pogo+ won't connect

i bought myself a pogoplus+ necause a coworker of mine showed me his and i was amazed by such simple technology. well, i received it today and have been attempting all day to get this thing to connect.

the obvious issue is that it doesn't connect in-game, but i feel like at the core it may be that it just straight up isn't actually connected to my phone. when i paired it, it showed up on my list of devices to pair. but whenever i press the "connect" button, my phone does nothing and doesn't confirm if the devices are linked.

i need help figuring this out please! i've tried all the solutions i could find online, save for one. i've restarted my phone many times, disconnected/reconnected the pogoplus+, reset it at one point, uninstalled/reinstalled the game. i can't remove the battery like people seem to recommend because i don't have a screwdriver that's tiny enough.