24.3.2 Double Speed Operation (U2X)

The transfer rate can be doubled by setting the U2X bit in UCSRA. Setting this bit only has effect for the asynchronous operation. Set this bit to zero when using synchronous operation.

Setting this bit will reduce the divisor of the baud rate divider from 16 to 8, effectively doubling the transfer rate for asynchronous communication. Note however that the Receiver will in this case only use half the number of samples (reduced from 16 to 8) for data sampling and clock recovery, and therefore a more accurate baud rate setting and system clock are required when this mode is used.

For the Transmitter, there are no downsides.