@tricky i recommend to run the pinephone on dev channel. There have been a lot of improvements, but the main issues are still present. Battery-life, outgoing phone calls (incoming work), cameras, gps, temperture, performance and stability are still not where they should be.
Maybe also a hardware-update will improve.
Give it time, i remember the google G1 had starting problems too...

When i try adding a google account to my pinephone, the indicator starts spinning forever without any futher action.
I tried on stable, RC and dev.

@Jarsa nice idea! I would like to use this idea as an onlinetracking system for myself. As i do outdoorsports, sending my last location to my own server is a good idea.
In Android (9) it was very hard because of power limitations. As soon as the screen is off, everything goes to powersaving. And gps eats the battery as the cpu stays always on...
This could be the limiting problem here too: the battery will be drained like hell...
Is there a way to reduce power consumption?

@C0n57an71n I also removed a piece of tape with something handwritten in an unknown language ;-), no idea what it means...
Does your vibration motor work? Mine does not.
The APN i put corectly, but i can't activate mobile data in roaming mode (button greyed out). I think its bob that uses the A1 network which makes the phone think it is abroad.
Is there a setting for national roaming? In the N5 it was working.

@C0n57an71n Thanks a lot, i found the problem. I was always questioning the settings and the software/firmware. It found my carrier, but it could not connect.
After trying your settings and trying all the other systems (PM-OS, ...) without any success i finally opened my phone and found the problem:
The antenna cable was unconnected from the mainboard... So i connected it and after booting it connected immediately to the carrier.
Unfortunately this error is hard to detect as the SIM works, it detects carriers, but it can't connect. I just saw, that on manual carrier choosing only few carriers were shown...

@C0n57an71n My carrier is bob, but my SIM can't connect to the netwok.
I updated my PP CE to OTA 12 rc-channel. Searching for carriers gives 2 times 3AT and bob, but it does not connect. Automatic search leads to endless search. Putting APN information didn't change anything.
SIM is ok, checked with old N5, there it connects fine. With A1 SIM it was the same.
Which hardware version of the mainboard do you have?
Did you do something else?

Yes, APN is important. With the right settings i could at least register in the network and mobile data seemed to work.
But not really stable yet

My pinephone has a very limited functionality.
I made updates when i booted the first time. Now i tried stable (2020-07-04), rc and dev.
No cellular network (can not connect), no mobile data, no gps, no camera (should be normal).
I checked the hardware buttons and turned them off and on again.
The cellular network tries to connect but then is rejected.
The gps does nothing.
In the apps permissions i have no entries for camera, location and microphone, which is not normal. By installing unav and puremaps i was not asked to give permissions.

What does the reset button on the back?
Is there a way to fully reflash the phone?

I have this problem for a very long time just with one mail account. I think it is a pop server.
The other account is working fine (google imap).
I can't see the mail-content on the pop account since upgrade to 16.04 i think, but due to changing the phone several times i'm not sure.
Reinstalling or making everything from scratch does not work, i always thought i used a wrong setting.
Could it be an issue with pop servers?

The announcement of these apps made me buy a pinephone, even if it does not work properly yet.

If you want to protect yourself and others from
deseases keep the safety distance and do not trust any software, regardless how well its made or who made it!

@Elpibe :
First of all: uninstall the bluetooth file transfer app if installed.
I'm not an expert in bluetooth at all, but the pairing should also work over the command line. The terminal app lets you start bluetoothctl. Then you can try:
agent on
discoverable on
scan on
pair [your car]
trust [your car]
connect [your car]
exit
(please check the internet for more information)
I used these steps to connect two rasperry pies. "agent on" should be responsible for bringing up the pairing procedure.
In my case i tried the N5 with a volvo over the normal procedure. Pairing works, but i can't make phonecalls.
Good luck!

From my experience with N5 as daily phone (RC): Crashes of the webbrowser can lead to restarts of unity, but normally not to system crashes. And the battery is always heavily used, but crashes don't drain it totally. Did the phone got very hot?
Sometimes the webbrowser crashes with drop-down menues/forms that are opened as new windows.
Updating the firmware improves battery life...

@advocatux Thanks, but it didn't change. I tried all the settings, it changes with a audio recorder, but does not change anything while phonecalls.
Testsetup: call another phone close to you, turn off the other phones micro and listen to your speach. If you speak directly to the spaeker it's fine, if you turn the speaker a little bit away it gets disturbed.
Seems that phonecalls use the microphone differently than multimedia apps.

I think i will write a bugreport as this is one of the core functions of a phone.

@advocatux I checked with an audio recorder (guitar tools), works perfectly up to some meters. So it's something connected with phonecalls.

@advocatux I already checked, i can see inside. Did you try to talk over the speaker with the phone an armlenth away? Does it work in your phone? Mine gets totally ununderstandable...i will check with an android version.

Mine is a D821. People that i call complain that they don't listen well.
I tested with my other phone:
If i'm close to the speaker it works. Moving the speaker away (~20cm) gives a very poor sound quality. With the tested Samsung 50cm are no problem.
That's why the handsfree function does not really work. (i tried to use it while driving, but it never worked, so i had to stop to make the phonecall ;-))
Would be great if someone with android could test.

The sound quality in phonecalls seems to be pretty poor with the nexus 5 devices (independent of the OTA). I used 3 different microphones on my first N5, then i bought a new phone, no big changes.
People complain in phonecalls that they have difficulties to understand. The sound quality is far away from 'crystal clear'.
Using the android stock image improves soundquality a lot, changing the OTAs didn't change anything.

When it comes to computers and operating systems (incl. smartphones) things get binary. Its a problem of our society still. Using anything else than microsoft, apple and google makes you a strange nerd that does not accept anything. I think its the fear of the unknown and the disability to open to new ideas.
What we can do is enjoing our ubports system (that is absolutely adfree by the way!!!) and keep being strange nerds (my last windows was win2000). I don't think ubports will get a real competitor to the big ones, for this it has too good intentions. But it is an alternative that works already pretty good. (it works impressively if we consider that we don't have support from hardwaresuppliers!). Hopefully our society once will get more openminded...

@advocatux Yes, i was running anbox on a fresh OTA-7 install. Switching to OTA-8 made it slow, switching to RC-channel installed version 36 and gave the performance back.
Now i tried to switch back to stable (version 6) and it works as well. But it removed anbox.
After reinstalling anbox (following to the documentation) my N5 works with OTA-8 and anbox.