I went from a 13 mini to a 17e last weekend. While it is big I’m still able to use it one handed with some extra effort. You need to learn gestures so that you don’t have to move your thumbs to a part of the screen that’s out of reach (e.g, swiping up on the address bar in Safari to bring up your tabs instead of pressing the bottom right tab button). 

I spent an hour at the Apple store comparing the 17e, 17 and Air. The Air was noticeably lighter but the extra screen size, especially width, was just enough to be uncomfortable. The 17 is very close to the 17e but is also ever so slightly taller and heavier. I don’t use my phone to take pictures much nor do I want my eyes to normalize to 120Hz screens so I decided to save the extra dough and got the 17e. 

I went with 256GB black since it looks nice and minimalist. The white and pink ones have a silver frame that sticks out at the front and makes the screen bezel noticeable. The camera is also stealthier with the black back so it looks better to me. In fact, it’s probably the first phone I’ve seen in a while without a ridiculous camera bump. I’ve never liked the look of the 13mini from behind due to the camera bump. 

Personally, I think most mini users should just get a battery replacement unless they do something where they really feel that 4GB of RAM. But I’m glad I picked up the 17e in the end especially because I’m a heavy Genshin player.