Nobody gets excited about buying an HDMI cable which is exactly why so many people are still running a PS5 or Switch 2 through a cord that came free with a Blu-ray player in 2015. Ugreen’s certified HDMI 2.1 cable is the cheap fix: Amazon currently has the 6.6-foot version on sale for $8.99, down from its $12.99 list price, that is a 31% cut on a cable that carries the full 48Gbps of HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, handles 4K at 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz, and passes eARC audio for Dolby Atmos soundbars.
Why a Certified HDMI 2.1 Cable Still Matters
The key word on the box is “certified.” Plenty of cables on Amazon claim 8K support but only those that pass the HDMI Forum’s Ultra High Speed certification program have actually been tested to sustain 48Gbps without dropouts. Ugreen’s cable carries that certification which is 2.6 times the 18Gbps of the older HDMI 2.0 standard. That bandwidth is what allows uncompressed 8K at 60Hz (or 4K at up to 240Hz) without the signal falling back to a lower mode or flickering under load.
For gamers, the more practical benefits are the HDMI 2.1 features that ride on that bandwidth. Variable refresh rate keeps the display in sync with the console’s frame output to kill tearing, auto low latency mode drops the TV into game mode the moment a console wakes up, and quick frame transport trims input lag. Quick media switching removes the black screen you normally get when a source changes resolution or frame rate. A PS5, Xbox Series X or Switch 2 connected to a 120Hz TV will use every one of these, provided the cable can carry them.
On the home theater side, the cable supports dynamic HDR with 12-bit color, HDR10 and Dolby Vision passthrough, and eARC. That last one is the feature most people are quietly missing. Standard ARC compresses audio going from the TV back to a soundbar, while eARC delivers full-bitrate Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. If your soundbar and TV both support eARC but you are still using an old cable between them, this $9 upgrade may be the cheapest audio improvement you can make.
Compatibility is as broad as HDMI gets: Ugreen lists Apple TV, PS5, PS4 Pro, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, the M4 Mac mini, Roku sticks, Blu-ray players, AV receivers, projectors and 8K TVs from LG, Sony and Samsung. The only caveat worth mentioning is the obvious one: a cable cannot add features your TV doesn’t have. If your display tops out at 4K 60Hz, you will still get a rock-solid signal, but the 120Hz and 240Hz modes will stay unused until you upgrade the screen.