Bell’s ahlo 2 arrives at $335 with a 6.9-inch paper-like screen, a 5,200 mAh battery and a two-year warranty

Bell has launched the ahlo 2, the second phone under its exclusive smartphone brand, at a retail price of $335. The Android 16 handset has a 6.9-inch display, a 50-megapixel camera system and a 5,200 mAh battery, and is available only through Bell, Virgin Plus and participating retailers, with financing from $10 a month through Bell’s SmartPay, the company said in a news release on Wednesday.

Bell says the battery provides up to a day and a half of typical use, up to seven days in e-reader mode, and fast charging from zero to 50 per cent in about 38 minutes. A bundle with a custom protective case and a 30W fast charger sells for $39.99. Telecompaper also reported the launch, noting the phone is now on offer to Bell customers.

The screen is the main selling point. The phone’s product site describes a glare-free display with built-in blue-light reduction and a textured glass finish that resists smudges and fingerprints. It offers four modes: a full-colour Classic mode, a pastel-toned Colour Paper mode for reading, a black-and-white Ink Paper mode and a Max Ink mode that also silences distractions and stretches battery life. The rear cameras pair a 50MP main lens with optical image stabilization and an 8MP ultra-wide lens, and there is a 32MP front camera.

The ahlo site lists a two-year warranty. Besides Bell and Virgin Plus, it says the phone is also sold at Best Buy Express, Staples, tbooth wireless, The Mobile Shop, The Wireless Kiosk at Costco, Visions and WirelessWave. Owners are directed to the store where they bought the device for device-specific issues and to their carrier for network problems. A USB-C cable comes in the box, and the case and charging block are sold separately.

Bell has not said who makes the phone. Jonathan Lamont of MobileSyrup, who has used the ahlo 2 for a few days, writes that it is a TCL phone using that company’s Nxtpaper display technology, and that as far as he can tell it is the Nxtpaper 70 Pro unveiled earlier this year, with near-identical looks and the same specifications. He lists a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, expandable to 2TB with a memory card, and says a physical switch on the side swaps between display modes.

In practice, buying one means signing up for a plan. MobileSyrup found that neither Bell nor Virgin Plus appeared to offer the phone outright on their websites. At Bell, financing runs $1 a month with a plan of at least $105 a month, $10 a month with a plan of at least $85, or $13.96 a month with a plan of at least $30. Virgin Plus offers $10 a month with a plan of at least $60, or $13.96 a month with a data plan of at least $50 or a $30 talk-and-text plan.

Lamont’s early impressions are mostly positive. He calls the design much improved over the first ahlo, which debuted more than a year ago, and says the matte screen cuts glare and reflections, though it seems to narrow viewing angles slightly. He says he needs more time with the phone, especially to judge the camera, before a full review, but thinks it could be a decent budget option for Canadians.

Bell is pitching the phone on value. The ahlo 2 “delivers features typically associated with higher-priced smartphones at a price point that's accessible to more Canadians,” said Steve Karan, Bell’s vice-president of wireless product and logistics.

Sources: Bell Canada news release (Oct. 7, 2026); ahlo.ca product page; MobileSyrup; Telecompaper.