any suggestions for an Android 5G phone that's easy to root?

Rooting it getting incredibly tough these days. The best bet would be buying an unlocked developers model directly from the manufacturer rather than buying from the carrier... especially with Verizon. Their phones were usually the toughest to root after the Note 4.

 

All my recent Verizon phones for at least the last decade have had the hotspot enabled right out of the box. I haven't rooted anything in years.

 

Pixel 5 or 4a 5g, but don't buy from Verizon, there gonna be a locked bootloader. Get an unlocked version from Best Buy or straight from Google.

 

Is rooting a phone even necessary today ? I just got an Unlocked Moto G Power phone. It has all the cellphone antennas. Plus 64GB memory and 5,000 mAh battery. I don't think any phone has a bigger battery. Since it unlocked Hot Spot also works. My carrier Straight Talk has 10GB hot spot limited. I'm on the Verizon side of Straight Talk. I don't know if Verizon would let someone bring their own phone under that old Unlimited plan. My phone is nice and cheap only $190. So it's not the latest or most powerful phone but it has work good.

Motorola has some 5G phones. My understanding was most 5G today is not the crazy fast internet the cellphone companies claim. Verizon you have to be on their Ultra Wide 5G and that very hard it's to find and only good for a 1 city block.

https://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones-5g

 

I think this is the new iPhone Retro if I'm not mistaken

 

Use FoxFi/PdaNet+. It works without rooting you phone. It uses the phone's wifi radio but it uses it's own driver so the carrier doesn't know you're using the tether. There is a companion driver you have to install on Windows as well. I have a T-Mobile plan with unlimited data but only 5 gig on the tether. Like you, I use well over 100 gig per month. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It was setup for T-Mobile but unlocked when I bought it from Best Buy. I used to have a Galaxy Note 4 and used the same app with it.

 

FoxFi only works on certain phones, and that list is getting shorter with each new Android upgrade. I used it on all my phones thru the Note 4, but since then it wouldn't work on any of my newer phones (I got away from Samsung). There is an online hack on youtube for bypassing T-Mo's data hotspot limits