By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 04:30 PM EST (01:30 PM PST)

Apple's smallest portable media player has been put under the microscope, with a thorough disassembly offering a peek inside the fourth-generation iPod shuffle.

As usual, iFixit got their hands on Apple's latest hardware and wasted no time in taking it apart. The new hardware carries a model number of A1373, updated from the A1271 designation of the previous generation hardware.

The updated iPod shuffle marks the return of buttons to the media player, which were absent from the previous generation. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs even conceded last week that "people clearly missed the buttons."

The tightly packed hardware is particularly difficult to open, iFixit noted. "It took us a good half hour of prying and heat-gunning to open the little guy," they said. This is because back clip was is press-fit and glued onto the body of the device.

Other details noted by the solutions provider in its teardown:

• The new iPod shuffle has smaller retail packaging, but the box it ships in was not particularly small. "Apple could have shipped 30 iPod shuffles in this box," they said. "Literally."

• The fourth-generation hardware has a height of 1.14 inches, width of 1.24 inches, depth of 0.34 inches, and weight of 0.44 ounces.
  
  
• The control ribbon cable is just 1/8 of an inch wide, and the logic board is held in place by just one screw. The battery is soldered to the logic board.

• The 3.7V lithium-ion battery has a listed capacity of .19 Whr, which is good for 15 hours of audio playback.
  
  
• The manufacture dates on the die indicate the hardware was built in late June and early August of 2010.

For more details and photos, check out the full teardown at iFixit.