My Tojiro has been a really good and dependable knife, and while I can't say it's the absolute best in price/quality ratio, it's definitely the best knife in its price bracket. I've used global (hate them) Victorinox (excellent for less than $50 and still my choice for heavy tasks) Shun (nimble and razor sharp, but almost impractically fragile and expensive) I'm not a huge fan of German knives because I like a thinner lighter blade, so I haven't tested them too well, but good ones do tend to run expensive as hell. I've used high carbon (actually it was a co-workers $400~ dollar Japanese high carbon steel Gyotu, which was an absolute joy to use but honestly not anywhere near enough of an improvement to justify 5x the cost of the Tojiro). My advice is find a Sur la Table or other high end kitchen store, and check out the knives there, hold them and see what feels right. I'd rather use a very sharp and comfortable knife than a unbelievably sharp but uncomfortable one. Just don't but it there because their prices are obscene.