Blackmagic Design has released DaVinci Resolve 21.2, and the first item in its release note is support for Apple's new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display. That is the laptop Apple calls the first Mac with Touch, and it starts at RM11,999 on Apple's Malaysian online store. Apple announced availability from 6 November.
Quick facts
- DaVinci Resolve 21.2 is out for both the free version and the paid Studio version, on Mac, Windows and Linux.
- Cheapest PROLED MacBook Pro in Malaysia: RM11,999 for the 14-inch with M5 Pro, 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage.
- DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 on Blackmagic's Malaysian store today: RM975, listed down from RM1,215.
- The free DaVinci Resolve still costs nothing.
What 21.2 adds
Blackmagic's note lists support for the PROLED MacBook Pro and "up to 5x faster rendering" on M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. The note does not say what that figure is measured against, so treat it as Blackmagic's best case rather than a number for your own projects.
The rest is for working editors: Blackmagic Generation 6 Color Science LUTs and film looks, source timecode on extracted audio files, faster decoding of MXF audio from network storage, more accurate AAF audio timecode from interlaced media, and better performance with OGraf files.
What the note does not say
In its 28 October announcement, Apple named DaVinci Resolve among the third-party apps that "will also take advantage of Touch" on the new MacBook Pro. Blackmagic's 21.2 note says "support" but lists no touch gestures. Apple's own worked example of touch editing is Final Cut Pro, where it says editors can mark ranges, drop clips into place and pinch to zoom on a cut.
Apple also says many existing apps work with Touch straight away, because macOS translates touches into clicks.
For colourists, the display claims are the bigger story. Apple quotes up to 2,000 nits peak brightness, P3 and Adobe RGB colour, and more than 80 percent of the Rec. 2020 range used for HDR grading.
What it costs in Malaysia
We read every starting price on Apple's Malaysian store this morning. Each is the cheapest configuration for that chip and screen size, so memory and storage differ between them. The 14-inch M5 Pro is RM11,999, the 16-inch M5 Pro RM14,499, and the M5 Max models start at RM19,299 for the 14-inch and RM20,499 for the 16-inch. We have also compared the PROLED premium chip for chip against the standard-screen MacBook Pro.
The software is the cheaper part. When we covered Resolve 21.1 in September, Blackmagic's own store listed Studio at US$295. Blackmagic's Malaysian page lists it today at RM975, marked down from RM1,215. For comparison, Apple's Mac App Store in Malaysia lists Final Cut Pro at RM1,299.90 today, for a different editor with its own feature set.
Footage worth grading does not need a cinema camera either. Our team recreated a music video on a phone for no budget, and Pocket Cinematic teaches that phone workflow step by step.
Blackmagic's Malaysian page shows the RM975 Studio price with no end date, so check it on the day you buy.
