Well, as the current owner of a Nexus 6P, I've grown quite bored with the stock Android experiment. I haven't had a Samsung phone since the international model S3 (I-9300). I've accepted the fact that if I want the most bang for my buck in terms of features, hardware, and just an all-around most justified for the price phone, it's gotta be a Samsung. The question is, will it be the S9+, Note 8 or Note 9? The Note 8 is under consideration only because of the eventual price drop when the 9 is released.
Obviously, the new phones are choices because they'll have the more comfortably placed fps, but also because they'll both have stereo speakers. Since I value great audio quality for streaming my music, that's a huge plus for me. My favorite audio implementation is BoomSound, so AKG will have to impress me. Does anyone have experience with AKG audio that can compare sound between it and BoomSound?
Second on my list is great battery life. For this reason, I plan on getting an unlocked Exynos version to use in NYC, since Exynos is better optimized than Snapdragon for performance, battery life and standby time.
Third, I've never had a Note with the S-Pen, so even though I may or may not make use of the features, it's good to know that they're there if I need them.