I have cambria black (polished) in our butler's pantry, and honed labrador black in the kitchen. I think the honed is much easier to keep clean. The polished black granite just shows more dust. However, our honed is not a solid black like absolute black....it's a mottled black. We also sealed it with a color enhancing sealer, which made a huge difference. Before I sealed the sample with this type of sealer, it showed lots of fingerprints. Even the regular sealer didn't help. The enhancing sealer made the difference.

I have polished Absolute Black Premium stone and I love it! I would put it in again if I had it to do over. Yes, if you don't wipe down the counters daily you will gather & see dust. However, our counters are wiped down at least once a day (usually after dinner) and we don't seem to accumulate dust...if you live in the desert (or other dusty locale), though, you might have a different experience. As to fingerprints, water spots, crumbs, etc...yes, you do see them but... Crumbs...really only visible if there are a lot of them or they're large crumbs Water spots...visible only while wet! They look a little darker than the surrounding counter but once they're dry they blend in. You can see a faint outline and little bit less "shine" if you search for a dried water spot, but it's not obvious otherwise. Fingerprints...again, yes, they do show up if they're particularly greasy. However, "normal" fingerprints don't show much at all. If you're someone who likes a pristine/always perfect looking kitchen, you may not be happy with a polished dark stone. However, if you're OK with a somewhat lived-in look I think you'll be happy with it...like we are! BTW...we're also not "clean as you go" type of people. Sure, I'll wipe up a big spill or brush off a large volume of crumbs or dry a large water spot, but by and large, I let the crumbs, water, and spills stay until I get around to wiping the counters in the evening. If I'm having a party or want my counters to be extra-clean/shiny, I use a microfiber cloth plus Method Daily Granite Cleaner & Polish. Day-to-day, though, I just use a small amount of detergent on a dishcloth and wipe the counters down. Sometimes I dry them after (using circular motions), sometimes not. If I over-do it on the detergent, I sometimes get a very light haze...but I've learned pretty well by now how much is "just right' (through trial & error). Oh...some people use a 50/50 mix of water & alcohol on their counters...I keep meaning to try it b/c it's much less expensive and I could probably use it daily.

When we were trying to decide on counters (we also wanted matte black or gray -- and were fixated on honed AB until I read all the negative things about it on GW) we got samples of honed Caesarstone in various black and gray colors (a finish similar to leather Silestone, I think). We also got samples of soapstone. We abused all of them with oil left on overnight, a lemon half left on for hours, vinegar, wine, etc. The honed Raven C'stone (which was our favorite) held up well -- easy to clean, didn't stain easily -- but the soapstone was even better. And we like the idea that if -- when -- the soapstone scratches we can just sand the scratches out, or live with them. We like the idea of patina and we thought the soapstone would age better than the CS. We got a great deal on the soapstone from our fabricator (just a bit more than the C'stone) so we went with soapstone although I think the C'stone would have been great. We'll see, I guess. The soapstone should be installed in about 2 weeks.

I have now lived with a very large expanse of black honed counters for almost 3 years; beautiful and dramatic when clean, impossible for me to ignore when not! The areas around the sink need to be SWIPED and DRIED every time the sink is used for food prep. I recently got a price of $15K to replace these with a patterned granite I can live with. I'm going to continue griping and cleaning my black honed counters. The best and easiest cleaner I have found is Method Daily Granite Cleaner and Polish. It also smells great!