I see no point in a refresh so early. Even more when they kept selling the X1S after the X1X so sure a series X refresh in 2024 makes some sense, but the Series S as the cheapest machine would make more sense for just a slimmer version being cheaper than another model in the middle.

I think it's more likely that in 2023/2024 we'll get a cheaper Series X Slim ($350-$400?) and a Series X Pro ($500-$600). The only thing that will happen with the Series S is cost reductions, it's goal is to bring in software revenue with the lowest cost of entry, so I don't see them jacking up the power and thus the cost at the same time. If anything they want to get that Series S to $200 or even less.

So as of 2024 my idea is the line-up will be like this:

Series S - $200
Series X Slim - $400
Series X Pro - $600

This way there is also only 3 powers to worry about (Series X Slim power is identical to original Series X) rather than 4 with hypothetical Series S and Series X Pro.)

I'm guessing the upgrade will be in the storage. It's a game pass machine so it makes sense to upgrade the storage space first. Adding a third hardware profile to tune games for seems unlikely and counter to making Series S more attractive by lowering the price.

Just put a disc reader, this machine is so good for both the upcoming generation and past generations, and sold at a very competitive price point, making it all digital is such a shame

I don't think it needs a refresh yet, but a 1tb+ hard drive would be nice on the S.

Main thing would be to get more storage space

I'm noticing a theme here.  :)

They're trying to keep the Series S at a really low introductory price.  More storage would be undeniably useful.  But Series S has a very high attach rate with Game Pass, and a lot of GP content is Xbox One (or even Xbox 360 and OG Xbox).  What do you think of including both a velocity-grade SSD, and a regular inexpensive SSD, in the system to keep storage up and costs down?

The system could automatically install content on one or the other depending on whether it's been upgraded for the velocity architecture or not.  And even if ALL your content is newer games, you'd still get value out of the ability to swap those games out to the cheaper SSD if you're running out of space.

This way Microsoft could advertise the same amount of storage (1TB) on each Series system.  On "X" systems it could all be velocity content, but on "S" systems it'd be a mix of velocity and regular.  That would become part of what you're paying extra for on an "X".  Obviously we all want as much out-of-the-box storage as we can get, but we need to be realistic about the price points that Microsoft wants to sell the "S" system at, so I think this compromise works.  Thoughts?

   Because it harkens back to the Xbox 360 E (the last one released, the one that looked like a mini Xbox One)?  Or some other reason?

   I really like the superscript idea.  :)  You absolutely could "square" them, or the One S and One X could be retconned to be the first "S" and "X", and the Series S and Series X the second "S" and "X", so the refresh could be S³ and X³.  But I really like your styling suggestion either way!

As long as it's all automated, why not. But it's probably cheaper just to have one larger SSD instead of an extra one. Question is, does MS rather have the profits of selling the expansion cards and simply do cost reduction. Keep everything the same and lower the price to get it to sell more. I'm guess a lower price will get the stock of the shelves more efficiently than increasing the storage space.

Xbox Series S

Xbox Series E

Xbox Series X

It was a dumb joke, nothing more.