Given some of the horrible warranty issues I've heard about Warn and dealing with their customer service, I'm reluctant to put much faith in them anymore.
I could give two shits what anyone else says. While I generally stay away from Smittybilt (and rightfully so), I know a number of people who wheel with the Smittybilt X20 and have had nothing but good luck with it. I know some guys personally who have really put it through the ringer, and it hasn't let them down (their words, not mine).
I only know of one person who had one fail, but he told me Smittybilt sent him a new one, no questions asked.
Warn makes good winches, no doubt. However, I have to wonder if they are resting on their laurels. Like I said, I've heard bad stuff lately about their warranties and their apparently horrible, horrible customer service. Go read some of the horror stories about this on the Amazon reviews for some of their winches, and you'll see what I mean.
One thing is for sure, electronics these days mostly come from China. That being said, even the most high end Warn winches likely have Chinese electronics. Does that mean they are crap? No, not at all. My iPhone is made in China, your computer is made in China, etc. The Chinese can build very, very good stuff, in many cases way better stuff than we can build here. However, it's just a matter of who built it in China, what kind of quality control they had, etc.
I personally have no problem recommending the Smittybilt X20. I don't think you'll ever catch me recommending another Smittybilt product other than their X20 winch. I'm usually a pretty "brand loyal" person (I love Savvy for instance), but I am also not afraid to go against the grain from time-to-time and admit when I think there is another product out there that is good that might not be the typical brand I'm used to.
I'm not the guy who does the crazy ass wheeling some of these guys do down in JV. However, I know a number of people who do wheel very hard, and as I said above, they have nothing but good things to say about the X20.
Take that for what it's worth.
Oh, and for an example of some of the nightmare stories involving Warn's customer service, check out some of the bad reviews, such as the ones on this Warn Xeon 10-S:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AAKFESS/?tag=wranglerorg-20
And here’s another:
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/smittybuilt-vs-warn-winch.4824/#post-99349
Read through that entire thread and see how many comments there are from different people about their Warn winches failing on them.
My thought is that Warn winches used to be a lot better (as did their customer service), but they are now resting on their laurels.
Anyways, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, and this is all just food for thought.