Admittedly, I’m not an experienced user and new to SBCs. The fact it has no warranty makes it a crapshoot.
I think it’s important to highlight it for others who consider to purchase it.
It’s great it’s working fine for many of you. I truly hope it will continue to serve you well.
Why did You buy without warranty ?
I bought my N2 with warranty from local dealer
@Tim_Taylor
I bought it from ameridroid. They did not offer an extended warranty at the time. They do now for a small extra fee due to complaints:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=35998#p274628
I don’t have local dealers for those kind of things sadly.
When I buy new products I generally read the 5 star reviews and the one star reviews. I tend to completely ignore the one stars unless they point out an obvious design flaw - I then focus on the score with most reviews. This policy serves me well.
However lets look at the alternatives here,
-buy a cheap Chinese box with absolutely no warranty or support
-buy a named brand with warranty and support but cost at least 4x the cheap Chinese box
-buy a SBC which has limited warranty, good support and real flexibility and easy of use. Accept that they can’t give an extended warranty because a substantial proportion of the end use cases could kill the board in the development stage.
Whatever you do its a crap shoot but if you understand the choices then you can make an informed decision. I would be gutted if my N2 died on me - but I understand thats a risk with these products.
Shoog
The moral of the story
Look forward, no longer annoy about it.
In the past i bought some electronics from chinese shop, some parts where dead on arrival.
I put them into trash.
Life goes on
Words to live by.
I usually spend months of research before I buy something 
It was almost a compulsive buy this time, as I was already going to buy something else and was suggested this product by someone very reliable in this forum with a very positive experience.
I can report that I would never trust any of the Chinese sites review systems since I was personally induced to withdraw a negative review with bonus points. I would say that this happens to most negative reviewers.
Shoog
Pretty much. I’m not annoyed anymore, I’ve already ordered something else.
But I’m still following on reports from others.
I can’t but into the case they can’t give an extended warranty because a substantial proportion of the end use cases could kill the board in the development stage because in this case, extended means standard for all other products, including the most popular, the Pi, which has just as much chance of being damaged through ‘intended’ use and yet, they provide a satisfactory warranty.
Hardkernel are only damaging their reputation right now and following the USB port debacle, there are now more reports of HDMI port issues.
Sub standard workmanship would seem to be what the real issue is right now and they show little or no intent to care.
This is not some cheap,almost throw away device, it’s rather more expensive than things have been in the past and therefore any short term failure without recompense is harder on the wallet.
Additionally, all of the no name, little support boxes that I have had over the years, and I’ve had dozens, all worked from a hardware perspective without issue, with software support almost always having the best support from end user devs rather than manufacturers, who have often tended to fix one bug and introduce two more into the process (Zidoo being a good example of this).
Rpi has no choice but to offer the warranty they have since it is in the UK/EU jurisdiction. Outside of DOA I doubt they either receive many claims or honour many requests.
Shoog
As I said, this was my first peep into the SBC world. I only really know of a few of those “brands” and not familiar with the standards.
I know Khadas offer a 12 months warranty.
To quote Ozarks from the odroid forum:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=35998#p275859
No business is going to hope to grow if it is unable or unwilling to show confidence in it’s build quality.
The Odroid name is only damaged by such a poor business move and the more folk read about the continuing failures, the less likely that the name will last for too long.
I’m also thinking about switching to Khadas, the no warranty at all policy from Hardkernel is not an option to me anymore.
I think the VIM3 will do a pretty good job, but it seems to be not as stable as the Odroid firmware.
This time i will buy it from a local dealer of course to get access to the German “Gewährleistung”, which is mandatory for every device that is sold here.
I did it and get 2 years “Gewährleistung” in Germany
In what manner is it not as stable?
Last night my N2 which I have in the bedroom seems to have failed. I hardly ever use it but I turned it on and my tv says “no input”
I tried it on the downstairs tv using the same cable and port I use for my Vim3Pro and the tv shows “no source“… it has less than 10 hours use, I’ve Watched Maybe 5 films with it at the most. Has anybody had any luck getting a refund or repair? I purchased it from hardkernal about 3 months ago and there wasn’t any option for extended warranty then. I’ve only ever used it with a premium certified hdmi cable and it hasn’t been moved or disconnected since the day it arrived so it’s not down to physical wear and tear, it was also turned off after each time I used it. even though i semi expected it to fail after reading more and more reports of them dyeing it’s still disappointing. Is there any workaround or fix known?
It’s all starting to remind me of an old Queen song
“We are the Champions” ? 
and another one bites:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=37245
Their warranty is 4 weeks, since it expired, they will let you RMA to be checked (shipping costs on you). Refund is not something they’d do once the so-called-warranty has expired.
e.g : No HDMI signal SD Boot CoreELEC - ODROID
You can try posting for support there, sometimes it’s something simple like bad cable or OS issue etc, sometimes it’s a possible hardware issue, and unless you can do your own tests, you’ll have to send it back to be looked at, and hope for the best.
After doing abit of Googling I’m pretty sure I’m best to cut my losses and just add odroid to the list of manufacturers to never purchase from again. i havnt read a single case where anybody has managed to get a replacement or a repair and shipping to China will cost more than a cheap replacement box will. I’ve also learnt that it’s actually a much much more common problem than i had realised with multiple reports of failure across multiple forums and different os’s all with the same fault. Some people seem to think this is to be expected as they are cheaper than say a vim3 but I have a s805 stick a s905 and a s912 box All “unbranded” and all cost less than £30 each and have been used, abused, dropped, thrown, left on for months at a time and they all still work perfectly. Something else which annoys me about it is new users of Coreelec who may not have had any experience of CE or just enough os’s before buying a CE edition of the N2 are going to automatically associate CE with poor quality products which obviously isn’t the case. I think CE should make it clear that they have no involvement or association with odroid hardware. It’s not fair that the CE name should be tainted because of this especially when they don’t profit from it
You make valid points.
I think the fact this isn’t specifically a media box but more of a dev/DIY product, allows makers to follow the no-warranty standard that apparently is rather common in this sector.
A lot of people use this device and are very happy with it. I don’t know exactly in what volumes those boards are made but maybe some of the runs have been not as successful as others, maybe QC is non-existent.
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