The Look
The colors are more muted, as others have pointed out. I prefer them as they are, but really, since once you are knitting you are looking at the kitting and not the needles so much, I didn't have a strong preference.
I knew going in that the needles do not have the size marked, which clearly puts them below every other needle I own on that front. Knit Picks does offer a sizer and also some danglies you can put on the cord, but, I think those are not the greatest solutions. The card, with the sizes marked, does fit in the case that comes with the Harmony needles, so that helps. I am also thinking of marking mine up with a a Sharpie. Because I know this will be a problem once I have all these needles engaged in projects.
The Feel
They are very smooth. The wood is laminated and shiny (although not in a distracting way). The Clover needles and the Skacel are my other wood needles, while these look smoother, in the end I think it's probably a wash. But they are very smooth.
They are pointy. I use the Denise's all the time which others have complained are not so pointy, so clearly pointy is not a big thing for me, but they are pointier than Denise or Clovers. The Skacel's I have are fours, so they are pretty pointy.
I have never found the memory on Denise's to be a problem for me, and it seems to disappear after a round, but the Options clearly have no memory (for good or bad).
I have not yet had any issues with the Options needles coming undone. I did once have that happen with the Denise's - it was early on before I figured out how to twist them until they locked. The Options needles started to untwist a few times, on one project, but I used the cable key (comes in the package) and that seemed to take care of it. The Options needles come with a cable key. It's basically a thingie that you stick in the hole at the join to give you leverage to twist better. (Kind of like the extension thing on a car jack.)
I have heard from others that you can also make use of the hole to thread a lifeline through so that it is magically set up as you knit. I may need to make use of this for the Mystery Stole.
Both the Denise and the Options set come with little caps that let you turn the cable into a stitch holder which is great for victims of starter-itis (although you'll need more cables) and for projects where the knitting is started in the round and then split.
The Denise set also comes with connectors that let you attach cables together, thereby increasing the number of sizes you can achieve with the same set of cables. I have used this a lot for big projects or projects that expand. The Options cables do not currently have any cable connectors.
Even though they are wood, I think for air travel, I would pack the Options needles and take the Denise's on the plane. While I think most wood needles look pretty innocuous, somehow I feel that the Options set looks a little less so. (Who knows what the TSA might make of the cable key.)