The Barrage is fast, but the handles feel like cheap plastic. It's not cheap of course, and a great knife no matter what, but the handles are plastic, so there's no getting around the "cheap" feeling, no matter how high quality the plastic is.
There's plenty of Kershaws with flippers to be had within your price range. I don't know how many milliseconds faster or slower a flipper might be compared to one that opens with the thumb studs, but if speed is your primary concern, a flipper will definitely seem (and be) safe than one opened with studs because your hand doesn't get close to the edge. I remember once opening my Leek quickly with the studs and shoving my thumb right into the blade, slicing it right open. I stuck with just using the flipper after that.
I'd personally like to see more Benchmades offered without the assist (like the Barrage offered with G10 handles and M390 steel). A manual AXIS knife is so easy to open already, plus it's just as easy to flick closed, which you can't do with the assisted or automatic ones. It's one thing to offer assisted knives with frame or linerlocks; in this case it's slightly more than a gimmick, but with the AXIS, assisted is purely a gimmick, offering switchblade-like action without the legal ramifications (in most states). As someone who owns and has owned many autos in his time, I can certainly understand the appeal of automatics and assisted knives. But in my case, the novelty has worn off and the practical side of me has found that a manual AXIS knife is unrivaled for both ease and quickness of opening and closing.
