so davinci resolve dropped a chunky update and honestly, it feels like they finally said, “okay fine, let’s catch up to premiere but also flex on them a little.” if you’ve been editing for a while, you know the pain of jump cuts, janky keyframes, and background music that just doesn’t fit no matter how much you beg it. resolve basically looked at all of that and said: “what if we fix it with ai, shortcuts, and maybe a sprinkle of magic?”

first up! smooth cut. if you’ve ever chopped out dead air in a video and ended up looking like a robot who teleports every three seconds, smooth cut patches it up. it adds frames in between to make it look like one continuous take. it’s not perfect (if you’re flailing around on camera, the ai is like “uh, good luck”), but for talking heads it’s a lifesaver.

keyframes also got a glow-up. before, setting up something as basic as a zoom felt like surgery with tweezers. tiny windows, finicky controls, endless zooming into your timeline. now, you’ve got a full window with space to actually work. small change, huge sanity saver.

music editing is where resolve gets fun. you can right-click, show beats, and your clips snap right to them. it’s not about turning your edit into a rave (please don’t cut every scene to a drum hit), but it gives you a guide that makes syncing b-roll less of a guessing game. then there’s the ai music editor. this one was stolen straight from premiere, thank god, and it means you can stretch or shrink tracks so they actually fit your edit. finally, you don’t need to spend 20 minutes awkwardly fading in and out a song.

audio balance is another update that makes lazy editors like me happy. throw in a voiceover and background track, and resolve will automatically dip the music when someone speaks. i usually mess this up and end up with a VO drowned in bass, so yeah, this is huge.

they also tossed in animated subtitles, which is clutch for reels and shorts. instagram’s built-in captions suck, so being able to make them look good and actually control how they animate is solid. speaking of reels, there’s a new vertical video mode. instead of breaking your layout every time you switch between horizontal and vertical, it’s now just a one-click toggle. about time.

if you’re like me and have a talent for sitting in front of a camera and rambling with long, awkward silences… resolve now has a “remove silence” feature. it auto-cuts dead space out of your takes. no more dragging clips around for hours. and for script nerds, there’s intelliscript, which lets you upload a script and have resolve cut your video to match. it sounds wild, like giving your edit a brain, though i’m still not sure i’d trust it with my messy recordings.

so, what does all this mean? well, blackmagic design is clearly serious about making resolve the editor that punches adobe in the face. the best part? resolve is still free if you’re starting out, and the studio version is a one-time payment, not a subscription. in a world where adobe would probably charge you monthly to breathe, that feels almost rebellious.

design and usability are straightforward. everything feels professional but not bloated. compared to premiere or final cut, resolve just flows better, especially after these updates. worth it? if you edit once in a blue moon, maybe stick with imovie. but if you’re serious about content, whether it’s youtube, client work, or short-form, resolve is absolutely worth learning. the learning curve is real, but so are the results. and honestly, adobe could learn a thing or two here.