Angel View Mirror Review: As Seen on TV Rearview Mirror

Angel View Mirror is an As Seen on TV rearview mirror that snaps over your existing car mirror to provide a 160-degree panoramic view that supposedly reduces or eliminates blind spots. I recently tested it out and here is my review.

Where to Purchase

There are currently two official websites being used for promotion: getangelview.com and angelviewmirror.com. I purchased it from the Bulbhead website here, and there is also an Amazon listing in which the product does not boast particularly high ratings. The cost of Angel view typically runs $20-$25.

Claims & Features

• 160-degree panoramic view
• Reduces or eliminates blind spots
• 12-inch curved glass
• Fits most vehicles
• Installs in seconds

Angel View Mirror Review

When I first saw the television commercial for Angel View Mirror, I was reminded of a similar mirror I installed in my 1982 Mustang back in high school in the 80s. That mirror was massive, spanning almost the entire width of my windshield, but it did in fact eliminate blind spots. Thus, the idea of a wide, panoramic rearview mirror to reduce or eliminate blind spots isn’t exactly new. Now in the As Seen on TV realm we have the Angel View Mirror and its commercial that boasts its “huge 12 inch mirror with curved glass” that “allows you to see both blind spots with one glance.” It sounds reasonable enough, but does it work?

A quick note about claims in the commercial and the website. There are some places – such as the television commercial – where the product is claimed to eliminate blind spots, and other areas such as the product description on Bulbhead where it is said to reduce blind spots. It appears to me that the word “eliminate” is used mostly for marketing hype, but the product should be held to this standard if it is being sold with such an implication.

I ordered Angel View from the Bulbhead website for $20, along with Yummy Can Potatoes which I also reviewed recently. It arrived in bubble wrap, which robbed me of the few seconds of pleasure I usually get from admiring the typical retail packaging before tossing it in the recycle bin. Upon opening it up, I was met with a product that accurately resembled what was shown in the commercial, although I whipped out a tape measure and realized they shorted me on size by about three quarters of an inch. The commercial states that it’s 12 inches, but I measured it at 11.25. The glass measures 10.5 inches. I noticed the Bulbhead website is a bit more realistic, noting that it is “nearly 12-inches.” Once again we seem to have an example of marketing exaggeration that doesn’t quite live up to the reality of a product.

The instructions are minimal, and primarily demonstrate how to snap the Angel View onto your existing mirror. Your mirror must be between 2.2 inches and 3.1 inches tall (55-80mm) in order for Angel View to fit. Fortunately my rearview mirror falls within that range.

The Amazon listing includes a number comments which complain about the Angel View not fitting or not staying in place, so I took extra caution during the installation to make sure it was secure. There are four clips used for installation. The top two are fixed and have rubber feet, while the bottom clips are spring-loaded. To install, you hook the lower clips onto the bottom of your mirror and pull upward until the top clips clear your mirror, and then “click” it in place.

My first three attempts were failures, until I realized that the rubber feet on the top clips were being pushed out of place before clearing the top of my mirror, thus preventing a snug fit. Once I accounted for those rubber feet, the Angel View snugly snapped onto my mirror – although without the coveted “click” sound.

For my first test, I took my car to an empty parking lot to assess just how panoramic the Angel View is compared to my regular mirror. I did this by walking around the back of the car with and without the Angel View installed, and compared the results to my regular mirror. I walked left and right, and around the areas that would be typical blind spots. In those tests – with my cameras set up to simulate a driver’s perspective – the Angel View did in fact offer a wider field of view than my regular mirror, although not as wide as the fisheye side mirrors on my car.

So far, so good, right? Not so fast.

When you place a driver in the seat and take headrests into consideration, the blind spots are still there. In fact, if you look at the Angel View commercial, their simulation from the mirror’s perspective does not include any headrests, which are more of a cause for blind spots for me than a narrow field of view.

I took my car for a real-world driving test, and found the blind spots to still exist, although I did have a much better view of the back seat than with my regular mirror. If I moved my head to the left or right, I could peer around my reflection or the passenger headrest to get a glimpse of blind spots, but that isn’t easier than just glancing at the side mirrors.

I’ve continued to use the Angel View beyond just the time I spent filming my video for the product and I have an additional observation to report. Objects in this mirror seem farther away than they appear, which makes me feel less confident about lane changes. That truck that appears several car lengths behind in the Angel View may actually be nearly even with your bumper. Finally, there is a strange “focus” issue, in which my eyes seem to immediately focus on the back seat when I look in the Angel View, rather than the cars behind me. This may be because the back seat is so much more visible that the eyes gravitate there instead of through the window.

Don’t just take my word for it. WNEP TV in Pennsylvania took the Angel View out with a few different drivers and their conclusion was that it did not eliminate blind spots.

In the end, I like the idea of Angel View, and there may be some uses for it such as parents who want to keep an eye on their back seat or Uber drivers with passengers. I’m not sure the general public will develop much of a love for this item, however.

If you’ve used the Angel View Mirror, tell me what you think in the comments below.