I'm going to skip right to the punch line and say that overall, I quite like this product and I'm happy with my purchase. It looks great and it's exactly what I wanted. There are several individual elements worth considering, though, so let's break everything down.Sturdiness and durabilityI'm happy in this department. Once everything was assembled, it seems quite sturdy indeed. The handles and legs, often a weak point in a product like this, seem quite solid. I've only had it a short time so far, so I can't speak to long-term durability with any certainty, but everything certainly *seems* built to last.Appearance & ExperienceTo me, this is one of the more attractive fire pits around. It honestly looks just like the photos. It looks great and it makes for a great centerpiece when friends are gathered around for conversation, and it also makes a nice focal point when I want to end my day sitting by a nice fire with a glass of whisky and some relaxing jazz.CoverI like that they include a cover with this product. Protecting it from the elements is probably the best way to extend the life of such a product. Some people have complained that the cover hasn't withstood the elements very well. I haven't had that problem yet, though I fully expect the fire pit to outlive the cover. The way I see it, we sacrifice the cover to keep the product alive. That said, the cover does fit properly and seems to be well-made, so I don't expect it to disintegrate quickly, even when exposed to the elements.Ease of useI love that the front of the fire pit opens for ease of access. Amazingly, the handle on this "door" manages to stay cool enough to touch. And the removable ash tray makes for easy cleanup as soon as everything has cooled down. Because it's a sphere, I have to worry a lot less about stray embers floating off because the vast majority of them are captured by the cage. One of my minor complaints is that there's a larger gap than I would prefer between two sections at the top (see photo). This doesn't affect the function of the fire pit, and embers don't seem to be floating out of it, so no harm done, but I deduct a few points from my overall score for things not lining up quite as precisely as I'd hoped.AssemblyThis is where the product loses some serious points. It *can* be assembled, and once everything is done, it looks great. The process of putting it together, though, was entirely unpleasant. Some of the pieces don't like to align properly. While they can be bent back into shape so that the final product still looks good, it makes the assembly process an exercise in frustration. Furthermore, though they do include all the tools you need (supposedly) to make assembly convenient, the included wrench bent beyond use almost immediately. I have a decent tool set, so I was able to finish without that becoming a problem, but I honestly would have preferred had they not included a tool at all rather than one that can't get the job done. The bag of small parts necessary for the assembly looks like they tried to keep all the sizes of bolts, washers, etc. separate from one another, but they actually all just ran together in the packaging into a single mass of parts, so be prepared to spend some extra time searching for the right size for each step (and perhaps undoing and redoing some steps when you realize you made a mistake).Overall, the design and appearance of the product are great, but I have to deduct a full star from my rating on account of the unnecessarily difficult assembly. It seems like they put all their attention into the design (and it shows) and completely neglected making it all fit together easily (and that shows, too).