On Android I use personaldnsfilter (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dnsfilter.android/), which creates a local VPN, there are also actual VPN apps that allow blocking ad hosts, and you can also use AdGuard DNS directly.
Out of curiosity, what does this bring you over hosts file blocking, and how much does it affect battery life? I use dead-simple modifications to /etc/hosts and it seems to be remarkably good. Do you MITM yourself for further adblocking, or just use it for the modified DNS?
My phone is not rooted, and I just switched to nextdns.io on suggestion of another commenter here. I can't say about the phone battery, but I don't think it makes a big difference.
