Gamepass on Xbox, xbox will save you money in the long run and if you really really want to play an exclusive on PS. Buy it when it's cheap.

I have both and I prefer the Series X by a good bit.

(Personal opinions)

I prefer the controller layout.

I prefer the exclusives, flight sim, forza, age of empires, football manager etc.

(Cold hard facts)

The ease and accessibility of everything is so much better, menu layouts are more intuitive, store is much easier to define by genre.

Everything on xbox is more seemless, like moving games, upgrading games, installing memory, fixing controllers with completely dead batteries, transfering saves from console to consoles, switching from wired connection to wireless (if i take wire out my xbox connects instantly to wifi, ps5 just doesn't at all) my xbox can control , turn on and change volume on my TV, I haven't worked out the ps5 yet to do this etc.

And the main thing that sets xbox apart is the quick resume feature. Being able to have 6/7 games ready to load up within 5 seconds exactly where you left off (don't have to watch any load screens, menus etc, just straight to where you left off) I miss this so so much when i play PS5, having to boot up every single game from its intro every single time

You will buy one, play it for a week constantly, then not touch it again for another year or so, then play for a week and repeat

Series S and gamepass.

Find out what his friends have , or if your boyfriend already has a playstation 4 or Xbox one. Then buy the corresponding upgrade.