shorter carbine barrel. In Europe you can get a lighter HW100 carbine with an even shorter stock, cylinder and barrel. It's not sold here because the smaller cylinder reduces shot count too much when run at FAC power levels. The US carbine gives you about 40 shots, the smaller German market cylinder would probably drop that to 20 or so, and wouldn't fit properly in the standard rifle stock. I ordered a titanium air cylinder from HW100Tuning in England. It weighs 10 ounces less than the stock Weihrauch stainless steel cylinder, and adds several shots due to slightly larger capacity. I added my lightweight Leupold Freedom scope, resulting in 8 lb 3 ounces. That was still too heavy so I swapped the scope out for a Primary Arms micro red dot. My HW100 now weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces and handles like a dream.
I can't say which is the best. The HW30 is just flat out pleasant to shoot. My wife and daughter always choose the HW30 over the HW95. I shoot the HW95 the most because I like the additional range and power. The HW100 is the easiest to shoot and carry but you pay at the Hill pump. I'm very happy that I prioritized light weight. I don't plan on getting a heavier gun.
)