[skibumdc]

You get what you pay for in terms of beauty.
Nothing has the gloss and beauty of granite IMO.
Granite is natural, has a life of it's own. You can find VERY unique slabs but it will cost.

Quartz is not a solid surface but actually ground quartz mineral in a hardened resin . It is as hard/harder than stone and resists staining...but to me it just doesn't look as nice.

To me Silestone/quartz/Corian just look too uniform.