Answering what works for someone personally is a difficult task to conquer. For me, I once stood proudly in the Court of King Samsung. But alas, they became far too gimmicky for my tastes.
I was never impressed by the 'mini' version of anything. If price is something to consider, I would get something else; Moto G, Moto X, Nexus 5, etc...
The latest device usually has the best specs and will be supported with the latest releases longer... the biggest issues I see is the difference between HTC and Samsung... I recently left Samsung for HTC because of the overly large amount of bloat from Samsung... personally I felt they had TOO many bells and whistles... and I came back to HTC.
I'm not a big fan of the mini's, but if that is your thing you need to figure out what works best for YOU, not what my opinion is.