An options panel is pretty much essential these days for any premium theme; they are a great step forward in theme design for the casual user as it gives them the abilility to customise certain aspects of their sites without having to delve through html and css which is alien to them.
If you were to pick a premium theme provider from our featured list, there are great chances that the theme you desire will be backed up by a separate section in the admin area, where you can play and tinker with all kind of elements of the theme. However the demos only feature the front end area running the theme. Most likely your first encounter with the Option Panel will be when you install it on your own website.
