Buying an HDMI cable was something quite simple until a year ago, since we only had to look for an HDMI 2.0 cable to be able to enjoy signals in 4K at 60 Hz or 1440p 120 Hz. However, with the arrival of televisions with 4K panels at 120 Hz and 4K monitors at 144 Hz, using HDMI 2.1 is essential if you want to enjoy the best user experience. The problem is that cables are still too expensive, and there are some stores that seek to deceive when buying them.
If you have a 2021 high-end Smart TV, a PS5 or Xbox Series X console, or a laptop or desktop computer with NVIDIA RTX 3000 or AMD RX 6000 graphics cards, then you will need to buy an HDMI 2.1 cable to avoid having Than sacrificing resolution or refresh rate on your content.
HDMI 2.1: 48 Gbps bandwidth
The problem with these cables is that their price is slightly higher than that of an HDMI 2.0 cable. Currently we can find cables of 1 or 2 meters for prices that start at 13 euros, compared to 4 or 5 euros for which we can find HDMI 2.1 cables. In addition, it must be added that, according to the HDMI Forum, any HDMI 2.0 connector or cable can now be called HDMI 2.1, and then list the functionalities with which it is compatible.
Therefore, it is important to make sure that the cable is compatible with Ultra High Speed HDMI . This refers to the fact that HDMI cables do not comply with a specific standard, but can accept a certain amount of bandwidth. HDMI 2.0 compatible cables reach speeds of up to 18 Gbps, but to be able to send 4K signals at 120 Hz, more bandwidth is necessary, and therefore HDMI 2.1 compatible cables support up to 48 Gbps. With these cables, we can also enjoy functions such as VRR, ALLM and eARC .
How to Identify a Real HDMI 2.1 Cable
Therefore, when we buy a cable, we must verify that it is capable of using a bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps , as well as that it has a sticker that says ” Ultra Certified Cable “. When we buy an original cable from a well-known brand, they usually carry a sticker with a QR code. We can scan that QR code with the ” HDMI Cable Certification ” app, available for iOS and Android .
If the cable we buy does not have that sticker, that does not mean it is false, but in that case we will not be able to check if it really works until we use it. In addition, we always have to try to buy the shortest cable possible, as this will avoid any possible signal stability problems. The higher the bandwidth, the better the cable has to be so that there is not a great degradation of the signal if we use cables of 3 or 5 meters.
In short, if you find an HDMI 2.1 cable today that measures 1 meter or more, and costs less than 10 euros, you should be suspicious. On AliExpress sellers advertise HDMI 2.1 cables alongside HDMI 2.0 cables so that the lower price range that appears is the cheapest cable, but then when you go in and select the HDMI 2.1 cable, the price skyrockets. Another thing we can do to avoid falling into counterfeits is to buy cables with a lot of comments and sales, and check that, indeed, the cable fulfills what its specifications promise.
