Looking for a Phone with a Good Hotspot

[crazysteve]

So I've begun searching for another Android phone to replace my old Moto g4 we use for a traveling / backup hotspot / spare phone. Thought I'd see here if anyone had any recommendations. The Motorola seems to have worked well but Wifi range could be a little better. We were going to use an older iPhone SE, but I hate the hotspot power management "features" on it, besides no 5g / low band support.

Requirements:

• Tmobile

• 5G / band 71 support (600mhz)

• Nothing fancy. Just needs to do perform well as a hotspot and work as a phone.

• Cheap <$150 (min spec). This phone isn't a daily driver. Just for trips or plugging into the router occasionally via usb for WAN and backup. Don't care about cameras and screen resolution

• Reliable. Not a complete POS.

I'm considering the Nokia X100 5G but also the newer Moto 5g ace but I don't want to spend more than $150.

[gscheb]

Would consider tethering it to a router. Been doing it that way for years.

[crazysteve]

I have in the past at home but I have other devices for home internet (mofi4500 and T-Mobile can) I don’t want to carry around a router to tether to on vacation.

[gscheb]

Don't have any experience with 5G phones so don't know. Have carried a gl.inet travel router on vacation before.

[crazysteve]

Wow. Those are pretty cool.

[crazysteve]

In case anyone cared, I landed on the Motorola 5g ACE. It had all the 5g bands except mmWave bands and every LTE band. Got open boxed item for under 150. It has excellent reception as well (much better than our iPhones). Still rocking the T-Mobile International unlimited hotspot plan from 2017ish.

[parkercs]

If you plan to use the phone for at least two years you could add a line/upgrade and get a phone for "free" with bill credits. I'd look at the OnePlus Nord N20 5G, it comes with an X51 5G modem.

Or, if you want a true hotspot device, you could look at the free test drive hotspot, a TMOHS1. It's only LTE (it does have band 71), but you can apply TTL rules to make all the data appear as on-device without needing a separate router. It's locked to T-Mobile, but it will work with any T-Mobile plan you put in it and people have claimed that it works with T-Mobile MVNOs.