Advice Request Ad-free Android?

[HarborFront]

You can use Adguard with HTTP proxy and then you get to use another VPN app both working together.
Adguard has a good documentation on this, search for it, or find it inside the paid app.

Some limitations though

Automatic mode
In the automatic mode, enabling of filtering does not require any action from you. Filtering will work in both mobile and Wi-Fi networks. The problem is that the automatic mode can be operated only on rooted devices.

Manual mode
This approach may not work in some situations. It depends on your firmware and the actual VPN app. In some cases traffic bypasses a manually configured proxy.

In the manual mode, filtering will only work in Wi-Fi networks. You will have to manually configure the use of a proxy server for each Wi-Fi network.

FAQ | Adguard Knowledgebase

 

[shmu26]

Some limitations though

Automatic mode
In the automatic mode, enabling of filtering does not require any action from you. Filtering will work in both mobile and Wi-Fi networks. The problem is that the automatic mode can be operated only on rooted devices.

Manual mode
This approach may not work in some situations. It depends on your firmware and the actual VPN app. In some cases traffic bypasses a manually configured proxy.

In the manual mode, filtering will only work in Wi-Fi networks. You will have to manually configure the use of a proxy server for each Wi-Fi network.

FAQ | Adguard Knowledgebase

It sounds to me like the device does not need to be rooted, if you use automatic. I am pasting from the link you shared:

Unlike most applications that are engaged in traffic filtering, AdGuard does not require ROOT access to your device. In local VPN server mode AdGuard, will filter all your traffic and ROOT access is not needed.
If your device does not support automatic proxy configuration, then you can configure a proxy server manually

 

[HarborFront]

It sounds to me like the device does not need to be rooted, if you use automatic. I am pasting from the link you shared:

Unlike most applications that are engaged in traffic filtering, AdGuard does not require ROOT access to your device. In local VPN server mode AdGuard, will filter all your traffic and ROOT access is not needed.
If your device does not support automatic proxy configuration, then you can configure a proxy server manually

It reads

The problem is that the automatic mode can be operated only on rooted devices.

 

[lowdetection]

Privacy Browser | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Is quite nice,

But also this one is quite nice, based on CAF

[APP][4.1+] Kiwi Browser Chromium + Adblock + CAF + Night Mode 2018-06-11|68.0.3438

About clean experience, all depends what device you are on, if you want make modifications to your device or not, you may also route all your Android's DNS requests to PiHole,

any adblocking solution may be workarounded for an expert coder, same almost any ads can be blocked more or less.

Personally, I use a combo of AdGuard, custom browsers, XPrivacyLua, IntelliAV.

On Android, like on any other system, more you reduce the number of apps to essential, more secure you are.

 

[shmu26]

It reads

The problem is that the automatic mode can be operated only on rooted devices.

Thanks. That point falls under the category of
How to use a third-party VPN along with AdGuard?
So normal use should be okay even without rooted.

 

[vtqhtr413]

This was posted here sometime back, maybe of use. 1.1.1.1 — the Internet’s Fastest, Privacy-First DNS Resolver

 

[17410742]

VPN
Firefox Focus
AdGuard Premium (Automatic Mode)
CloudFlare DNS

Use a good cleanup tool such as SD Maid Pro (Root cleans up much more)