Nintendo has proven that the horsepower is not a deciding factor, as long as you make games that are fun and people want to play.

Gamepass is not tied to hardware, but to an account, and selling an account is a risky business.

I have both PS5 and Xbox Series X. When there's a good game (something I like) on Gamepass, I spend a few months playing it. Otherwise, most of my gaming time is spent playing RPGs on the PS5.

I let the subscriptions lapse and renew whatever console happens to have something that catches my fancy. If you asked me to give one up, I would put up a fight, but ultimately, there are more games that suit my taste on the PS5 than the Xbox (I'm not an FPS player).

You lose access to any games you didn't buy outright if you cancel your sub. Personally, I only subscribe when I find enough games as part of the bundle that would cost more to buy individually than a one year subscription, and I rarely revisit games I've finished, so I don't mind the sub. I buy outright the games I intend to play for a very long time (usually Forza titles) or if they are discounted steeply enough to be worth my taking a chance.

The additional storage costs on the Series S make it a poor choice. The cost of 1TB of official additional storage added to the console makes it a better idea to simply buy the Series X which includes 1TB as standard.

At the end of the day, I always say buy the console that enables you to play the games you like. It's really hard for us random strangers on the internet to give you impartial advice.

Do you like RPGs? Playstation has a more compelling collection of those, e.g Uncharted, Ghost of Tsushima, Ratchet and Clank (to my taste).

The Xbox has the best driving sims/arcade racers in the Forza and Horizon series, and also Smart Delivery is a pretty good feature if you also game on a PC. Nice to be able to have your progress synced between PC and Console for the titles that support it.

There's a huge commonality in the titles across xbox and playstation too and Nintendo has a bunch of very fun, family friendly exclusive titles that make it a pretty good buy.

The Series S is similar in power with the PS4 Pro, which is a very competent gaming console even today. The Series S however has much faster storage so games can load faster yada yada yada.

All of this is sort of meaningless. Does the console support the games you like to play? That's the most important criterion for shopping. I spent a crap ton of hours this week playing Mario + Rabbids on a Nintendo switch which is probably less powerful than the mobile phone in my pocket. For me, I got the Xbox Series X for two reasons: 1TB of storage built-in, as well as a 4k-HDR capable blu-ray drive since I'm one of those dinosaurs who still buys some movies on disc.

The games you want to play, and the other features are the most important factor in choosing which console you buy, and that is only if you have to choose. If gaming is a hobby of yours and you have the financial means, there is no reason you can't have one of each.

I think the point of asking the question was to get people's opinions, so nothing biased about suggesting the one you like personally. After all, this isn't really an objective exercise. How could it be?

99% likely the OP already knows what they want and these debates here aren't gonna change their mind.

What xbox model is this? Do xboxes accept standard SATA or NVME drives? Or are you thinking of a USB external drive?