My only source of Internet for the last 5-6 years has been my phones hotspot.
My old Motorola rzr would get warm if it wasn't plugged in. If it was plugged in it was fine. It drained the battery very fast. Pretty much needed to be plugged in while hotspotting. But I used that phone for 3-4 years.
I have a iPhone 6 now and while it drains the battery faster while hotspotting it's not as dramatic. It's not much faster then using it with hotspot on. The iPhone never gets warm.
It's not a big deal to change batteries or replace screens on most phones. Many many places do it fairly cheap if you cannot figure out how to do it yourself.
Btw I go through 30gb a month.
